Maybe you read about this in the Sunday newsletter, or perhaps you heard about it at the November meeting. Still have questions? Read on. 

In light of increased challenges to food security, a number of local organizations have hosted general food drives. We reached out to Community Action House (CAH) to learn about their specific needs, and learned that cooking oil is essential to the preparation of nutritious homemade meals. Please bring your donations to the December 11 Indivisible meeting. To add some fun to this, you will receive a raffle ticket for each bottle you bring for a chance to win a cooking related prize! 

For those not already familiar with the Community Action House Food Club, here is a primer:

Four years ago, CAH reimagined what community food support could look like. In place of the food pantry that it provided for many years, a grocery store style Food Club was created. Food Club members become members for 30 days for between $12 and $19. As part of that membership, they receive points based on income and family size. The expectation is that redeeming these points will provide about a third of the total food need for those 30 days. Produce is assigned fewer points (and some produce items are occasionally free, depending on received donation amounts!), while desserts carry significantly more points. CAH stocks the shelves with donations, purchased food, and food collected through Lakeshore Food Rescue. Feeding America (a food bank), Kids’ Food Basket, and 8th Day Farm are important partners. CAH purchases assure that milk, eggs, and meat are always available. An army of volunteers staffs the Food Club. 

You may wonder why CAH is reaching out to the community for additional donations. The answer to that is multi-pronged.

This past spring, cuts were made to the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), a program that provides food to food banks and other emergency food providers through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). Community Action House did not directly lose funding as a result, but Feeding America, a CAH supplier, did. This left CAH in need of an additional $150,000 to meet the needs of their clients. Since that time, tariffs have increased the costs of many goods. Among the increases is an estimated 3.6% rise in food costs. Additionally, SNAP benefits were paused for nearly 2 weeks in November, leaving approximately 1 of every 10 families in West Michigan in need of additional food support. The Food Club saw the number of families it served weekly increase from 1,500 to 2,546 in the first half of November.

While the SNAP crisis is thankfully over, there are significant changes that will go into effect in the coming years. These changes range from extending the age for work requirements from 54 to 64 and requiring veterans, the un-housed, and former foster youth to meet work requirements to requiring the state to cover 75% of the cost of administering SNAP (up from 50%). How these changes affect the SNAP program and its recipients remains to be seen.

Donating a high demand/low donation item like cooking oil can make a big difference. 

Interested in learning more? Here are some resources :

• Funding Cut : After nearly 3 million pounds of food aid cancelled, impacts across Michigan vary • Michigan Advance
• Rising Costs: Findings of State of Michigan Department Reports on National Tariffs: Higher Grocery Prices, More Expensive Housing, Jobs at Risk
• CAH 2024 Annual Report: Annual Reports — Community Action House
• SNAP Changes: What is SNAP – and how is it changing? — Community Action House