By Laura Fitzgerald

A steady stream of clients trickled into the small storefront at SOS Marysville Food Pantry on an overcast November morning. Volunteers in orange shirts hurriedly cleaned and replenished bare shelves with cans of vegetables, boxes of juice, bags of snacks, and other household goods.

Director Carmela Burns greeted repeat clients by name and made conversation with them. A few clients were new. One woman stood on the small store’s threshold and said it was her first time there. Volunteers quickly greeted her with a smile as they gathered her information, handed her a wire shopping cart, and walked her through the process of selecting food according to her household size.

“This is a typical day for us,” Burns said.  “And at this time of year we expect to see an increase in need as we get closer to the Holidays.”

In recent months, bare shelves and new clients are a familiar site to the staff and volunteers who run food pantries in the Blue Water Area. Most have been facing rising food and operating costs, all while trying to serve an ever-increasing number of clients.

That’s why the DTE Energy Foundation and the Community Foundation of St Clair County continued their collaboration to provide another round of grants to help meet the need.   

Pantries use Grant Funding to Purchase Food, Pay Building Expenses

In recent weeks grants were awarded to: 

• C3 Connection, Capac: $2,000
• Blue Water Community Food Depot, $3,000
• Harbor Impact Ministries, Kimball: $5,000
• Downriver Helping Hands, Marine City: $5,000
• SOS Marysville Food Pantry: $5,000
• Yale Community Food Fund: $5,000
• Mid-City Nutrition:  $5,000

Pantries are generally funded through a mix of gifts, grants and food donations from residents, businesses, churches and local nonprofits. They can then purchase food directly from local grocery stores or the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan (FBEM), which offers discounted items in bulk.

“This is what DTE bought,” Burns said, gesturing to boxes piled high with lentils, peanut butter, tomato sauce, juice, beans, corn, soup, and other canned goods. “This will probably last a couple of weeks.”

Helping Hands Founder and Co-Director Mary Gave said they set aside part of the DTE grant to purchase order a food truck delivery for a pop-up pantry in the spring, which costs between $700 and $1,200. The remaining funds will be used to pay the pantry’s rent through the winter.

C3 Connection used two grants received through the Foundation this year for beef purchases and critical building repairs. “Finding money to purchase food is a lot easier than finding capital grants that help with the day-to-day business of the food pantry. A lot of people don’t think about that, but building maintenance is a big expense,” said Co-Director Bernie Long. “I am very thankful that the Community Foundation awarded these grants because we would be closed by now if that wasn’t the case.”

By the Numbers: Food Costs, Number of Clients Increase in 2024

Since January of this year, SOS has served nearly 4,500 people and serves an average of 500 families each month, with an increasing number of families served, according to their Facebook profile.

Harbor Impact is open five days a week to accommodate new clients, clients accompanied by a social worker, or to provide emergency food assistance. Impact serves most regular clients on monthly Impact Days.

“We haven’t seen a 600-family Impact Day since before COVID, and I’m kind of expecting this November and December to see that,” said Harbor Impact Director Mike Weaver. “October and September, we hit over 500 families for Impact Day, which was a new record since COVID. We were running about 450 families prior to that, so it’s going up about 10% every month.”

Several pantry directors said they are seeing an anecdotal increase in working families and clients who have never sought assistance or who are returning after several years. Pantries also serve a steady clientele of seniors on fixed incomes, unhoused people, and people who are unemployed or underemployed.

“Things are rough. And if you have kids in school, it’s even rougher,” said Helping Hands Founder and Co-Director Mary Gave. “It’s a gradual change this year; our clients are increasing. The clients say, living expenses are so high, and if I come here, it saves money to live. Helping Hands can buy your food; we can’t pay your rent.”

To combat rising operating costs, pantries are getting creative to find deals on bulk food, or searching for grants to fill funding gaps. Long said C3’s year-to-date food costs from the FBEM have about doubled from 2023 to this year due increasing food costs and the volume of food ordered.

“For example, we buy a whole cow every two years that we give away. And two years ago, our cow price was $2,500. This year, it’s $4,000,” Long said. “That’s how much meat prices have gone up. Those prices do affect us.”

How you can Help

So far in 2024 the Community Foundation, with support from many donors and endowment funds, has provided almost $80,000 in funding to local food pantries and programs. If you would like to help the Foundation, visit us online at StClairFoundation.Org or call us at 810-984-4761.

If you would like to donate to a specific pantry, or seek assistance, physical items can be dropped off during open hours or monetary donations can be mailed to the following:

• C3 Connection: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. one Tuesday per month | 114 North Main St., Capac, MI 48014
• Blue Water Community Food Depot: 10 a.m. – 1:45 p.m., Monday, Wednesday and Friday | 2408 10th Street, Port Huron, MI 48060
• Harbor Impact Ministries: 9 a.m. – noon, Monday – Friday; Impact Days are typically the last Tuesday of each month, except when scheduling is impacted by holidays. Check harborimpactministries.com for Impact Day schedules | 1963 Allen Rd, Kimball, MI 48074
• Downriver Helping Hands: 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays | 310 South Parker, Marine City, MI 48039
• SOS Marysville Food Pantry: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Tuesdays, 1 – 4 p.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Thursdays | 2929 Gratiot Blvd., Marysville, MI 48040
• Yale Community Food Fund: Scheduled giveaways
• Mid-City Nutrition:  805 Chestnut Street, Port Huron, MI 48060