This year’s ALICE report shows that 44% of households in Marquette County face financial hardships.

MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) - The Asset, Limited, Income, Constrained, and Employed (ALICE) report comes out every two years.

This year’s report shows that 44% of households in Marquette County face financial hardships. The report also shows 70% of families in the county are struggling with healthcare and school needs.

United Way of Marquette County Executive Director Andrew Rickauer said even with subsidies, there has been an increase since the last report in 2021 during the pandemic.

“Those [subsidies] helped tremendously, if those weren’t there then we would really be in a world of hurt,” said Rickauer. “However, we are looking at now is a lot of those subsidies are going away and inflations have been going way up,” said Rickauer.

Rickauer said they are anticipating even more of an increase for the next report. He also said the one thing that would help is community unity.

“As a community, just come together and continue to help support, and you know, those that are able to, if they can support a little bit more, it goes a long way,” said Rickauer.

Over at the Marquette Salvation Army, Captain Doug Winters went on to say that the number of people coming into the food bank has also increased.

“Right now, we are seeing about a 25% increase in the number of families that we are serving,” said Winters. “Last year at this time we were serving about 500 families a month and right now we are serving 660 families across the U.P. region.”

Winters also said a lot of the people coming to the food banks are new families that never used a food bank before.

“We are also seeing a need for more donations because even the normal middle-class families that would be donating at this time are themselves finding it hard to make ends meet, and so it’s really a great need for the population right now,” said Winters.

Marquette Salvation Army food pantry could always use donations. If you’re interested in donating, you can find more information here.

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