2 West Virginia food banks to receive $500,000 each from state

Two food banks in West Virginia will each receive $500,000 from the state.

Facing Hunger Foodbank in Huntington and Mountaineer Food Bank in Gassaway are getting a total of $1 million from the office of Gov. Jim Justice, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported. The food banks distribute about 30 million pounds of food across the state each year.

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The money for the food banks was included in this year’s budget. Funds will be used for food and infrastructure, the newspaper reported.

Facing Hunger Foodbank works with 220 agencies. Last year, the food bank bought refrigerators and freezers to help with food storage and distribution.

“As long as I’m here, I’m going to put this in my budget,” Justice said. “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.”