By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network
LANSING, MI –
Michigan ranks third highest in the nation for the percent of households that receive food stamps. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau show nearly 17 percent of Michigan households have at least one person who receives food assistance from the federal government.
Karen Holcomb-Merrill is with the Michigan League for Human Services. She says about two million people receive aid to buy food. But she says that number has gone down since the beginning of the year.
"One of the reasons for that is that the Department of Human Services changed their rules and their polices with regards to college students receiving food assistance," she says. "And as a result of that, about 30 thousand college students were dropped from food assistance earlier this year."
Holcomb-Merrill says some college food pantries are now struggling to meet the need of low-income college students.