McDowell County food bank keeps feeding families since 2009

A volunteer-run pantry in Kimball still hands out food to more than 150 McDowell County families on the third Saturday of each month, a sign that hunger has never loosened its grip on the county 15 years after Five Loaves & Two Fishes Food Bank opened.

Bob and Linda McKinney run the faith-based 501(c)(3), which has distributed non-perishable food, hygiene products and household goods every year since 2009. The operation depends entirely on volunteer labor and donor-funded overhead, keeping costs low so more of the donated help reaches families in McDowell County.

That work lands in a county where need remains severe. Feeding America ranks McDowell County among the most food-insecure places in the nation, and local reporting has said one SNAP disruption affected more than 4,200 households. Earlier coverage also found the pantry gave away enough food in one year to feed half the county’s population, underscoring how central the Kimball operation has become to daily survival.

Linda McKinney has said the pantry serves laid-off miners and their families, as well as grandparents raising grandchildren, two groups that have often been hit hardest by the county’s long economic decline. In places like Welch, War and along the Route 52 corridor, a pantry box can mean the difference between a stocked kitchen and an empty one before the month is out.

The food bank’s mission widened in 2013 when West Virginia State University Extension Service partnered with the pantry to build an adaptive garden on the property. That addition brought fresh produce to a ministry that had already built its reputation on staples people could count on when paychecks, benefits or family support fell short.

For McDowell County, Five Loaves & Two Fishes has lasted because the need has lasted. More than a decade and a half after opening, the pantry remains one of the county’s most direct responses to hunger, still opening its doors, still packing boxes and still serving families who cannot afford to wait for better times.