Shining a light on the Food and Farm Coalition and food access in McDowell County
This is the fourth installment in Be Healthy’s Year Three Project Partners spotlight series.
At Be Healthy, we’re passionate about the health and wellness of our fellow West Virginians. That’s why it’s our goal to increase access to healthy foods and safe and convenient spaces for physical activity in McDowell County and Clay County — two counties selected by the CDC for HOP funding.
Each year, we accept applications for ongoing projects or project ideas that will improve the health of our communities. Since beginning in 2018, Be Healthy has assisted more than 30 community partners and organizations, supporting and connecting these groups with funding and much-needed resources.
For the 2021 grant cycle, we selected 10 Year Three project partners, with four projects focused on healthy food access and six focused on physical activity. This month, we’re shining a spotlight onto the Food and Farm Coalition and their efforts to increase food access in McDowell County.
Below, project organizer Spencer Moss shares her insight into the team’s vision, motivation, and long-term aspirations.
Through SNAP Stretch, the West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition and WVU Extension have partnered to increase West Virginians’ access to healthy foods while benefiting local economies and farmers in the process.
As a statewide expansion of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP Stretch is an initiative that matches adult customers’ SNAP to purchase fresh produce and fruits from participating farmers and markets in their region. All SNAP recipients are eligible for SNAP Stretch, and children and seniors, who account for a large percentage of the state’s population, receive additional SNAP Stretch funds.
SNAP Stretch was created in partnership with WVU Extension Services Family Nutrition Program following a 2017 WV Kids Pop-Up Market, where local children were given $4 to pick out and purchase their own produce. After the event, a survey was conducted among participants’ parents who reported that their children had eaten “almost all of the produce they purchased with the $4 ‘Kids Koupons,’” said Spencer Moss, project organizer for the West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition.
The program was a success, and the positive response sparked an idea among the partnering organizations, who wanted to extend the reach of the matched dollars. SNAP Stretch was created shortly thereafter, and over time, its reach has grown in the Mountain State.
This year, Be Healthy awarded the Food and Farm Coalition, along with the McDowell County Commission on Aging, mini contracts to help expand SNAP Stretch’s benefits in McDowell County. The coalition’s mini contract has been directed toward the mobile market efforts that bring produce to some of the county’s most rural areas, and the commission’s mini contract has helped fund a free senior produce bags for elderly residents of the county.
“We believe not only in food access and security for all, but healthy food access and security,” Moss said.
In West Virginia, Moss said, about one third of residents live within a “food desert,” an area with limited access to healthy foods and fresh produce. This initiative, however, partners with local farmers, markets, and stores to supply the foods that would not otherwise be accessible, and there’s a solution for folks who struggle with or lack reliable transportation.
“Much of the state’s population is older and seniors especially, as well as low-income families, have transportation issues making reaching very many food markets/stores extremely difficult,” Moss said. “Mobile markets, such as the Go Growcery Market, reach them at their places of living whether at older adult co-housing facilities, assisted living or nursing homes.”
Moss said the program can also help instill healthy habits for young folks in McDowell and Clay Counties, which she says is “integral to maintaining healthy habits as adults.”
We have seen first hand that when a child gets to pick out and buy their own produce, they are excited and proud. They immediately want to touch it, try a bite of it, and find out more about it.
The initiative may sound too good to be true, but it isn’t, Moss said. Since the emergence of the novel coronavirus in 2020, SNAP Stretch saw a 414% increase in redemptions across the Mountain State. As the need increases, so does program participation.
“Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer was issued to the majority of WV school-aged youth and continues to be this lead to a domino effect at farmers markets, CSA programs, mobile markets, and local grocers where customers proved there was a demand for expanded food access opportunities around their communities,” Moss said. “Thus, we saw more than a doubling of interested individuals looking to accept SNAP/SNAP Stretch.”
West Virginian farmers, she added, have also benefited significantly from the partnership.
“WV farmers are the backbone of the entire SNAP Stretch operation,” Moss said. “Last year alone $522,522.36 was captured in federal and philanthropic dollars that went directly to the pockets of local farmers. In the 2017 Census of Agriculture, farm income in the state averaged approximately $28,454, so every opportunity we have to increase revenue generating options within our local food market will boost the level of economic growth and activity in each of our communities.”
In the near future, Moss said the coalition hopes to expand SNAP Stretch by partnering with more markets and stores across the state. Long term, she said, the Food and Farm Coalition aims to increase reliance on local farmers, which benefits businesses within the community and the local economy. But the overall goal is to “improve nutrition levels” and create healthy habits for families all throughout the Mountain State.
To watch the program expand in McDowell County and Clay County has been a highlight, Moss said.
“It has been very rewarding to be involved in SNAP Stretch and watch it grow across the state,” she said. “The positive impact it has had on families and seniors keeps our team engaged. This program is a triple-bottom-line win for West Virginia. It captures both federal and philanthropic food assistance dollars within the state’s agricultural economy and increases the buying power of low-income residents while increasing access to fresh, healthy foods.”
Moss encouraged anyone interested in obtaining SNAP Stretch to check https://www.snapstretch.com/find-your-market for information about participating businesses.