Ypsi nonprofits faced an avalanche of need in 2025, and they’re preparing for more to come

On the Ground Ypsilanti is an “embedded journalism” program covering the city and township of Ypsilanti. It is supported by Ann Arbor SPARK, the Center for Health and Research Transformation, Destination Ann Arbor, Eastern Michigan University, Engage @ EMU, Washtenaw Community College, Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission, and Washtenaw ISD.

The network of social service nonprofits that serve as a safety net in the greater Ypsilanti area are reporting that they’re stretched thin after a year of disruptive federal policy. The temporary stoppage of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit payments during this fall’s federal government shutdown created an acute surge of need. But local nonprofit leaders say 2025 was challenging before the SNAP benefit delays and well after benefits were restored. We checked in with three local nonprofits about what’s happening and how they’re responding.

A 40% surge in visits to SOS Community Services

Nesli Erisgen, development manager for Ypsilanti’s SOS Community Services, says people experiencing food insecurity and those seeking other resources have visited SOS “in record numbers in the last couple of years.” SOS is known for having a “low-barrier” food pantry, but it also provides services related to transportation and utilities at its Family Resource Center at 114 N. River St. in Ypsilanti.

“The numbers just skyrocketed, and in the last few months, they just continued to increase,” Erisgen says. “We ran the numbers and it was jaw-dropping. In a six-month period, even before the government shutdown, we were seeing record numbers, with increases in the number of people visiting us in the range of 30-40%.”

Erisgen says that several weeks before the shutdown, SOS staff heard visitors saying they were trying to save their benefit dollars at the end of October in anticipation of not receiving any in November.

“We’ve also seen a lot more people using the non-food section of our pantry, looking for diapers, wipes, formula, cleaning supplies, pads, tampons. They need so much more than just food,” she says.

Erisgen says that, luckily, the community responded by donating food to help those who’d lost SNAP benefits, but she knows the crisis will go “far beyond that.”

“We have a resource specialist at the Family Resource Center who helps people on the brink of homelessness, and her phone has been ringing off the hook,” she says. “People need help with late bills, their water about to be shut off, and all of those kinds of calls. She’s part-time, but … she had 300 calls in one day.”

Erisgen says SOS staff saw an “absolute outpour in donations” but she also notes that the government shutdown and SNAP benefits delay came at the winter holidays, typically a time of high donations.

“Still, we’ve seen a huge spike, very unprecedented. There are vanloads of donations being dropped off day after day, so we barely have any storage space,” she says.

Like the other nonprofits Concentrate talked to, SOS runs on volunteer power. Erisgen says SOS needs all hands on deck as well as monetary donations right now.

“Volunteering is a great way to help us. Another is just advocacy and understanding of what our clients are going through,” Erisgen says. She says one way to build that empathy is by following SOS’ social media, which tells stories of people who use SOS’ services.

3,000 sack lunches and extended hours for Hope Clinic

Ross Weener, CEO for Ypsilanti’s Hope Clinic, says he and his staff saw an increased demand for food in the three weeks leading up to the SNAP benefit stoppage. Pantry visits are arranged by appointment at Hope, and Weener says that there’s typically a two- to four-week wait for an appointment. 

The pantry operates on a choice model where visitors can shop the shelves for the goods they want. However, those in immediate need can stop by and get pre-packed emergency bags at the end of the hot meals Hope staff serve six nights a week. Staff have seen growing demand for those bags, and they’re currently handing out as many as 100 to 125 a night. However, they’ve seen increased donations as well.

“The community response was amazing. This is a season for generosity, but there were more food drives, and more emergency bags of food and sack lunches packed, than we’re accustomed to seeing,” Weener says.

In less than three weeks, community members brought more than 3,000 sack lunches to Hope for distribution.

“We might see that many sack lunches being donated over the course of the fourth quarter, but this was over two and a half weeks,” Weener says. 

Hope Clinic also provides physical, mental, and dental health services to those uninsured or underinsured. Weener says he’s concerned about how those clients will fare under new Medicaid work requirements set to be implemented by this time next year under the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last year.

“Those work requirements could mean we’ll have less people connected to health insurance than are today, and since we serve the uninsured population, we expect more people will be looking for care from places like Hope Clinic,” he says.

Weener says Hope recently extended patient access to care for two additional hours a week, now keeping the clinic open until 7 p.m. each Wednesday.

He says Hope’s staff and board considered ways to build capacity, and it was clear that there was “no expansion possible.” Adding a couple of hours of service in the evening during “non-traditional hours” is complicated, Weener says. But Hope staff want to make sure people designated by the government and social service agencies as asset limited, income constrained, and employed (ALICE) can access their services.

Weener says Hope invites the community to help Hope not only with food or money donations but by volunteering to “unload a truck or serve a hot meal.” Clinicians with dental or medical experience are always welcome to volunteer as well, he says.

“Or come volunteer at the front desk and see the way we can make a change, neighbor to neighbor,” he says. “That’s what Hope exists to do.”

Call volume nearly doubled at Friends In Deed

While staffers at Ypsi-based Friends In Deed are glad that the community responded generously to local nonprofits addressing food insecurity, they did not see the same outpouring of support. They think perhaps that’s because food was the focus during the SNAP benefit stoppage, and Friends In Deed doesn’t run a food pantry.

But when food budgets are tight, families struggle to fulfill other basic needs. That has played out on the help line at Friends In Deed. Executive Director Tyrone Kelsey estimates that calls spiked from the usual 400 per month to 700 in October and November.

Case worker Nikia Smith runs the resource line for Friends In Deed and describes the general tone of calls as “disastrous.” Calls about utility shutoffs started pouring in when the weather suddenly got even colder than usual at the end of November. But those aren’t the only calls she’s taking.

“When I take these calls, it’s usually for one thing, but now everybody has three or four things because everything comes crashing down at once,” Smith says.

Smith says Friends In Deed staff are happy to help those in need, but she wants them to understand two things: they need to have patience with social safety net agencies right now, and they have to follow up on the information she gives them.

“There are just so many systemic barriers, and people are just so tired,” Smith says. “I see it must be discouraging when you’re the 12th call they made, and you tell them they have to make one more. I can see why people will get discouraged, but they’ve got to follow through.”

Friends In Deed provides information about local food resources and offers assistance for common issues like utility shut-off notices, transportation issues, and furniture needs. The nonprofit also runs a local chapter of Circles, a highly successful program that addresses the root causes of poverty through partnerships between low-income “leaders” and higher-income “allies.” That program has seen growth recently as well, with 21 leaders in the latest cohort.

Kelsey says he isn’t looking to expand services at Friends In Deed just yet. He’s still getting his feet under him in his new capacity as executive director. His first order of business is to get the organization’s technology in order so it can keep better data to improve the “storytelling” it does with stakeholders.

“We can tell the story of how awesome we are with better data analytics, which means we need better IT systems and structures,” he says.

In the meantime, community members can support Friends In Deed by providing “muscle” in the organization’s furniture warehouse or acting as “allies” for the Circles program. Kelsey says Friends In Deed is also always looking for those who can provide specialty services on a volunteer basis, like serving on the nonprofit’s fundraising committee or donating volunteer or internship social work hours to do intake with clients.