An Interview with Heather Means.
Heather Means has lived near Clarksburg, West Virginia for forty-seven years. She shared with me during our interview on December 11th, 2022, that she had never experienced serious poverty or issues with accessing her basic needs until October of 2021, when she and her husband separated. Being alone with little savings left after the divorce, even getting a full time job wasn’t enough to cover everything. So, Heather decided she would apply for some extra help: “I went to apply for, you know, some type of assistance, but I made, like, $10 too much.” Heather could only get about $20 a month after her husband left, and that was a serious shock for her: “$20 a month doesn’t buy bread, milk, eggs, and cheese.” After the governor of West Virginia allowed for a greater expansion of SNAP benefits, then Heather was able to get $100 a month, and then after a medical emergency leading to surgery last September, she was able to make it okay, despite being out of work. However, with the state of emergency ending extra benefits at the end of the year, Heather will find herself going back down to $20 a month: “I was off work until about a week ago. No income, no anything. I was able to get assistance then, with SNAP, because I had no income. Now I’m back to work full time, and I’ll lose that. Even though I haven’t worked for three months, and I’m behind on all my bills.”
“I was off work until about a week ago. No income, no anything. I was able to get assistance then, with SNAP, because I had no income. Now I’m back to work full time, and I’ll lose that. Even though I haven’t worked for three months, and I’m behind on all my bills.”
Heather admitted to finding it incredibly frustrating that even those folks who are able to work and just need a helping hand to make it by cannot find assistance. “We were under that emergency state, where the governor said people could get extra SNAP. Well, the governor said we no longer need that effective January 1st. No. We still need that. There are still people who are suffering. It doesn’t matter if it’s an ‘emergency’ or not.”
Accessing healthy food has also been a struggle for Heather: “I’m a heavy person, and when I got divorced, I wanted to start eating healthier. You can’t eat healthy foods for $100 a month. Meat is ridiculous, vegetables are ridiculous. You just can’t do it.” Even accessing clean water can be a struggle in Heather’s community, as some neighborhoods have bad pipes that leave traces of things like lead in the water. The town water board was able to distribute Brita filters to people, but Heather explained how she felt these government leaders aren’t doing what they should to help folks out. Even getting into government is difficult: “If you don’t have a certain last name, there’s no chance.”
“If you don’t have a certain last name, there’s no chance.”
Heather has found herself in positions where she’s had to choose between making rent and buying food, and luckily she is able to draw on the support of a loving family, a neighborhood community and an understanding landlord: “Luckily where I live, I’ve known my neighbors since kindergarten. So, if they cook a big meal, we all kind of share amongst ourselves, or walk across the street with a plate.” Having access to assistance is important to her, and she admitted to feeling as though leadership in her community isn’t doing enough to help their constituents, because there are options available but people just don’t know where to find it. One shouldn’t have to dig and hunt around in order to access their basic needs in times of hardship: “I believe that everyone should have the right to get food when they need it.” Stories like Heather’s can show that hardship comes on us when we least expect it, and infrastructure needs to be in place for those to get the help they need, whenever they need it.