With the cold season approaching, many people are struggling to access basic necessities like food. This is especially true with the delay in people receiving their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. SNAP benefits are monthly payments from the federal government to help low-income individuals and families buy food. The Trump administration wants to cut funding towards this, as it is estimated that they may cut average benefits by 61%. They were then delayed due to a government shutdown in early November. As a result, millions of Americans who rely on SNAP benefits have less access to food. Also, many people may lose their benefits altogether due to new legislation. This was The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) passed July 4, 2025 by congress and signed into law by President Trump. This is going to be a really big issue in Michigan, specifically, as well as over 1.29 million people in Michigan who received SNAP benefits in 2024, according to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.
Founded in 1990, Forgotten Harvest is one of the main organizations trying to help solve this problem. They are a food rescue organization trying to help provide food for as many people as they can who are in need. With all of the issues with SNAP benefits and the government shutting down, they need a lot of help to keep up with all the people in need of food. They ask people, if they can, to donate or do anything to help out.
The Youth Empowerment Club here at BHS wanted to help with this issue, so they created a food drive. “We are collecting it for Forgotten Harvest, which helps SNAP benefits,” said Senior Co-President and Founder of the Youth Empowerment Club, Alex Sims. When asked what made them want to collect food for people, Sims responded, “Me and the other club leader, Maddie Collins, saw a need to help since SNAP is down, so we’ve reached out to Forgotten Harvest and a few other nonprofits. They are the only ones that got back to us, and we decided to dedicate the food drive to them.”
When questioned what the most common food donated is, Sims answered, “I would say canned goods, like canned soup, green beans, or other canned goods, are the best.” Sims shared the places where you can donate, “We have one at Anderson, Angel, Rogers, Berkley High School, June and December, and Metro Strength Rehabilitation, which is who we are partnering with.” Metro Strength Rehabilitation is a strength and wellness center located in Royal Oak, Michigan. Their focus is to make physical therapy accessible and approachable for everyone in the community.
Providing further detail about what goals they would like to accomplish with the food drive, Sims said, “We really hope to get as much food as we can in the month of November. We also really want to strengthen our relationship with Metro Strength Rehabilitation Center.” Sims explained how this is going to help people in the community, “It’s going to feed the people who are in need that had SNAP benefits before, so this food is going to go to them because they are not receiving the benefits anymore.” When clarifying how the Berkley community can get involved, Sims said, “They can donate money or they can drop off food at any of the sites. They can also spread awareness by posting flyers on social media platforms.”
This food drive is hopefully going to help many people who have lost access to SNAP for the short-term or potentially the long-term, too. So people need to help out as much as possible to make sure this food drive has a great impact. The most important thing to do, per Sims’ request, is to “spread the word!
