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Food Deserts: Grant can help improve state’s nutrition

West Virginia was built by families who knew how to fend for themselves — feed themselves, by hunting, planting gardens, and perhaps setting up farms big enough to feed some other families in the region, too. But economies change, the land changes, and people change. Today, large sections of the Mountain State are labeled as “food deserts” because of the difficulty residents have in finding fresh food. Obesity, diabetes and heart disease are rampant as diets — and activity level — range far from what might have been recognized a few generations ago.

Perhaps a federal grant announced by Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., can help turn that around.

West Virginia University’s Extension Service program will receive $402,890 in federal funding to improve sustainable agriculture and help rural communities. The money, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Institute of Food and Agriculture, will go to an Extension program that starts with our youth, through the 4-H program, and works to help “West Virginians achieve healthier, more satisfying lives;” and, “through agriculture and natural resource education, citizens use valuable resources more wisely and farmers manage more efficiently and effectively.”

Right here in Wood County, local extension agent J.J. Barrett helps backyard gardeners — and those with bigger agricultural operations — learn how to do everything from grow asparagus and can tomato sauce, to manage herds of beef cattle. The WVU Extension service has been a vital resource to this state.

Now, a boost of federal funding may help push rural communities to improve their status, from “food deserts” to a foodie’s paradise. Most of us who grew up in the Mountain State know there is no better meal than one prepared from food that was brought inside from the garden that day. But most of us remember such meals, perhaps from our youth. Let us hope communities take advantage of the boost being given to the Extension service to make sure another generation knows that joy, too.

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