Editors note: This is the second in a series that examines the increase in food insecurity in the four-county area, and the impacts the issue is causing.

For many people, an electric fireplace conjures thoughts of quiet winter nights with a cup of hot tea while enjoying the projected flames and the electric heat of the unit. For others, particularly in low-income families, winter and heat only represent an elevated risk of food insecurity while deciding to pay higher utility bills or grocery bills.

A 2006 study by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture/Economic Research Service (ERS) found that low-income households, especially those consisting entirely of elderly persons, experienced substantial seasonal differences in the incidence of very low food security (the more severe range of food insecurity) in areas with high winter heating costs. The situation has worsened since the study was published.

The report states that electricity prices increased at almost twice the rate of inflation. About 20.5 million households one out ever six nationwide) were behind in their electric bills at the end of January 2023, the report says, up from 19.0 million the previous year while about 13 million were behind on their natural gas bills up from 12.5 million during the same period. Families owed an average of $617 on their electric bills compared with $594 and owed $397on their natural gas bills up from $366 during the same period.

Unexpected increases in energy prices (also called energy price shocks) can adversely affect food security; purchasing food and gasoline and paying utility bills compete for the same limited resources of low-income households. For poor families, rising energy prices create a difficult tradeoff between buying enough food, staying warm, or having enough gas for the car, states a July, 2027 report by the ERS.

The report goes on to say that food-insecure households may skip meals, cut the size of meals, or compromise the nutritional quality of meals due to cost. During 2000-07, U.S. food insecurity rates ranged between 10 and 12%. After the Nation’s financial crisis hit in late 2007, 15 percent of U.S. households were food insecure. The U.S. food insecurity rate remained between 14 and 15%, before falling to 12.7 percent in 2015. The drop did not last long.

A September 2024 ERS report states that in 2023, 5.15 of households extremely food insecure, an estimate that is statistically similar to the 5.1% in 2022.

Overall, the report reveals that about one in seven households (13.5%) in America struggled with hunger in 2023. The data also further illustrate how certain households are disproportionately at risk of having to choose between food and other basic necessities.

According to the Western U.P Food Systems Collaborative Survey of Houghton County, these percentages are higher. That survey found that while 16.5% of respondents qualify for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), 17.5% of respondents said they live with food scarcity.

University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions reported that while the Upper Peninsula of Michigan’s poverty rate (13.6%) is only slightly higher than the state average (13.03%), data indicate many families in the U.P. are struggling to make ends meet. The U.P. had the second-highest percentage of

ALICE households (30.2%) in Michigan for the year 2021.