SESSION FOUR
Good Food is Good Health Vandalyn Justice, Social Service Director, The Salvation Army of Charleston Amanda Komorowski, Retail Donation Coordinator, Mountaineer Food Bank Michael Tierney, Executive Director, Step by Step, Inc.
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Like the United Way, Catholic Charities, and the Salvation Army, a few organizations in our state provide services that address both health and hunger across the state. How do these services succeed when there’s no centralized infrastructure? How do they know when and where their services are needed? How can we tie the threads together into a tighter safety net? The Salvation Army provides food, clothing, and utility assistance in seven West Virginia counties, including Boone, Lincoln, Logan Counties. Its Charleston office, which serves Boone and Logan Counties, served food to approximately 900 households, or 1934 individuals, in 2020. That’s impressive, considering its program has a two-person staff. Like other regional programs, many of the services it provides are in counties where it does not have an office. The West Virginia 2-1-1 referral and information service helps them identify this demand. When the Salvation Army receives many food assistance referrals in Boone County, for example, it will schedule a food distribution delivery in that area. Mobile food pantries have a high overhead cost, and this must be considered when planning food delivery to a remote location. At the start of the pandemic, the Salvation Army’s national program provided food to its state offices for free. But now, the state office must purchase the food, and as panelist Vandy Justice
explained, it can “get pricey.” The food itself costs around $4,000-5,000 per distribution. Because the Salvation Army has no “homesite” in Boone or Logan Counties, everything must be shipped there, which increases costs. It’s important to remember that WV 2-1-1 is operated by the United Way and a resource for both organizations and individuals; that’s how they be directed to the Salvation Army. While this resource strives to maintain a comprehensive site of services across the state, if food banks or pantries do not share their information, it is not listed in the 2-1-1 database. And so, the Salvation Army cannot refer its clients to services if it does not know they’re there. It also can’t afford to make regular food shipments to these counties. In Kanawha County, a community group like the Kanawha Valley Collective brings partners together for BUILDING BRIDGES AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL
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