The phone rang over the whine of Trey Yates' butter churn. The person calling was polite, but the message was devastating: Mountaineer Food Bank was ending Yates' butter contract, due to the federal government's funding cuts.
"Food banks are handling unprecedented demand as U.S. hunger rates climb after years of decline. In 2023 13.5% of Americans struggled at some point to secure enough food, the highest rate in nearly a decade...In rural America, the hunger rate is even higher at 15.4%."
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...[image or embed]