The 'War on Poverty' failed to help McDowell County, W. Va. They've decided they're on their own.

The once bustling streets of McDowell County today are empty. The county's only Walmart closed down in 2016. (Photo sources James Williams, 2020, Bluefield Daily Telegraph, 2016, and Jamie in Wanderland, 2018 via William Vermillion)

The U.S. War on Poverty was launched more than 60 years ago as a social and humanitarian-driven initiative to address extreme poverty in regions like Appalachia. But for residents in McDowell County, W. Va., where the federal government "poured more than $3.6 billion into trying to ease hardship. … It hasn't worked," reports Dan Frosch of The Wall Street Journal. "Some two-thirds of households with children still get food stamps, among the nation’s highest rates."

McDowell residents have watched their once-vibrant coal town's population shrivel "from just over 51,000 to roughly 17,000," Frosch writes. "With little faith left in government to break the cycle of poverty, those who remain say it’s up to them to forge a brighter economic path."

While the billions in federal dollars couldn't replace the jobs and money the coal companies provided, new resources and a keen eye for a plan B have become part of McDowell's revival. Frosch explains: "A network of nonprofits has sprung up. Many are funded with federal grants and private donations and run by locals. Most have had to figure out how to keep going when government money runs out."

Often considered a food desert, some McDowell residents are learning mountain farming from their neighbors, Jason Tartt and Amelia Bandy, who "began transforming a 350-acre plot into a teaching farm," Frosch reports. "Tartt, Bandy and a shoestring staff have trained some 60 people on farming the mountain valleys."

Location of McDowell County in part of 
Appalachia (Earthstar Geographics, Esri, map)

Mavis Brewster, who heads the McDowell County Public Service District, has "spent the past two decades working to get clean water to as many people as she can with few resources," Frosch adds. "She spends her days jigsawing state and federal funding sources for new water systems."

Stacy Henderson is working for the nonprofit converting the area's old Walmart store into a new factory. She told Frosch, "There’s been this helicopter approach where people come in and tell the community, ‘This is what we’re going to do.' This project is being worked on from within.”

"Their efforts are small in comparison to the government programs that have sought to revive McDowell County," Frosch adds. "But they are spurring hope for renewal in some places, driven by one of the few constants here: resilience."