Food for Families: Food assistance cases on the rise

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - Hunger has grown in West Michigan over the last few years.  The ACCESS Food Pantry Network has seen it as more people turned to pantries for help.  But, the Michigan Department of Human Services is also seeing increased need.

In Kent County, from 2008 to 2010, the number of people on food assistance went up 42% from 72,172 to 102,488.

In Muskegon County in the last two years, those on food assistance went up from 34,969 to 45,118.  That's an increase of 34%.

In Ottawa County, food assistance increased 79% in that same time period, from 15,752 people to 28,311 people.

The Department of Human Services has a new building in Grand Rapids, and it is getting a lot of use.

Acting DHS Director in Kent County Nancy Marshall says, "We're seeing a record number of people coming through the door. We're averaging about 2,700 applications, new registrations for programs, every single week here in Kent County."

So, DHS workers like LaVonne Hopkins are busy.  She says, "I am seeing clients coming in due to the fact of the economy and a lot of clients have lost their job.  And they have families and they are you know, requesting for assistance."

As more people receive food assistance, the burden is eased on food pantries.

Emma Rosauer of ACCESS explains, "Our DHS here had been backlogged with cases.  And they got rapid approval for several thousand cases in only a few months."

Marshall says clearing up that backlog has made a difference.  She says 95 percent of cases are now being processed in a timely fashion, getting help for people faster.

Marshall explains that food assistance "gives them a steady, pretty dependable source of income coming in every month that they can use for food."

And these people are not just living in the inner cities.  The state reports that Rockford saw a 52% increase in food assistance from 2008 to 2010, going from 1,434 people to 2,177.

In that same timeframe, Grand Haven saw a 60% increase from 1,731 to 2,772 people.

And Whitehall had a 34% increase of people on food assistance from 934 to 1,248.

So government food assistance programs meet basic needs... but often don't meet all of a families needs, still leaving them turning to food pantries.  Hopkins says, "A lot of the families need the extra help.  I get a lot of families stating that the food stamps that they are not enough.  For their family, to feed their family once a month."

DHS has also seen increases in Medicaid recipients and other forms of assistance.