Meet the Blakemore Family
Morgan Blakemore grew up on a farm in tiny Sand Creek, Michigan. Raised by sensible parents, she and her sisters were taught the value of hard work.
Today, she and her husband live in the very community she grew up in, but the hard work no longer supports their dreams. “I am doing everything I am supposed to as a citizen, and it is so frustrating that we are struggling.” Morgan works full-time for her county’s vital records department and as a coach at a local gym. At the same time, her husband is a technician for an internet service provider. Their children, ages seven and three, are in school and daycare.
“I never thought that in my 30s I’d have these problems. Every decision is stressful; we budget so hard and don’t qualify for assistance.” While money felt tight for the last few years, it was post-COVID when the cost of living dramatically changed. Despite some economic recovery, the things the family eats most—fresh fruit, chicken, and milk—are exceedingly expensive. Morgan tries to spend about $100 per week for her family of four. Still, most weeks, it’s closer to $170, even after cutting out all but the necessities, including breakfast for herself. “I could probably cut back more, but feeding my family healthy is a big priority. We eat dinner together every night, and I focus on those meals. It’s okay for the adults to sacrifice if the kids eat as healthy as possible.”
To stay on budget, the family never goes out to eat and tries to take advantage of no-cost family activities. Morgan notes, “We’ve had to get a lot more creative, but I want the kids to feel like we are making memories and not like they are going without.” The Blakemore kids are young, but Morgan feels they need to be honest about the situation: “I don’t want them to feel the stress or struggle, but we talk about unrealistic expectations and making good choices. I want them to have a solid foundation.”
While it’s sad that many of Blakemore’s friends are experiencing the same hardships, and that it is so common among those in their age group, Morgan feels fortunate that she can be open about the difficulties with good friends. What often comes up in conversation is the hope that those with the power to make decisions in Michigan will take a deeper look and find ways to support hard-working individuals who are doing all the right things and still falling behind.
For Asia Walker, a 2003 New Year’s resolution cemented her resolve. Walker said she was no longer willing to “go with the flow, just taking what was offered to me. I craved ambition, and I thought, ‘You have a voice, speak.’” Even a 2006 Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis did not derail her.
Asia is tenacious with a smile and energy that belie her disability. “It changes everything, not just physically but mentally, too,” Walker added. Still, as a single parent of four children, she knows it’s her job to advocate for them. “If you want things to be different, you must be willing to do things differently. Be vocal. Speak up for your children. Have a voice for them. Time is over for being shy, saying we’ll take whatever. My opinion matters. If I have a good idea or want to see change, I have to vocalize it,” Walker said.
Things don’t have to stay the same because they’ve always been done a certain way. Asia recounts visiting a cousin in Ohio who is also low income and being at the grocery store. When it came time to pay, she pulled out an ordinary-looking debit card. Asia asked, “You’re no longer getting food assistance?” The cousin said the card was her food assistance. Asia marveled that it wasn’t like the familiar orange EBT card she had in Michigan. “Just changing the card would empower people. I am definitely grateful for it, but it humbles you to use the orange card,” said Walker. She acknowledges that it is okay to need help, but embarrassment makes people hesitate to ask for it.
Three years ago, Asia decided to move from her beloved Detroit to Dearborn Heights. Just a few miles made a vast difference in her family’s quality of life. Despite qualifying for no-cost lunch and breakfast at their Detroit schools, the kids would instead cobble together a meal at home. The kids proclaimed that the food was amazing at their new schools. At the same time, Asia was thrilled that they can benefit from the wholesome, no-cost meals that stretch her benefits further at home. “Where you live makes a difference. The move undoubtedly was a positive change; the schools alone were worth it, and the community has been so welcoming,” said Walker. Dearborn Heights is a predominately Muslim community. Asia was initially concerned that her neighbors may not welcome her family, “but they were so accepting and receiving of us, knocking on my door with gifts, and I was like, you don’t know me!”
