Morrisey, West Virginia Health Right Debut Mobile Kitchen To Encourage Healthier Eating
Steven Allen Adams Trending
CHARLESTON -- Gov. Patrick Morrisey has been on a mission since March to encourage healthy living while using the levers of government to discourage use of taxpayer dollars to subsidize the purchase of soda for low-income families.
The governor and first lady Denise Morrisey were on hand Monday for a demonstration of West Virginia Health Right's new mobile teaching kitchen at the Governor's Mansion on the grounds of the State Capitol Building.
"As many of you know, we are several months into a bold and important mission to make West Virginia healthy again. And at the heart of this movement is a simple truth: Getting healthy involves exercise, but also starts with the food that we eat," Morrisey said. "Every meal is a choice, and all of those choices certainly add up. That's why talking about nutrition is not a side conversation in our health strategy -- it's the main focus."
Staff of West Virginia Health Right served up bayou chicken power bowls from their new mobile teaching kitchen, made using fresh herbs and vegetables from the garden at the Governor's Mansion.
"I'm very fortunate, because I'm not the one with the green thumb around here, but there are some people that do have a green thumb," Morrisey said. "Let me tell you, they're doing a great job with the garden. It's so nice to have that garden that was set up many, many years ago."
West Virginia Health Right's mobile teaching kitchen will travel to underserved parts of the 34 counties the nonprofit serves, providing nutrition education, healthy cooking demonstrations and preventative health outreach, such as blood pressure readings, body mass index (BMI) checks and hemoglobin A1C/blood sugar tests.
West Virginia Health Right CEO Angie Settle said the goal of the mobile teaching kitchen is to make health education accessible for all.
"Food is medicine," Settle said. "It's not just the prescriptions that a doctor writes you in the office. It's what you're putting in your mouth, and we have control over that. Yes, you can do it on a budget. Yes, it can be tasteful."
At a press conference in March alongside U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Morrisey announced his "Four Pillars of a Healthy West Virginia." Those pillars include a ban on food dyes and additives with the passage of House Bill 2354 during this year's legislative session, increasing access to affordable healthy food choices for West Virginians and the Mountaineer Mile challenge with Mountain Mile Trails being designated in 32 of West Virginia's state parks.
The final pillar includes changes to the state's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. These changes include a formal waiver request submitted last month to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to remove soda as a food product that can be purchased on SNAP, the program that replaced food stamps.
"We're tackling the root causes of poor health, and one of the biggest contributors to chronic health conditions is our broken food system," Morrisey said.
In addition to the request to ban soda purchases with SNAP benefits, Morrisey is seeking to allow the use of SNAP benefits to purchase certain hot foods found for sale in grocery stores, such as rotisserie chicken, lasagna, meatloaf, barbecue ribs and steamed vegetables.
"At the same time, we're also ensuring that you can try to get some better hot food options ... other forms of protein. I think that could make a big difference," Morrisey said. "West Virginia is making changes to SNAP that will increase your options, ideally hot foods. That would be great if that gets approved."