Local Organizations Band Together to Rescue Food and Enhance Regional Food Security

In Northwestern Lower Michigan, food insecurity is a serious issue. A person whom is food insecure may not know where their next meal is coming from. Thankfully, there are many organizations and partnerships in this region (such as those between NMCAA, Groundwork Center, Goodwill, GTB, MSU Extension, Rotary, and food pantries [amongst others]) working together to achieve food security – or a condition which reflects an environment where people can obtain safe, culturally appropriate, and nutritious food produced in a sustainable way, at an affordable cost, and on a schedule. Moreso, these organizations have created and supported the Northwest Food Coalition (NFC), which supplies food to a network of ~75 food pantries and meal sites across a 6-county region - which include Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelanau, and Wexford.

In this area, 14% of people live in poverty and recent reductions to food assistance programs have made it more difficult for low-income persons to get the healthy food that they need and deserve. And while research suggests the supply of food is enough to cover the nutritional needs of everyone in our community, the main problem lays within the means of distribution when it comes to accessibility of food for those in need once it has been harvested or produced.

The NFC has been feeding more than 49,000 people in this region over the years through multiple programs, like the Farm to Neighbor Program, which purchases food from local farms before donating them to food pantries using money obtained from grant applications as well as the Goodwill Food Rescue Program, which redistributes healthy food products (which would otherwise go to waste) from farms, grocery stores, and bakeries to the pantries and other community meal sites.

Relevant Statistics that deal with Food Security in the 5-County Region (Benzie Sunrise Rotary Club Study, 2014):

• 72% of clients visiting food pantries and meal sites in the six-county region are food insecure, with 36% of the households having the most severe condition of very low food security (This means that the eating patterns of one or more household members were disrupted, and their food intake reduced, at least sometime during the year, because they could not afford enough food.
• 64% of households report incomes less than 500$ per month per household member, and 46% of the households were not in the work force, often living on fixed incomes due to age or disability.
• 60% of pantries reported that client need throughout the month is steady, whereas 30% reported they see the greatest need among their clients toward the end of the month.
• 80% of respondents indicated that they receive food from one or more food pantries on a regular basis. Only 20% use pantries as a short-term or emergency source of food.