When you think of “Appalachian cooking,” what comes to mind? For a lot of folks, it’s savory comfort foods like biscuits with sausage gravy, crispy fried chicken and mashed potatoes loaded with butter. But, what about folks who want that comfort food, without involving animals? Jan Brandenburg is a pharmacist and poet in Eastern Kentucky. Over the last 30 years, she’s collected and perfected recipes that take a plant-based approach to the Appalachian table. Producer Bill Lynch spoke with Brandenburg about her new book The Modern Mountain Cookbook.
Charleston Postal Employees Rally Against Federal Workforce Cuts
Union workers and community members gather outside a Charleston post office to voice concern about federal workforce cuts and the possibility of postal service privatization.Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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Dozens of union workers and community members gathered outside Charleston’s main post office to voice opposition to federal job cuts Thursday afternoon.
President Donald Trump has set reducing government spending as an early administrative priority for his second term, approving controversial cuts across the federal workforce. Tim Holstein, vice president of the Charleston-based American Postal Workers Union Local 133, worries that could come with a move toward privatizing the nation’s postal service.
Tim Holstein serves as vice president of American Postal Workers Union Local 133, a chapter based in Charleston. Pictured in the center, he addresses attendees at a March 20 rally.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“Privatization would really be detrimental to the rural West Virginians in the state,” Holstein told West Virginia Public Broadcasting at the Thursday rally. “Do you really think that they’re going to want to deliver one piece of mail to you all the way up in a holler in West Virginia, versus concentrate on the inner city and corporations here inside the city?”
Trump has previously floated ideas of privatizing or restructuring the United States Postal Service (USPS), citing long-running financial concerns. USPS has also agreed to cut 10,000 workers as part of the federal spending cuts being led by the Elon Musk-backed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Holstein said privatization and job cuts would come at the expense of members of the public who rely on the postal service, especially those in harder-to-reach areas.
Jeannie Meyers and Alison Meyers, from left, are workers at the United States Postal Services mail processing center in South Charleston.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“It’s just a no-win for union workers,” Holstein said. “It’s a no-win for West Virginia, being a rural state.”
Charleston is one of more than 150 cities across the country to host a rally over privatization and workforce concerns. Holstein urged residents to reach out to their members of the United States Congress to discourage privatization, adding that union workers and their supporters will continue to hold rallies on the issue.
“We’re here to fight, and we fight to win,” Holstein said. “We’ll continue to do what we have to do to sustain the work here for our union members and to sustain the facility and the mail here in West Virginia.”
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