Food insecurity Story Archives - Page 2 of 3 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Unwinding Medicaid: Changes To SNAP Worry Food Security Advocates

Advocates and officials are warning that upcoming changes to SNAP benefits could put West Virginia households and food banks in jeopardy.

Starting March 1, some struggling families may have less government support for food as COVID-19 pandemic-era emergency allotments come to a close.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, provide temporary help for people going through hard times by providing supplemental money to buy food until they can get back on their feet.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 37.3 percent of West Virginia households receiving SNAP benefits have children.

Since April 2020, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources has issued SNAP emergency allotments, increasing each household’s monthly benefit.

Now, those monthly SNAP benefits have returned to the pre-COVID-19 Public Health Emergency level based on the household’s income, assets, household size, and other non-financial factors. About 170,000 households will be affected.

“Early on in the pandemic, Congress and the USDA, allowed states to increase everyone’s SNAP benefits up to the maximum level, regardless of what they would normally be qualified for based on their household income, assets and expenses,” said Kent Nowviskie, deputy commissioner of the DHHR’s Bureau for Family Assistance. “As a result of the omnibus spending bill, the Consolidated Appropriations Act that was passed in December, Congress brought that portion of the snap or that option for states to an end.”

According to Nowviskie, Congress plans to repurpose the funding of emergency allotments to allow states to set up a permanent ongoing summer EBT program for children who are eligible for free and reduced lunch in schools.

“SNAP benefits come directly from the federal government, and we disperse those to the clients in West Virginia. So essentially, those are federal monies, we determine eligibility according to a state plan that is essentially like a contract between the state and the USDA, for how will determine that eligibility. And then on a monthly basis, we draw down those funds from the federal government and push them out to eligible SNAP clients,” Nowviskie said. “We do have other sources of funding that support some nutritional efforts. One of the big ones is our TANF funding, which we have used to vastly expand some of the supports that we have available across the state.”

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, is also known as WV Works, a program assisting families near the poverty level to remain self-sufficient.

Advocates and officials are warning that upcoming changes to SNAP benefits could put West Virginia households and food banks in jeopardy.

“So, according to the DHHR, all households will see at least a $95 reduction, statewide, the average per household is going to be around $120 reduction,” said Josh Lohnes, a research assistant professor at WVU who directs the work of the food justice lab and the center for resilient communities. “And again, that’s based on size and income. So for some households, it may be hundreds of dollars reduced, and for others, it might be less, but every single household is at least gonna see a $95 cut in March.”

These changes will not only affect West Virginia families directly but food banks across the state as well.

“Food insecurity is pretty much a poverty problem and a low wage problem, the vast majority of those receiving SNAP benefits are working families that are simply not earning enough wages to be above 130 percent of the poverty line,” Lohnes said. “So that drives food insecurity, and low wages, as do increasing food prices.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a one-person household that earns $14,580 or less annually is considered to be in poverty. A three-person household is considered in poverty if they earn $24,860 or less annually.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index, food inflation rates rose an average of 11 percent in December 2022 alone.

Cyndi Kirkhart is the CEO of Facing Hunger Food Bank, based in Huntington. It is one of only two food banks in West Virginia. The other is Mountaineer Food Bank, based in Gassaway.

Food insecurity will only increase along with inflation costs, Kirkhart said she budgeted $2.5 million to purchase food for the Facing Hunger Food Bank in 2022. The bank actually expended $4 million to feed its community.

“That’s not sustainable for our work. We’re having to really kind of scale back and rather than prepackaged boxes, that we’ve distributed, our mobile pantries and stuff, now we’re getting down to staple items that will benefit a family,” Kirkhart said. “So at a time when the communities at the center of our work need us most, we actually are having to scale back in what we can provide to them as well as our pantries.”

According to advocates for food security, charitable programs are unable to support those facing hunger fully. A combination of charity and government assistance programs are necessary to help bridge the meal gap, especially in a post-COVID economy with record-breaking inflation rates.

