Fighting Hunger in Rural Michigan: Thumb Blessing Boxes

August 24, 2022

In the fall of 2019, two local SNAP-Ed implementing agencies began discussions on how they could work with the local transportation authority to address food insecurity in the rural “thumb area” (a reference to the “thumb” of the hand-shaped state) of Michigan. As a result, the Tuscola Food Access Collaborative was created and leveraged existing structures and projects, including the Thumb Blessing Boxes, which began in 2020, the same year a pandemic was declared, wherein the need for food and household items, was evident.