Mountaineer Food Bank to Receive $500,000 From State

Mountaineer Food Bank in Gassaway and Facing Hunger Foodbank in Huntington are getting a total of $1 million from the office of Governor Jim Justice. The money for the two facilities was included in this year’s budget. Funds will be used for food and infrastructure.
Justice presented ceremonial checks for $500,000 each during Tuesday’s COVID-19 briefing to the two West Virginia food banks.
“I promised this money in my State of the State address two years ago and included it in my budget again this year,” Justice said during the presentation.
“This will be the third year that we’ll be able to donate these funds. As long as I’m here, I’m going to put this in my budget. We may try in every way to increase it. The bottom line to the whole thing is we don’t need people going hungry in West Virginia. I know a lot of people step up and make all kinds of donations and everything, but at the end of the day, we don’t need people hungry in West Virginia. I mean that is so terrible. It’s off the charts.”
MFB provides food and other household items to over 460 feeding programs in 48 counties in the Mountain State. They are the largest emergency food provider in West Virginia distributing over 23 million pounds annually. Facing Hunger Foodbank works with 220 agencies. Last year, that food bank bought refrigerators and freezers to help with food storage and distribution.
MFB did not outline exactly what the funds would be used for.