“I can’t underscore enough, while the rhetoric may be that folks receive all kinds of money with SNAP benefits, that is patently not true,” Kirkhart said. “It is not enough for any family, to be able to live alone. It takes other financial resources to support a family and their food needs. All you have to do is try the SNAP challenge one time and try and live on what is about $4.20 a day.”

To mitigate food insecurity for West Virginia families, Nowviskie said the DHHR was able to use TANF funding to increase the number of family support centers throughout West Virginia. He said 37 centers were added to the grant cycle in 2022.

“And those are physical locations that offer a variety of services from respite for caregivers, to parenting classes, some of them do cooking, education, financial education, those sorts of things,” Nowviskie said. “They all also are required by the grant agreement with us to maintain a food pantry, a baby pantry, and a hygiene pantry.”

Furthermore, Nowviskie said any West Virginia family struggling with food insecurity after this rollback of SNAP benefits can contact their local county DHHR office and speak with a caseworker about options or visit the agency’s website for a list of resources.

Advocates Bring Hunger Issues To W.Va. Legislature As Senate Committee Advances Summer Feeding Program

According to food bank network Feeding America, one in eight people in West Virginia face hunger every day. Advocates brought the issue to the Capitol Thursday during the legislature’s Hunger Free Day.

According to food bank network Feeding America, one in eight people in West Virginia face hunger every day. Advocates brought the issue to the Capitol Thursday during the West Virginia Legislature’s Hunger Free Day.

The Facing Hunger Foodbank estimates it serves 130,000 West Virginians each year. Mountaineer Food Bank estimates more than 200,000 West Virginians struggle with food insecurity every day.

With the rising cost of food only worsening hunger in the state, both organizations came to the legislature Thursday to advocate for solutions.

“This day is really about our hungry neighbors,” said Chad Morrison, chief executive officer of Mountaineer Food Bank. “Folks out there are struggling, and the need for food is at an all time high. We want to be here at the Capitol to make sure that our legislators know that need’s out there, that it’s consistent. We’re seeing record numbers of people… and right now it’s a real struggle for us to meet all those needs.”

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported food costs increased more than 10 percent in 2022. Morrison said the legislature can help by increasing the resources available to food banks and pantries, and facilitate connections to local producers to reduce cost and keep spending in the community.

“There’s just a lot of different opportunities for them to get engaged and we’re hopeful,” he said. “We’re hopeful that this year there is another work group around hunger as there was last session, and that’s going to spur some more discussions about food insecurity in the state.”

Liv Brunello is part of the Voices of Hunger group from the Food for All Coalition.

“I think it’s a really aspirational title, you know, like, we want West Virginia to be Hunger Free,” she said. “But at the same time, it’s a patchwork effort. It’s volunteers and senior citizens and people from all different parts of the community coming together to try to figure it out. We believe in a future where food is recognized as a human right by our state. Where people really are hunger-free, where we don’t need to patchwork everything together. Where everyone has nutritious, affordable access to the food that they and their family want to eat.”

Brunello said she wants to see the legislature and the state as a whole take more aggressive action, such as passing an amendment to the state constitution declaring food a human right.

For now, the legislature is sticking to more immediate action.

Earlier in the day, the Senate Education Committee advanced Senate Bill 306, which would establish the Summer Feeding for All Program.

Committee Chair Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, is the bill’s co-sponsor. She said the bill will hopefully help counties and schools better identify hungry students and how best to help them.

“The Summer Feeding Program isn’t really a program where the counties go out and feeds students, most counties already do that,” Grady said. “What it does is it provides an assessment tool where counties can look and say, ‘Do we have food insecurity in certain areas? Do we have organizations, churches, community places that are offering to help with this? And if we don’t, who can we look to, to make sure we’re helping, or can we use our resources to make sure these kids are fed?’”

Grady said it can be hard for people not involved in the school system to see just how big the issue of hunger is for West Virginia’s students. As a teacher, she knows that when students are hungry, they have a harder time learning.

