Recently, an article, ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œMcDowell County, West Virginia, birthplace of food stamps, faces a disappearing safety net,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ appeared in this newspaper. It was written by Alex Daniels for The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Today 17,000 people live in this southern West Virginia county. Close to 100,000 resided there in the 1950s when coal was king. Now, the area is rife with poverty, unemployment and poor health. More than half the children receive government health insurance, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the current food stamp program, which supports at least 50% of McDowell County residents, is on the political chopping block.
Despite West VirginiaÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s strong support for President Trump, the recent article on McDowell County indicates that TrumpÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œOne Big Beautiful Bill ActÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ will significantly cut federal support for the hungry and ill, particularly in McDowell County and rural areas. Additionally, nonprofits, who have been helping, are running out of funds.
American food stamps were first tried from 1939-1943 when there was a surplus of unmarketable foods and widespread unemployment. That ended as World War II changed the nationÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s economy. When John F. Kennedy campaigned in West Virginia in 1960, he promised to begin a pilot food stamp program in the state; it was his initial executive order. The first residents to receive food stamps were the 15 members of a Paynesville, McDowell County, family. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the national Food Stamp Act.
McDowell County, like other small or rural communities that were built on extractive and early 20th century economics, are hurting. In 2024, SNAP food benefits went to about 12% of the nation (41.7 million) and 15 % of West Virginians, but about 50% of those in McDowell County.
The 2013 ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œReconnecting McDowellÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ program was attributed to a conversation between Gayle Manchin, then the first lady of the state, and Randi Weingarten, then the national president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The statistics were abysmal. Seventy-two percent of students lived in a home where neither parent worked, and 46% lacked a biological parent at home. The county had the nationÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s highest death rate for prescription drug overdoses and for teen births and low basic literacy skills. Teachers willing to work in the area had so much difficulty finding decent housing that Reconnecting McDowell suggested building apartments for at least 20 of them. Today, clean water is still a challenge. Good drinking water is unavailable for many residents, and wastewater lacks adequate treatment facilities and is sometimes flushed into nearby creeks.
Despite 2024-25 political promises of coalÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s resurgence in Southern West Virginia, the following statement made by Kennedy in September 1960 in a campaign speech in Canton, Ohio, should point out that 65 years of promising to save depressed coal communities hasnÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t worked. Kennedy said, ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œMcDowell County mines more coal than it ever has in its history, probably more coal than any county in the United States, and yet there are more people getting surplus food packages in McDowell County than any county in the United States. The reason is that machines are doing the jobs of men, and we have not been able to find jobs for those men.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ And that was before more energy-producing alternatives were available.
So again, in 2025, it is important to ask, with decades of governmental, private and politically connected support, what would really help the 17,000 people of McDowell County and is it even possible to revitalize it?
Diane W. Mufson is a retired psychologist and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch Opinion page.
