Feeding America West Michigan serves the western part of the Lower Peninsula and all of the Upper Peninsula, working with 800 partners and food pantries to provide 23 million meals each year. They estimate that one in seven people in their coverage area is food insecure, including 80,000 children, and that the demand for services has jumped 70 percent in the last four years.

With the passage of the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill” — which cuts nearly $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through 2034, per the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office — Feeding America expects that one in seven figure to rise. In this week's Northern Express, sister publication of The Ticker, local food pantries and nonprofits weigh in on the snowballing issue of food insecurity Up North.

“A lot of people think, ‘Oh, Petoskey, Harbor Springs, there’s a very affluent area,’ but then they don’t really understand what lies beneath, and it’s a lot of people that are struggling,” says Carrie Klingelsmith, executive director of the Manna Food Project. “We’re getting a lot of new people, because [food insecurity] is affecting so many more people.”

The Northern Express is available to read online, or pick up a free copy on newsstands at more than 650 locations in 13 counties across northern Michigan.