More than 91,000 children live in poverty in West Virginia. At 25.5%, West Virginia has the 4th-highest child poverty rate in the country. The cost of child poverty is high. According to a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, child poverty costs the U.S. between $800 billion and $1.1 trillion a year,…
Economic Security
Click here to see our full comments on the USDA’s proposed rule. SNAP plays a critical role for food security in West Virginia, where 14.6 percent of the population is food insecure. In Fiscal Year 2017, SNAP reached 19 percent of the population, or 340,000 residents. Children who receive SNAP in early childhood see improved…
Making ends meet is a struggle for many West Virginians employed in lower-wage jobs. In fact, 23% of workers in West Virginia are employed in low-wage jobs and a quarter of those live in poverty. People working in their communities as daycare workers, restaurant servers, home health aides, administrative assistants, and many other lower-income jobs deserve to be able to…
In 1996, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) which created a federal lifetime ban on benefits from SNAP for individuals convinced of drug-related felonies. State legislatures have the option to modify the terms of this ban or to opt out of the provision altogether. Download PDF.
Beckley Register-Herald - Last month, in a major victory for West Virginians, Congress passed a farm bill that protects the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps thousands in our state, and millions across the country, put food on their tables. Read article. The final, overwhelmingly bipartisan bill rejected harmful cuts and changes to SNAP…
Earlier this week, nearly 100 West Virginians, including farmers, educators, advocates and food pantry representatives, gathered in Buckhannon to address solutions to hunger in the Mountain State. The Food for All Summit was hosted by the West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition, the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy and other partners to focus…
On Monday, we will celebrate the service and sacrifice of American Veterans. Here at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, we think no one in America should go hungry, especially not our veterans once they return home to West Virginia. So we're calling on Congress to support and pass a farm bill that…
Food for all. It's a simple concept most of us among West Virginia's hills agree with. No one should go hungry. That's why the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, the West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition and other partners are holding a one-day food summit - Food For All - to gather those across the…
Despite the rosy rhetoric, everything is not okay in West Virginia. Unemployment remains stubbornly high compared to the rest of the country, and, even as Appalachian counties overall seem to be on the rebound, West Virginia is not so lucky. We have seen a net increase in economic insecurity,with multiple counties heading in the wrong…
Former West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy Outreach Coordinator and current Manna Meal Inc. Executive Director Tara Martinez penned this guest blog piece. Martinez brings a provider perspective that urges Congress to reject cuts to food assistance and pass the Senate Farm Bill. The House version - which dramatically cuts food assistance - and the Senate version - which…