08/03/2025
This is why we do what we do.
Please join us at THE CONCERT FOR KAIR • Friday August 8 • 7pm • Railroad Square • Kalkaska (Bring a Chair)
Cathy Somes, executive director of Kalkaska KAIR, knows what it’s like for neighbors to be in need. Her organization offers financial and utility assistance, a food pantry, and community meals throughout Kalkaska County to individuals and families who are under-served.
“In the past few months, we’ve seen about a 40 percent increase in the number of families we are serving,” Somes says. In 2025 alone, their food pantry visits have gone from 700 to 1,000 per month, and their meal sites have seen an increase from 80 people to 100 or even 120.
For Somes, this shift represents a perfect storm. Demand for their services is going up—as is the cost of food—but donations, grant dollars, and volunteers are all down.
She’s even concerned about losing the help provided by Grand Traverse Industries (GTI), a nonprofit that offers vocational training, employment, and habilitation services to people with disabilities. Right now, GTI is facing a potential reduction in services due to Medicaid changes and funding shortages at the community mental health authorities that support their programs.
“They’re able to assist with trucks [to transport food], and that is a huge, huge blessing,” Somes says of GTI. “Those kids come in here, and they are just amazing. I don’t know what we would do if we didn’t have Grand Traverse Industries.”
When asked if there is a light at the end of the tunnel, Somes replies with a disheartened “no.”
“This is the first layer of cutbacks,” she says of the federal cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and SNAP funding. “Six months from now, I expect it to be a lot harder. … I think this trickle down is going to be a two-year, three-year cycle, maybe even longer.”
And that’s a hard pill to swallow when more and more neighbors are headed to KAIR’s doors. “If this continues down the path it’s on right now, I think it’s going to affect more households than we can even envision at this point.” --NorthernExpress.com
