Michigan food bank expands to increase meal distribution and fight food insecurity

Feeding America West Michigan is aiming to bolster its food distribution services in 2025 by transitioning from its Comstock Park location to a larger warehouse and headquarters in Kentwood.

Ken Estelle, president and CEO of the regional food bank, said it’s been challenging for the organization to meet the need for Michigan families as more and more people seek out help.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 13% of Michigan households on average were food insecure at some point between 2021 to 2023, meaning their ability to access quality food was limited by a lack of money or other resources. That is about a 1.2% increase from the 2018-2020 reporting period.

“The sites have more space, but the more space only matters if we can really make a positive impact into our communities and that’s what’s really driving the change,” Estelle said.

Feeding America West Michigan serves a diverse demographic of 40 Michigan counties — its service area encompasses the western half of the state down to the Indiana border, all the way up to the tip of the northern Lower Peninsula, and across the entire Upper Peninsula. The organization partners with 800 different pantries, mobile distribution centers and shelters to provide food supplies. 

Estelle said he’s seen firsthand a steady increase in the number of people seeking out these services with the end of federal pandemic-era food assistance programs. In Michigan, temporary emergency allotments of food stamps, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, expired in February 2023.

He added that the rise in food bank participation stems from newcomers who wouldn’t typically need help with groceries, as well as an increase in the rate at which people are returning for additional allotments.

“Costs are high,” Estelle said. “So we hear people tend to run out of money long before they run out of month… some folks that were maybe coming once a month or once every other month, now are maybe coming twice a month.”

Feeding America West Michigan programs, such as their mobile food distribution program, summer feeding program for children and senior food box program, became constrained in their old 40,000 sq. ft. space as the community’s need continued to grow.

Feeding America West Michigan purchased the Kentwood warehouse in 2021, but they had identified the need for a larger space years prior, although financial limitations stood in the way of making the $13 million in renovations. 

They ran a fundraising campaign for two years after buying the new warehouse in order to pay for the necessary changes. Michigan grocery chain Meijer donated $2 million toward the cause, and the group received an additional $2 million from Kent County’s American Rescue Plan fund. President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 as a way to provide economic stimulus for communities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fundraising campaign also received about 800 private donations. Altogether, the food bank campaign raised $9.6 million, and the remaining balance was paid off from the sale of the existing Comstock Park facility.

“We’re able to move into the new space with all of the potential impact to the community without having any debt in our organization, which for me is really important in terms of being a good steward of the funds the community allows us to use,” Estelle said.

The renovations were recently completed and, with about three times the space now in its new location, the food bank will be able to dramatically expand programming. Plans to restart operations are projected for mid-January.

Soon they’ll be able to provide for as many as 20 to 25 mobile food distributions at a time, whereas they were previously only able to accommodate about seven or eight. Additionally, the food bank intends to increase the number of meals distributed by 50% over the next five years. In 2023, it provided 23,414,000 meals across its service area.

Now, their focus turns to addressing the behind-the-scenes logistics so they can best utilize the new facility. More space means the need for more food donations, more volunteers and more truck drivers. Estelle said they’ve already had challenges with food availability and are limited in truck drivers due to finances. They’re also hoping to double their volunteer numbers from up to 50 volunteers daily to 100.

“Those are the things that we’re building on to take advantage of the space capacity that we have in the new facility,” Estelle said.