Marshall County United Way Development Manager Brian Teall and Marshall County Community Foundation and United Way Executive Director Linda Yoder presented information to the Marshall County Commissioners and the Marshall County Council members during their recent meetings about an opportunity for government financial support.
The county helped contribute funds in the first round of Fund the Essentials at the height of the pandemic. Teall explained that the newly proposed Fund the Essentials 2 initiative would assist residents with more needs as they deal with the residual effects of the pandemic.
“While conditions have improved for some households, many continue to struggle, especially as wages fail to keep pace with the rising cost of household essentials – housing, childcare, food, transportation, and healthcare. Local food pantries report a 40 percent increase in needs from last year at this time. In Marshall County, 77 percent of single-parent households struggle to makes ends meet. In addition, 61 percent of those houses are under the age of 25 years old and 53 percent of our senior citizens are in ALICE households.”
An ALICE household stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed and according to Yoder, who noted statistics from an ALICE study conducted in Marshall County, there is about 29 percent of the population that stand in the ALICE category that live paycheck to paycheck. About 12 percent of the population lives in poverty.
Teall and Yoder asked the government leaders for support in easing the burden of the area’s business and industry sector and to help meet the needs of Marshall County. A request of $150,000 was made to fulfill this quest to seek a 1:1 match from Indiana United Ways. Teall said the majority of the funding would be going to food banks and utility assistance programs.
The deadline to secure the match is in October, but an answer would be best delivered by the end of June as it is the fiscal end of the year for the organization. There will be similar conversations with other government entities with fund requests.
Councilman Jim Masterson commented that the county should be able to grant this request and possibly consider more funding to help the residents of the county. Councilwoman Nicole Cox asked to meet with Yoder to answer many questions she has concerning the initiative.
The commissioners agreed to give a favorable recommendation to the Marshall County Council for their consideration. The council members approved a motion 6-1 to take the request to the American Rescue Plan Committee to consider those funds. Councilman Jim Masterson opposed to the motion.
