About 1.3 million Michiganders have struggled to put food on the table for their families in recent years, according to Hunger Free America.
The nonpartisan nonprofit recently analyzed federal data for its Hunter Atlas Report, which provides a snapshot of food insecurity in all states, and offered perspective on the growing problem in Michigan.
The findings show more than 840,000 residents of the Great Lakes State did not have enough to eat over a two-week period in August and September 2024, a figure that has skyrocketed by 53% since the same time 2021.
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“According to the USDA food insecurity data – a different way of measuring food hardship analyzed by Hunger Free America – 1,343,779 Michigan residents (13.6%) were found to live in food insecure households between 2021 and 2023,” HFA reports. “This includes 18.1% of children in the state (385,944), 10.8% of employed adults (515,813), and 7.4% of older Michigan residents (185,210).”
HFA attributed much of the increase to the end of enhanced federal food and other benefits during the pandemic, suggesting policy decisions in recent years are driving the trend.
“How can anyone seriously think the economy is healthy when so (many) Americans – spread out among suburban, rural and urban communities in red and blue states alike — have a tough time affording something as basic as food?” Hunger Free America CEO Joel Berg said in a statement. “As we say every year when we release this annual report, allowing mass food hardship in a nation with vast food and monetary resources is a political choice.”
The data for Michigan shows the state is struggling more than most.
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Nationally, 12.7% of Americans lived in food insecure households between 2021 and 2023, with only a dozen states posting higher percentages than Michigan: Wyoming, Texas, West Virginia, South Carolina, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Nebraska, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Georgia and Arkansas.
It’s a similar situation with food insecure children, with Michigan’s rate of 18.1% well above the national rate of 16.8%, and higher than all but 11 states.
“The hunger crisis in Michigan is really the embodiment of the declining middle class in Michigan and nationwide,” Berg told WZZM. “Some people falsely think that hunger is some small little issue that is equivalent to homelessness when in fact 90-95% of the people hungry in Michigan and America are not homeless, they’re people who just can’t afford rent.”
“The truth of the matter is public policy matters and if we had more effective public policies, we wouldn’t have this level of hunger in Michigan or the United States,” Berg said.
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In Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Michigan, where Democrats held a government trifecta from 2022 through 2024, about 200,000 more Michiganders are struggling to afford a survival budget than when Whitmer took office.
A whopping 41% of Michiganders now cannot afford basics like housing, transportation, child care, food and other necessitates, despite most working full time. That figure is more than half in many counties and nearly 80% in some urban communities, according to a United for ALICE report.
The United for ALICE report is based on 2022 data, and other research suggests the problem has only worsened since.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows Michigan’s inflation adjusted household income has tanked 3% since Whitmer took office, despite a 2% increase in median earnings.
A 2023 American Community Survey released in September shows that while median household income nationwide declined 1% from 2019 to 2023 to $77,719, in Michigan the inflation-adjusted measure was down 3% to $69,183, a decline that outpaced all but 14 states.
Michigan’s unemployment rate, meanwhile, has increased for eight straight months to 4.8% in November. The rising rate translates into about 36,000 more Michiganders out of work than in November 2023, an increase of 17.3%, according to data from Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis pegs Michigan’s per capita income – total income divided by the number of adult residents – at $61,144 in 2023. The figure is dead last among Great Lakes states and 40th nationally, more than 12% below the national average of $69,815, Bridge Michigan reports.
Since Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was re-elected in 2022, per capita income has reached “the lowest we’ve ever been,” Lou Glazer, president of the think tank Michigan Future Inc., told the news site.
Glazer and others predict Michigan’s “enormous collapse” under Whitmer will only get worse without significant policy changes.
A report issued last year by Glazer and economist Donald Grimes warns Michigan would end up as the 48th poorest state in the country by 2047, behind only Alabama and Mississippi.