There had been a time when Asia and her kids were at a shelter. “It humbles you to stay in remembrance; just because you’re no longer there doesn’t mean other families aren’t dealing with that. It helps you be sensitive and understanding and not so far removed that you don’t have a heart.” She hopes to teach her kids how to make good choices but also instill in them that “life happens. Sometimes, things are out of your control. Let’s not need assistance so we can help others, but if you do need help, do not be too proud to ask, and never look down on others.”
Meet the Walker Family
Meet the Mason family
A home, two cars, two incomes, and five healthy, active children are, by any definition, the American Dream. But, for the Mason family, it’s impossible to make ends meet most weeks, and full bellies are a rarity.
Gladstone, Michigan, where the family calls home, is in the Upper Peninsula. This rural community has relied on the local paper mill for decades for jobs. It is where Jeremy Mason works 12-hour swing shifts to support his family. Tosha is employed at the local WIC office, providing support services to mothers and their children. The irony is not lost on her, “We counsel families on how to provide nutritious meals for their children, and yet I cannot do that for my own,” notes Tosha. While their income keeps them from qualifying for food assistance, it does not afford them enough to put well-balanced meals on the table; tonight’s dinner was simple cheese quesadillas and orange slices.
Tosha hesitates to admit that COVID-19 provided much-needed relief for her family. The added food and child healthcare benefits offered some breathing room, but the healthcare assistance for the children provided the most significant relief. They are grateful that Jeremy’s job offers healthcare benefits. Still, despite the family being relatively healthy, co-pays and premiums cost them nearly $10,000 in 2023. It is the largest line item in their meticulously managed budget. Combined with rising food costs—they could eat well on $150 a week just a few years ago but now find that $250 a week barely buys necessities; they often go hungry, and the COVID support has mostly has been discontinued. Her youngest child still qualifies for WIC benefits, providing the family with cheese and tortillas for dinner.
It does not help that the prices are higher in their rural community, where shopping options are limited. On a recent trip to the grocery store, Tosha had hoped to buy some fresh fruit, but a 1-pound container of conventionally-grown strawberries was $9. In metro Detroit, those same berries were $3.99. Thankfully, her school-age children get free breakfast and lunch, where they take advantage of the fresh fruits and vegetables offered at school. It eases her guilt about not always being able to have those things on the table at home.
Tosha wishes more people understood that food and healthcare benefits have very definitive qualifications, but life is full of gray areas. “The moment you make enough money that you no longer qualify for food benefits, you also do not qualify for healthcare and several other services,” says Mason. Unfortunately, income alone does not indicate your ability to survive without support. House payments, utilities, and insurance costs all play a role in determining how much they have left for groceries. “I wish that the programs were on more of a sliding scale,” Tosha adds. When asked if she ever uses local food pantries, she says, “No, those are for people in really desperate situations and have nowhere else to go.”
When Amy Combs discovered she was pregnant at 18, the former high school dropout returned to school and got her diploma because she knew she had to do better now that she was responsible for a child. She moved home where she could have the loving support of her parents, but then her father passed away in 2014, followed by her mother in 2015. Amy was thrust into the real world, not equipped to handle the responsibility alone. Since then, she has been struggling to get back on her feet.
Now, the single mom of five continues to feel stuck. “It’s tough to find jobs during ‘mom hours’—when the kids are at school. I prioritize being a mom and am very honest about it going into job interviews.” Often, though, she finds trying to do better and get back on her feet adds more struggles. “If I don’t work, I’ll have food in the house for my kids, but I can’t get ahead and save money. If I work, I also can’t get ahead because I have no support as I get back on my feet during the transition.” She adds that the food assistance programs are amazing, but if she works too many hours, her assistance gets cut back, but the job pay doesn’t offset the lost benefits. Food assistance benefits have not increased despite historic inflation over the last few years, making matters worse. “I could buy enough food for two weeks and have a little extra, but now I have to supplement with the food pantry.”
Her oldest children are now teenagers and are sometimes embarrassed when other shoppers notice them paying for groceries with the orange EBT card or in previous years when classmates saw they were getting no-cost meals at school. It doesn’t have to be that way. The change to all public school children getting no-cost meals took the stigma away from that experience, and a simple shift in the EBT card could equalize the grocery shopping experience, too.
