Since the start of the pandemic, food pantries have seen a significant uptick in the number of people needing help.
In Michigan, more than 1.2 million people face hunger. That’s one in eight adults and one in seven children.
Feeding America West Michigan says more than 3,000 people in Osceola County are face hunger.
The Evart United Methodist Church is trying to bring that number down.
They held their 11th Feeding America Western Michigan Mobile Food Drive of the year on Thursday.
“It’s something that is a great community needs,” said Alan Bengry, a volunteer. “We realized the need about four years ago when we started the project.”
The church serves more than 200 families every month thanks to donations, grants and volunteers, and they’ve seen the need for their services grow as the pandemic drags.
“We started out giving away 5,000 pounds of food, and that ran out before our line did. So we increased the next truck that one ran out,” said Jean Smith, Pastor at Evart United Methodist Church. “Now we’re up to the maximum of 10,000 pounds of food.”
What keeps the volunteers keep going each month is the difference they know they’re making.
“I delivered 50 pounds of food to a woman, and she says to me, I can’t tell you how much this means to me. I went to the grocery store to get food, and I bought what I could afford, and I couldn’t afford the vegetables, and I got to take her a whole box of fresh Michigan vegetables, potatoes and carrots and tomatoes. She was absolutely overwhelmed,” said Smith.
For a list of Feeding America Western Michigan Mobile Food Pantries,
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