My college swim coach would often say, “If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.â€
For the past several years, the West Virginia Legislature has been a partner in the fight against food insecurity, and with more of our neighbors than ever not knowing where their next meal is coming from, lawmakers should continue to be part of the solution to end hunger in the Mountain State.
In West Virginia, more than 266,000 West Virginians (that’s 1-in-7 people in the state) face food insecurity. That’s 10,000 veterans, 71,000 children and more than 30,000 seniors struggling to put food on the table. At Mountaineer Food Bank, we believe in a West Virginia where no one goes to bed hungry today or tomorrow.
This important work takes partners throughout the state including the 466-plus Mountaineer Food Bank partner agencies throughout our 48-county service area and support from our state leaders. In 2024, Mountaineer Food Bank distributed 27.4 million pounds of food, totaling 22.9 million meals served and reached 114,210 households.
For the last five years, the Legislature has included the Community Food Programs line item in its budget that directly supports hunger relief efforts carried out by the state’s two Feeding America food banks and their respective community partners. For the last two years, lawmakers have stepped up even more to help meet the growing need of food assistance spurred by high grocery prices by passing the Posey Perry Emergency Fund Food.
Those two items allocated $11 million toward efforts to ensure our own people are taken care of, our kids have the best chance at success and the state’s workforce is ready and healthy. The idea of state legislatures appropriating money to fight hunger is not unique to West Virginia — in fact, each of West Virginia’s neighboring states support their food banks in the effort to end hunger. Our neighboring states realize part of growing a strong, healthy workforce is combatting food insecurity.
In 2024, 238,417 meals were served to children across our state through Mountaineer Food Bank’s youth programs; 438,765 meals were provided to veterans and active-duty military through the food bank’s Veterans Table program and 1.5 million meals were served to seniors living on a fixed income.
More than 1.3 million individuals and 562,175 households were served through the Posey Perry Emergency Food fund. Mountaineer Food Bank’s 340 participating community partners served 909,726 individuals and 387,815 households.
If solutions to the problem of hunger in our state are not robust and collaborative, we limit our ability to achieve more as a state. As a new leadership takes hold in our state, we encourage continued financial support for $3 million toward the Community Food Program and $360,000 toward SNAP stretch benefits that help both local farmers and producers as well as hungry neighbors.
Caitlin Cook, of ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, serves as Mountaineer Food Bank’s director of advocacy and public policy.
