West Virginians Are Reinventing Broken Foodways

West Virginians Are Reinventing Broken Foodways

Food insecurity is a major issue in WV--it's good that people are stepping up to do something about it, even as we recognize the need for more to be done.

Our current food system—which we depend upon for our survival—is inequitable. West Virginia is ranked among seven of the ten poorest states that are also the hungriest states. (The others are Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Louisiana. In West Virginia, nearly fifteen percent of households are food insecure and 19.4 percent experience some form of food hardship, the third-highest rate in the country.  People in more than forty of West Virginia’s fifty-five counties experience difficulty accessing food because of a lack of grocery stores.

Without grocery stores, some West Virginians rely on processed foods—which keep longer,and can be found more readily at small retailers near their homes—to survive. This affects the health of residents. West Virginia has consistently maintained one of the highest obesity rates nationwide.  Statistics like these are the result of a food system in which producers and retailers are focused on profit, not helping everyone access the nutritious food that they need to live a healthy life. Available fresh produce tends to come from across the country or across the world, while local farmers struggle to survive.