By Jody Brumage
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On May 29, 1961, Mr. and Mrs. Alderson Muncy became the first recipients of food stamps in the United States. McDowell County, located along West Virginia’s border with Kentucky in the south-eastern part of the state, was the first designated location for a pilot food stamp program established by an executive order signed by President John F. Kennedy. While the first program for providing assistance to lower-income families for purchasing food was launched at the end of the Great Depression, the program of which the Muncy’s became the first recipients was the precedent for our nation’s current program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

By Jay Wyatt

On Monday, October 23, the Byrd Center welcomed 80 high school students and faculty from Berkeley County Public Schools for a day-long workshop focusing on government and deliberate discourse. The students came from all four Berkeley County high schools: Martinsburg, Spring Mills, Hedgesville, and Musselman, and each are participants in their school’s Leadership Program . The workshop allowed students to learn from historical records as well as the opportunity to respond to current events in a group discussion.​