November legislative interim meetings began Sunday at Pipestem Resort State Park near Hinton in Summers County, continuing today and wrapping up Tuesday.

This is the second time lawmakers have traveled for interims, with the Legislature holding interim meetings at Stonewall Resort near Roanoke in Lewis County. It’s part of the Legislature’s efforts to travel to different parts of the state and learn more about the unique regions in West Virginia.

While West Virginia is unfortunately stereotyped as one image of the hillbilly, we know that our communities are vastly different and rich in culture, history, and traditions that can sometimes vary wildly from another region. I’m from St. Marys in Pleasants County, where I had different experiences than my wife, who is from near Oceana in Wyoming County on the opposite side of the state.

While there are many similarities between regions, there can also be vast differences in economic conditions. We have regions growing in population with challenges in housing and transportation infrastructure. We have other parts of the state with vast beauty but suffering from lack of clean water and sewer infrastructure.

My hope is when lawmakers do these traveling interims that they are learning and not simply using it as a free trip and free tours.

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When it comes to trying to navigate the issue of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) pause that began Saturday due to the federal government shutdown and the U.S. Department of Agriculture refusing to provide states with $5 billion in emergency contingency funding, Gov. Patrick Morrisey is between a rock and a hard place.

West Virginia is one of several states that use Fidelity Information Services as its electronic benefit transfer (EBT) processing services vendor. This company manages the EBT cards that replaced the physical food stamp books that I grew up with. But that service is shut down, which prevents the state from directly dumping funding onto the EBT cards of the approximately 270,000 West Virginians using SNAP.

So that is why Morrisey is sending taxpayer dollars directly to the two largest food banks serving the residents of West Virginia — Mountaineer Food Bank based in Gassaway, and Facing Hunger Foodbank based in Huntington — instead of just directly funding SNAP in the state.

Lawmakers had already appropriated $1.1 million to the two food banks, which work with local food banks and pantries across the state. That funding was meant to cover the entirety of the current fiscal year, but that funding has now been pushed to Mountaineer and Facing Hunger immediately.

Now, Morrisey has pledged up to $13 million, coming out of leftover COVID-era monies within one of his contingency funds, to Mountaineer and Facing Hunger. While Morrisey has said he is willing to provide the entire $13 million if needed, he has asked the public to donate to either Mountaineer or Facing Hunger and match the state’s $13 million pledge.

Both food banks have agreed to split all donations to either food bank specifically to provide food to West Virginia’s SNAP participants. And in the case of Facing Hunger — a food bank that serves Southern West Virginia, Southeast Ohio, and Eastern Kentucky — they assure me that the state funds and donations are being earmarked only for West Virginians.

To date, $7.5 million of the pledged $13 million has been sent to Mountaineer and Facing Hunger as of Friday. Combined with the already appropriated $1.1 million, that’s $8.6 million that has been given to the two food banks, who are then cutting their own checks to local food banks and pantries across West Virginia.

Assuming private individuals, organizations and groups donate $13 million to match Morrisey’s $13 million pledge, that would come to $26 million in funding for Mountaineer and Facing Hunger to buy food. In comparison though, monthly SNAP benefits to the 270,000 West Virginians participating in the program is between $45 million and $50 million.

In short, $26 million will barely cover a half a month of SNAP benefits. For every one meal the food banks provide, that equals close to nine meals paid for by SNAP.

So why push out more money to the food banks. Morrisey has the discretion to use some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in the Governor’s Civil Contingency Fund. And between available tax revenue surplus, unappropriated tax dollars, and even the nearly $1.4 billion in the state’s Rainy Day Fund, the governor could call a special session of the Legislature, which could then appropriate needed funding.

The problem is any money we send to the food banks is money we’re possibly not getting reimbursed for down the line. Morrisey is trying to cautiously send out money because there is a hope that the Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate could come to an agreement next week, pass a continuing resolution, and re-open the federal government at least through Nov. 11.

Morrisey said last week he does not believe the state will be reimbursed by the USDA for any money spent due to the SNAP benefit pause. U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., has the opposite view, believing that Congress could be willing to reimburse states having to spend money either on SNAP or for helping food banks.

Meanwhile, if you are a SNAP participant and you need help accessing food for yourself and your family, you can call the state’s 211 hotline to get help, or go to WV211.org to find a list of resources. And if you want to donate money to Mountaineer or Facing Hunger, go to governor.wv.gov and you will be taken to a landing page with information on how to do that.