West Virginia consistently struggles with one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the United States. Despite fifteen public nutrition assistance programs and an outpouring of energy and volunteer labor into community based food initiatives, access to healthy, affordable food remains a struggle for many people, particularly those with low and limited incomes. Over the past decade the Center for Resilient Communities has conducted research alongside anti-hunger, public health, agriculture, nutrition and charitable food organizations to assess the barriers to healthy food access at the local level and support interventions to address them through discrete project or programmatic support and through food and nutrition policy research and advocacy. Because public nutrition programs play such an important role in shaping food environments and helping low income households access food, we have also consistently sought to map the reach and governance of these initiatives through the WV FOODLINK portal. In that process, we have witnessed many dynamics and events that have come to shape and reshape food and nutrition futures in West Virginia.
West Virginia’s food, farm, and nutrition landscape has evolved rapidly over the past decade through a mix of innovation, reform, and struggle. Nutrition incentive programs like SNAP Stretch have become established features of the market and state budget, while nearly universal access to school meals has been achieved through the Community Eligibility Provision. Farm to School programs and a growing Food is Medicine coalition have deepened ties between agriculture, healthcare, and community nutrition, even as production and procurement challenges persist. The pandemic reorganized food delivery systems, spurred new public–private alignments, and prompted unprecedented investments in charitable food networks through initiatives such as the Perry Posey Fund and the Farmers to Families Food Box Program, while grassroots efforts like Grow This WV! reached tens of thousands. Yet consolidation in the retail food sector, the rollback of SNAP Education, and tightening eligibility rules have eroded local capacity and access. Amid these shifts, movements for systemic change have emerged in West Virginia: a proposed Right to Food amendment, growing advocacy from Voices of Hunger WV and the Food for All coalition, and the idea of a state Office of Community Food Security all point toward a more coordinated, rights-based approach to food policy.
What dynamics are reshaping the food and nutrition policy landscape in West Virginia and Appalachia? How will diverse groups of food, nutrition and health advocates mobilize to shape food system dynamics into the future?
Are you interested in this area of inquiry and action? Contact Joshua Lohnes - jlohnes@mail.wvu.edu