Who We Serve

Our Service Area includes Barry, Branch, Calhoun, Hillsdale, Jackson, Kalamazoo,
Lenawee and St. Joseph Counties.

The following information and statistics are from the Food Bank of South Central Michigan's tie-in to the national hunger study conducted for America's Second Harvest, Hunger in America 2010:

A. THE CLIENTS WE SERVE...

In a typical year we serve 102,600 individuals through our 285 member agency network covering eight counties in south central Michigan.

34% of the household members of Food Bank clients are children 17 years and younger; 5% of all households have senior citizens 65 and older. The average household income among all clients in 2010 was $12,440.

68% of households receiving Food Bank food had an annual household income below the federal poverty level;

21% of adult clients served by Food Bank agencies reported that they didn't eat for a whole day because there wasn't enough money for food during the past year.

34% of the clients served had to choose between paying the rent or buying food in the past year .

40% of all Food Bank of SCM adult clients reported they were in poor or fair health.

B. WHAT DO OUR MEMBER AGENCIES THINK OF US?

92% of the pantries in the Food Bank's network, and 71% of the soup kitchens said elimination of Food Bank food would have a significant or devastating impact on their program.

The Food Bank of SCM is by far the single most important source of food for most of their network members, accounting for 76% of the food used by pantries, 48% of soup kitchens' food and 43% of shelters' food.