Tag: Business

A single road connects Shannondale and its roughly 3,000 residents to the rest of Jefferson County. The rural community flanks West Virginia’s easternmost border, fixed between the Shenandoah River and the Blue Ridge Mountains. That makes for breathtaking waterside vistas, but one heck of a grocery commute.

Shannondale is home to just two convenience stores, neither of which regularly sells fresh produce. For low-income residents, the terrain and limited local options can exacerbate barriers to food access that affect the state at large. Even in the state’s wealthiest county, many folks in rural communities struggle to foot their grocery bills.

That is where the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) comes in. The federally funded program lets states subsidize food purchase costs for residents in need. Last year, roughly one-sixth of the state’s populace bought food using SNAP dollars.

But the state and federal governments are currently weighing tweaks to the program, and say it is just the beginning. That could change who qualifies for the program, what they can buy and the wider face of food access in small-town West Virginia.

Finding meals in a food desert

Since founding the Blue Ridge Food Pantry in 2023, Susan and Ray Benzinger have seen barriers to food access in Shannondale first hand.

“We have talked to people. Some people fish to supplement, because they can’t get across the river all the time,” Susan Bezinger said. “Some people garden. Of course, that would be your summer months.”

Twice a week, the food bank provides residents jars of peanut butter, canned vegetables and other shelf-stable food products. Susan Bezinger says people often miss the food bank and drive past it because of its unusual location: an old, white chapel.

When the church fell into disuse, the Benzingers got permission from the Episcopal diocese to convert it into a food bank. Walk inside and you will find the same old pipe organ and pulpit, but with pews covered up and pushed to the walls, shelves of packaged food in their place.

Last year, Susan Benzinger said the pantry fed roughly 2,000 people, serving 15 tons of food.

“They’re just regular people that need a boost, and that’s what we’re here for,” Ray Benzinger said.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) designates Shannondale a low-income, low-access area, colloquially known as a food desert. That means household revenues in the community skew low, but the distance to grocery stores is high, making it harder to access healthy foods despite resources like the food pantry.

“We have a lot of people who do not have transportation. We actually have people who walk here, or their neighbors bring them,” Susan Benzinger said. “So that’s a hard thing.”

The Blue Ridge Food Pantry is entirely free, so it does not accept SNAP dollars. But across the Shenandoah, Bushel & Peck does. The Charles Town retailer hums with refrigerators chock full of local produce, meat and dairy.

Todd Coyle, who runs the store, says SNAP spending makes up a small amount of daily business, partly due to ease of access. For low-income residents outside Charles Town proper, visiting the brick-and-mortar can be trickier than a run to the dollar store.

“There is accessibility to these foods, but you’re going to have to get somebody to bring you here,” he said. “You’re going to have to walk a block, you know?”

SNAP under review

But residents using SNAP dollars may soon have additional restrictions to worry about. On March 26, members of the West Virginia Senate passed Senate Bill 249, which would expand work or education requirements for residents to qualify for the program.

Plus, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced plans last month to ban West Virginia residents from using SNAP dollars to buy sugary beverages like soda. And he brought those ideas directly to the federal government himself during a March 28 media event with the nation’s highest-ranking health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy visited Martinsburg to show support for health policy changes Morrisey has championed in his first few months as governor. Key among them was Morrisey’s belief that using SNAP dollars to purchase unhealthy foods is a waste of program funds.

“When people are asserting that SNAP shouldn’t be about nutrition, I take issue with that,” Morrisey told members of the media after the event. “If you have the nutrition assistance program, it needs to be about nutrition.”

Morrisey asked Kennedy and the Trump administration to let West Virginia ban the purchase of sugary drinks using SNAP dollars.

Kennedy does not oversee the program. But he suggested the wider Trump administration is already on board, including U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who has authority over SNAP.

“The message that I want to give to the country today and to all the other governors is: Get in line behind Gov. Morrissey,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said tweaking SNAP benefits to eliminate junk food purchases aligns with Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative — a policy agenda that broadly focuses on individual, rather than institutional, approaches to health.

“We all need to stand up for ourselves and take care of ourselves. It’s an act of patriotism,” Kennedy said. “If you love this country, you need to start taking care of yourself.”

And the move toward state-by-state discretion over SNAP could have implications extending beyond West Virginia.

A broader effort

States administer their own SNAP benefits, but with federal funds. The program is authorized by the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, which sets defining standards for the program nationally.

West Virginia may be leading the way toward SNAP reform. But White House advisor Calley Means told members of the press at the event in Martinsburg that the Mountain State is not alone in seeking change; similar talks are underway across the U.S., from Arizona to Arkansas.

One critic is Seth DiStefano with the research nonprofit West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. He says support for Morrisey’s plan could indicate the Trump administration is open to expanding state discretion over SNAP — even without the congressional approval to change the law.

“This would be very, very much outside of the mainstream as to how a program such as this is administered, specifically SNAP,” DiStefano said.

Morrisey and Kennedy argue that eliminating junk foods would bring public benefit, lowering costs to health infrastructure. Meanwhile, DiStefano is also worried the changes could impose unnecessary hurdles while shopping on SNAP dollars, plus risk losing customers on border towns to stores across state lines.

“You don’t really know what you’re trying to restrict, and you end up kind of sticking your nose into free market commerce principles that ends up having consequences,” he said.

While her work does not focus on SNAP specifically, back at the food bank Susan Benzinger said key to expanding food access is giving people autonomy. The Blue Ridge Food Pantry lets visitors customize their food pantry requests.

“I think it just makes people feel a little more in control, too. ‘Okay, I picked what I want.’ We do run out of stuff, but we ask them then to substitute,” she said. “It not only saves on waste, but most importantly makes people feel good about picking stuff up.”