Between 2021 and 2022, the number of households in poverty in the U.S. increased by 207,959. According to reports, the number continues to rise. (Chart courtesy of the ALICE Project)

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series that examines the increase in food insecurity in the four-county area, and the impacts the issue is causing.

November is month for celebrations, feasts and food laden football parties. Yet, since 2018, many households in the four-county area increasingly struggle to provide adequate food even for basic meals.

A 2022 Western U.P. Food Systems Collaborative’s Community Food Survey of Houghton County reported that 17.5% of respondents said they live with food scarcity. 16.5% of that county’s respondents were eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), while only 4.5% were currently using SNAP.

The percentage was significantly higher in Baraga County, with just over 27% of respondents reported living with food insecurity. In Keweenaw County, 13.2% of respondents reported living with food insecurity, while in Ontonagon County, just under a quarter, 24.2% reported food insecurity.

The survey found that higher winter utility rates were a substantially significant factor contributing to food insecurity in all four counties.

For the survey, food insecurity was measured by the frequency respondents identified experiencing challenges with accessing food.

In 2022, the Michigan Association of United Ways’ ALICE Project published its ALICE Report.

ALICE is an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed – households earning more than the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), but less than the basic cost of living for the county. According the ALICE report, Baraga County was reported having 14% of 3,241 households below the FPL and 39% of all households as ALICE.

Ontonagon County was slightly lower. Of 2,872 households, 14% were at or below the FPL, while ALICE households accounted for 37%. Keweenaw County, 7% of all 1,065 households at or below the FPL, while 34% were ALICE; 59% of the total households were above the ALICE level.

In Houghton County, in 2022, of 14,173 households, the United Way found that 19% were below the FPL while 32% were ALICE households, with only 50% being above ALICE.

A report from Feeding America West Michigan states that four of the five counties with the highest need for food in Feeding America’s 40-county service area are in the Upper Peninsula.

“That’s thousands of people who don’t have enough to eat and don’t know where their next meal will come from,” the report states, “and the need continues to grow.”

For example, from 2022 to 2024, Baraga County’s overall food insecurity rate increased from 14% to 15.5%.

Feeding America is U.S.-based nonprofit that is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks.