Last year, the Father Fred Foundation food pantry in Grand Traverse County served 47,000 people — a striking number in a county of just over 90,000 residents.
While Michigan’s poverty rate is just over 10%, nearly half of residents above the poverty line still can’t afford basic needs like housing, food, and healthcare.
For many on the edge, places like Father Fred’s pantry are essential to getting by.
Amil Strang has turned to the pantry on-and-off for the last twenty years. Sitting on his porch in Thompsonville, Strang said it's still hard to get by.
"The prices of everything is just skyrocketed," he said. "I think that's part of the reason why a lot of people are having this hardship. Because of the grocery prices, the fuel prices, even electricity."
Strang doesn’t always need help. He’s owned his home for the last 30 years — working two jobs at one point to get by. At different times, he was a dairy farmer, bouncer, bartender, and worker at Sam's Club.
In all those jobs, Strang was standing. Eventually, he needed knee surgery. Since then, he hasn’t been able to work and lived off of disability for a time. This year, he started receiving social security.
"To me, poor is when you're homeless and you don't have nothing," Strang said. "That's plain-out poor, from what I figure. I'm not wealthy. They classify me — I want to say middle class — but I'm not even that. I'm just above poor."
Strang is just one example of a person helped by Father Fred, but his story has overlap with another group in need: ALICE households.
ALICE is an acronym for "asset limited, income constrained, and employed," said University of Michigan poverty researcher Amanda Nothaft.
Unlike the federal poverty line, ALICE measures the real cost of living, including expenses like transportation, healthcare, and childcare.
In northwest Michigan, nearly 40% of households fall below the ALICE threshold. It’s a need group that many people move in and out of as life circumstances change.
"ALICE looks at transportation costs, health care costs [and] takes into account child care costs," Nothaft said.
Strang wouldn’t be classified as ALICE since he’s not working, but his finances mirror many working families who earn too much to get federal poverty assistance, yet still struggle to afford basic necessities.
To get by, many of those households rely instead on local efforts like Father Fred’s food pantry.
“We're seeing a lot more people that have lost jobs due to downsizing or illness or injury — where a job just wouldn't hold their position for them while they were off. That seems to be a trend,” said Annette McPherson, director of guest services.
Following the COVID pandemic, pantry visits increased by 65%, and have continued to rise by about 5 to 6% each year.
On a recent morning, about 30 people lined up outside the pantry, waiting for it to open. Volunteers said they have served up to 150 people in a single day.
Before receiving food, guests report their household size — numbers that contribute to the annual total of 47,000 individuals served.
“It is a big number,” McPherson said. “And every year we look at it and say, ‘We did it again.’”
The Father Fred pantry is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with extended hours on Wednesdays. Father Fred provides food and support with no financial requirements.