“We’re focusing a whole lot on improving student success in our schools,” Grady said. “We need to be climbing up, we need to bring our students up and we have to understand if their basic needs aren’t met, which is hunger, food insecurity, they’re not going to be able to learn. Addressing that is taking care of the whole child and giving them the opportunities they need to make sure they are successful.”

Foster Care Farm Fights Food Insecurity, Teaches Trade Skills

The first commercial farm to be staffed and operated by foster care youth is being built at the Stepping Stones Residential Treatment Facility in Wayne County.

After loading up their crops and setting up a stand at the Ceredo Farmer’s Market, youth from the Stepping Stones Residential Treatment Facility sold their first $100 dollars of produce that they grew on their commercial farm, Growing Hope.

Located in Lavalette, West Virginia, Stepping Stones is a child welfare and behavioral health provider for Cabell and Wayne County. The program helps young adults in the foster care system transition into adulthood.

Many Appalachian youth who age out of the foster care system fall into homelessness or substance use disorders. According to Susan Fry, the director of Stepping Stones, transitioning from foster care is harder when the children don’t have trade skills or access to education.

“You can’t go out and be a productive member of society if you haven’t had the opportunity,” Fry said. “Whether it be through a university, a community college, or trade so that they can achieve employment that pays a livable wage.”

It doesn’t help that some of these youth are transitioning into a food insecure community. The closest grocery store for rural Lavalette is a 20 minute drive to Huntington.

The Growing Hope farm began in partnership with Green Bronx Machine, a New York City based nonprofit that teaches children about agriculture and science while creating sustainable sources of employment and nutrition for underdeveloped communities.

“The same economic hardships, the same lack of education opportunities, the same nutrition and health disparities that face the young men in Appalachia are precisely what are facing young men and young children here in the South Bronx,” the CEO of Green Bronx Machine, Stephen Ritz, said.

Growing Hope uses aeroponic tower gardens to grow plants like cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, and a wide variety of leafy greens and herbs. Aeroponics is a process of growing crops without soil, which allows plants to be grown year-round.

According to Ritz, the skill to operate an aeroponic farm is a trade skill that is uncommon throughout Appalachia.

“Growing food in Appalachia, as these young men are learning, is a license to print money,” Ritz said. “I’ve met a lot of kids who are allergic to vegetables, but I’ve never met a young man who’s allergic to money.”

Stepping Stones is also building a community of tiny houses for young adults from foster care to have a place to rent. The tiny homes will act as a place where foster youth can have a personal space, while still being part of a larger community.

“Young people in foster care, especially in residential treatment, they’ve never even had a room by themselves, let alone their own home,” Fry said. “To be able to have a home that is theirs, that they’re paying rent on, that they decide how they want to change the decorations and set it up, and not to have all those roommate issues.”

According to Fry, giving less restrictions and more opportunities to these young adults allow them more freedom to grow into themselves.

“We want to, at least by the time they’re age 17, be able to get them in a less restrictive living situation, and give them more control over their decisions. ”

Stepping Stones is looking at their program as a model that can be adapted for other communities.

“We’re very rural, and what would work with us where we don’t have zoning may not work in Charleston, but the structure of the model; the community wrapping their arms around these kids in foster care, that can apply anywhere in the world,” Fry said.

The foster youth employees with Growing Hope are looking to expand from selling at the farmer’s market toward selling to individuals and restaurants.

Law Aims To Close W.Va.’s Food Insecurity Gap For Children

The hunger relief organization Feeding America says about one in five West Virginia children doesn’t have a consistent, reliable source of nutritious food.

A new initiative is designed to help close West Virginia’s food insecurity gap among children.

The hunger relief organization Feeding America says about one in five West Virginia children doesn’t have a consistent, reliable source of nutritious food.

Del. Chad Lovejoy, D-Cabell, said the gap hits children harder in some counties than others and can become severe away from the classroom.

