Food pantries around Southwest Michigan are seeing the community come out in support of an expected increase in demand as uncertainty grows about the federal Supplemental Food Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Bob Murphy is the director of Neighbor by Neighbor in Union Pier. It provides housing, utility, and food assistance to those in need. He tells us with demand expected to jump, the organization put out an appeal for donations to its Food and Hygiene Pantry last week.

“So people reacted to that in a big way,” Murphy said. “On Thursday, we had over 30 boxes delivered by Amazon. On Friday, it was over 40 boxes were delivered. And then we had just some other people in the community dropping off products, food that they bought at Aldi or one of the other local groceries.”

The Trump administration on Monday announced that SNAP benefits will be cut in half, rather than being paused altogether, after the courts stepped in last week. Murphy says there will still be pain.

“It was better than nothing, but people are still going to be getting a lot less than they’re used to getting. You may know that a family of four gets over $700 in SNAP benefits every month, and that being cut in half or even less, just really, really incredibly difficult.”

Murphy says Neighbor by Neighbor has an Amazon wishlist on its website, providing an easy way to support them.

Murphy notes in this economy, more people are struggling than many realize, even in Harbor Country.