“Teen pregnancy runs in my family, and I am always preaching to my older daughters about not making the mistakes I made.” She is also open about her battles. “They see what happens when you have babies at a young age and the struggles associated with that. I tell them to travel the world; they have plans. They are going somewhere in life.” Ultimately, she wants them to know there is hope.
When asked what she wants people to know about her experience, she says, “Everybody has a story; everyone has a battle. No one wants to live off this forever, but we need this assistance to put food on the table. Stop judging and maybe get to know someone and see what the struggles are.”
Meet the Combs Family
Meet the Riggs Family
Deanna Riggs is exhausted. The single mother of three special needs kids has not been able to work for the better part of 18 years because she is unable to find the kind of job that affords her the flexibility to attend regular medical appointments for her children.
“I’ve lost jobs because I’ve needed to take time off to take a child to the hospital for a procedure, and then my caseworker tells me, ‘You didn’t try hard enough.’ It hurts.” Recently, she had to give up the family home and move in with friends to further cut expenses and focus on putting her children first. She is not here by choice. “I’d rather have it that I am working and living on my own and my kids having everything they want, being able to provide for them.”
Deanna receives food benefits, but it does not nearly cover what her family of four needs, and the community food pantry only provides a meager box of food items once a month—barely enough to make a few meals. Food resources are complicated by the fact that all her children have special dietary needs. Her oldest, with autism, is home-schooled. It is an environment that allows him to focus better, but he does not qualify for the no-cost breakfasts and lunches provided through the public school system. Her youngest attends school but only eats soft foods and receives a special diet through a gastrostomy tube. Her middle child has Type 2 Diabetes, and the school meal program doesn’t consider special dietary needs.
Despite the difficulties, Deanna is thankful for their Medicaid coverage. A caseworker assigned by the program oversees transportation and appointments for the kids an hour away at Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. However, it’s more than just managing their medical conditions. Dee is burned out by the kids’ required around-the-clock care. “The kids are supposed to have respite care as part of their Medicaid-approved action plan so I can have a break, but they are so medically challenged that no one wants to come; no one wants that responsibility.”
Deanna wants people to know that she’s more than a statistic; she is a real person living through this experience. The system needs to be overhauled to accommodate families with special needs, but she acknowledges that there is good, “Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for everything I get, but it still needs to be fixed.” Lastly, she asks, “Quit looking down on people like us.”
While pregnant with her first child eight years ago, Juanita Villa and her husband emigrated from Jalisco, Mexico to Southwest Detroit to build a better future for their family. Today, her husband works 40 hours a week in construction and picks up extra work during the summer months when the days are longer. Juanita finds ways to earn money from home, often cooking for friends and family, so she can be available to her two young children.
When she arrived in the United States, Juanita was encouraged to participate in WIC since enrolling was simple and there were fewer residency requirements than other programs. She is thankful for the food and programming WIC provided her family. While both her children are US citizens, and therefore qualify for SNAP, she never enrolled them because she fears retribution from immigration officials, a common concern among immigrants.
The mobile food pantries that come through the neighborhoods with produce are her favorite resource for fresh and healthy food, a staple of her family’s culture. These food trucks were a boon during COVID-19 and she hopes that they continue indefinitely. Juanita has seen how beneficial they are to her family and her neighbors.
Juanita has always been passionate about community involvement. She has participated in many programs offered by Brilliant Detroit and the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation. She misses the strong sense of community she experienced in Mexico, but hopes that her engagement with organizations here can help give others a voice.
Juanita will always be proud of her Mexican heritage, but she knew the United States offered her family many more opportunities. She acknowledges that the quality of education here far surpasses what is available in Mexico and her children’s ability to learn two languages has been crucial to their success. Juanita hopes that she has instilled the importance of community activism in her children. She beams as she shows off her son’s Student of the Month award, knowing her hard work and sacrifice are paying off.
Meet the Villa Family