“We have children, about one in five, who do not have a consistent, reliable source of nutritious food, particularly outside of the school system,” Lovejoy said. “There is hunger on weekends, summers, holidays, things like that. So that’s the gap.”

HB 3073 is the Emergency School Food Act. It sets up a statewide program to learn each county’s specific challenges and how they can better connect to the outside food sources available.

Lovejoy said centralizing the help needed to feed children will be a game changer

“We have counties that do this very well. And we have counties that don’t do it as well,” Lovejoy said. “And by centralizing the help, and developing toolkits at the state level, we’re going to be able to bring all the counties up to a kind of a base level, and then share best practices.”

Lovejoy said a crisis management plan in the act will provide innovative ways to deliver students food away from school – during a snow day or severe summer storms.

The program will be coordinated by West Virginia’s Office of Child Nutrition.

Pandemic Could Make Food Insecurity Worse Among Older Adults In Ohio Valley

A new study shows the Ohio Valley has some of the nation’s highest rates of food insecurity among older adults, and anti-hunger advocates say that situation could be made worse by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

The annual study was published May 21 in partnership with researchers from the University of Kentucky, researchers from University of Illinois, and the nonprofit food bank organization Feeding America. The researchers used Census Bureau survey data from 2018 which asked households with adults aged 50-59 a series of questions to determine whether they were food insecure.

Kentucky had the nation’s highest rate of food insecurity among adults in this age group, with 17.3 percent who were food insecure. West Virginia and Ohio also ranked among the five states with the highest rates, 16 percent and 14.6 percent, respectively. All three states also ranked among the 10 states with the highest rates of older adults having “very low food security,” classified as a more severe form of food insecurity in the study.

“These three states also have a higher reliance on manufacturing and extractive and service-related industries, and those jobs have been declining,” said James Ziliak, the founding director of the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research and co-author of the study. “This is also an age group that’s at greater risk of disability, and disability is a strong indicator of food insecurity.”

Ziliak said adults in this age group may also have difficulty finding employment or better-paying employment as they reach the age when people traditionally retire, increasing the chance of food insecurity. He said as jobs have declined in industries including manufacturing and fossil fuels, jobs have also disappeared in auxiliary industries that supported those “core industries.” Ziliak also believes the impacts of the region’s opioid epidemic plays into the higher rates of food insecurity.

With the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic causing millions in the Ohio Valley to file for unemployment, Ziliak said food insecurity among older adults could soar in the region in the years ahead.

“The economic consequences of this pandemic are clearly much more extreme than what we had in the Great Recession. Now, it’s not known how long it’s going to persist, but current projections don’t look very good,” Ziliak said.

A separate analysis issued by Feeding America in late April estimated the potential increases in food insecurity rates among all people in each state, depending on the potential increases in unemployment. The analysis estimated food insecurity rates could increase by at least 35 percent in Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia — totaling about 941,000 new people who are food insecure — if unemployment rates were to increase by at least 7.6 percent in each state.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture increased food stamp benefits in late April provided through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as a part of a larger emergency measure to provide economic relief from the pandemic. Feeding Kentucky Executive Director Tamara Sandberg said that increase has been very beneficial for those struggling and argues that the increase needs to continue into the months and years ahead.

“We believe those increases need to be tied to the economic recovery and not just the public health crisis,” Sandberg said. “It’s going to take a while for the economic recovery to remain in place.”

Ziliak said the federal government should also send more direct payments to people, as done previously through the CARES Act. That, combined with increased SNAP benefits, could help combat food insecurity in the near term, he said.

Summer Food Programs Tackle Food Insecurity in Rural Areas

Wharncliffe is a tiny community deep in the hills of Mingo County, in a rural corner of southern West Virginia. The road there is narrow with the signature hairpin curves of this region.

A Jeep SUV stocked with enough food to feed 50 kids makes the hour-long round trip five days a week from the nearby community center, over the mountain, to the local fire hall here.

One recent morning kids are laughing and doing crafts on pink plastic tablecloths before lunch. Janet Gibson, one of the volunteers, grew up right across the road.

