In Muskegon County, the acronym ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) represents nearly 15,000 households led by men and women of all ages and cultural backgrounds. These hardworking people get up each day to head into work, but they still struggle to meet the basic needs of their family. That means that although they are working, they cannot adequately provide housing, transportation, food, health care, child care, and more of those basic things that many of us take for granted.
In response to this issue and many like it, the United Way of the Lakeshore has dedicated itself to building an educated workforce, ensuring long term self-sufficiency, and improving health and safety with access to care, nutrition, and an active lifestyle. This year there were nine sites to volunteer at as part of the annual United Way Day of Caring project as a way to help ALICE families overcome the barriers that block them on the path to meeting their basic needs and move forward to a more successful, happier life.
The students, faculty, and staff at the Ross Medical Education Center campus in Roosevelt Park, Michigan volunteers throughout the year with several United Way events. The campus was happy to announce that this is their sixth year that the staff has been able to participate in the Day of Caring Event by United Way. Lisa Picard, Campus Director, Kristi Fulton, Assistant Campus Director of Admissions, Amanda Holman, Career Services Student Student Representative, and Tara Ludlow, Financial Aid Student Support Representative, worked at local Kids Food Basket as part of their United Way Day of Caring project.
As ALICE households struggles to meet basic needs, providing balanced meals for their family can be a challenge. No one should have to worry about whether or not their children have enough to eat. Muskegon County’s Kids Food Basket delivers an average of 900 sack dinners per day. It takes a lot of volunteers to make this happen! The Ross team was happy to assist in packaging trail mix and popcorn to assist this organization in their dedication to providing these kids with daily meals.