“I’ve watched these kids grow up. Just want to make sure they’ve got something to eat. We’ve got a lot of parents doing foster care here, and a lot of kids don’t know what it is to get a hot meal,” she said.

These kids are getting lunch at the Wharncliffe Volunteer Fire Departmentthrough the West Virginia Department of Education’s summer food program, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. One in five children in West Virginia experiences food insecurity, and the state has earned high marks for feeding kids during the school year. But only a fraction use the summer food program, a historically underused system nationwide.

Experts say transportation is one of the largest barriers to summer meal participation in urban and rural areas, and about three years ago, West Virginia was the focus of extra scrutiny. Samantha Snuffer-Reeves from the state’s Office of Child Nutrition said the state “[was] kind of a target area” for the USDA because of its especially low participation compared with other states.

“But once they came here,” she said, “they really understood that you don’t go from county to county in 20 minutes.”

The Office of Child Nutrition oversees about 450 summer feeding sites across West Virginia: Summer schools, community centers, vacation Bible schools and at programs like Energy Express. The state served 600,000 meals and gave out nearly $1.8 million in federal funds as reimbursements to those sponsors last year.

West Virginia topped all other states for school breakfast participation among low-income children, according to the Food Research and Action Center, but the Washington, D.C., nonprofit ranked its summer food program 44th in the nation.

Crystal FitzSimons, FRAC’s Director of School and Out-of-School Time Programs, said the state feeds about 10,000 children through the summer nutrition program, far less than the 130,000 kids who eat school lunch during the school year.

“West Virginia is very committed to making sure that their kids do not go hungry,” she said. “Unfortunately, [it’s] a rural state, and it can be hard to run the summer nutrition programs in rural areas.”

Cheryl Mitchem knows the struggle well. She’s the executive director of the Larry Joe Harless Community Center in Gilbert, which runs the feeding site in Wharncliffe. Last year, she rounded up a team of volunteer drivers to make the trips, sometimes taking her own car to deliver food.

While riding to one of her remote feeding sites, Mitchem reflected on the challenge of getting around in one of the state’s most isolated places.

“We’re gonna travel 45 minutes to take food to children that attend Gilbert Elementary, which is one mile from our center,” she said. “So, I think that tells you alone, not only distance, but commute time is so heavy a burden for parents.”

The Harless Center got an $18,000 grant in May from the Washington D.C. nonprofit No Kid Hungry for the Jeep that it dedicated to the summer food program. She also added another, even more rural site, where they’re feeding more than 40 kids. Volunteers still help deliver, but Mitchem has been able to reassign some to other needs. Residents at Crossroads Recovery Center, a substance abuse recovery home for women, deliver food to one site twice a week.

There are fewer summer food sponsors in Mingo, Wyoming and McDowell counties, all in the southern coalfields, than in other parts of West Virginia. The child nutrition office isn’t really sure why, but it recently honored Mitchem for her work to reach some of Mingo’s most vulnerable children.

“They go into the hollers of West Virginia, they deliver the food to these kids. Those are the type of programs we see being effective,” Snuffer-Reeves said.

There’s at least one spot outside the southern coalfields where a summer food sponsor found a creative way to reach kids. Lewis County officials rehabbed an old yellow school bus three years ago, creating a lunch-counter style interior on one side with booths from old school bus seats on the other. Laminate flooring gives it a mobile café feel.

On a hot recent weekday at the Lewis County Park in Weston, kids lined up at back of the bus for pigs-in-a-blanket, cheese and milk, and staff handed out free books.

“When you pull in, the kids are waiting for you, and that’s a good thing. They know you’re coming,” said Julie Williams, a secretary for the school system’s food service director.

A pilot program from the USDA gives public assistance cards to kids in six states and two Native American reservations during the summer. West Virginia isn’t one them, but FRAC says such programs have helped to reduce food insecurity.

Back in Mingo County, the Harless Center team plans to expand its reach even further next year.