STATEHOUSE REPORT |  ISSUE 24.32 | Aug. 8, 2025
  • BIG STORY: Hunger still haunts South Carolina, generations later 
  • MORE NEWS: McMaster joins RFK Jr.’s push to ban junk food
  • LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: The next plague
  • BRACK: S.C.’s rural places face hollowing of people, spirit
  • MYSTERY PHOTO: Interesting memorial
  • FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
BIG STORY

Hunger still haunts S.C., generations later 

By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau  |  Just over a half century ago, one of South Carolina’s most formidable political leaders toured some of the state’s poorest areas and returned with a warning about one of humanity’s oldest scourges — hunger.

Lowcountry Food Bank donated more than 46 million pounds of food last year to 184,000 food-insecure people | Photo by Damian Bertrand

“I hope by this book to make you believe that hunger exists in this land, that hunger poses risks to our nation, and that hunger is costing this country far more in dollars than the most elaborate array of feeding programs,” U.S. Sen. and former S.C. Gov. Ernest “Fritz” Hollings of Charleston wrote in his 1970 book, The Case Against Hunger. It got national attention.

He continued, “I hope that some of the facts I present, some of the personal observations I make, and some of the examples I cite will make all of you rise and say: ‘I do believe it, and I must do something about it.'”

Today with grocery prices spiking and federal food assistance on the chopping block, Palmetto State food advocates say that’s a lesson some S.C. political leaders may need to relearn.

“Yes, we still have real hunger in this state,” said Sue Berkowitz, policy director for the S.C. Appleseed Justice Center, on Aug. 6. “Every night, we have children going to bed hungry because they don’t have enough to eat.”

What’s more, she said, the face of today’s hunger problem is very different than most assume.

“It’s not just somebody we see on the street who’s homeless,” she said. “We’re talking about people in families — your mother, your child, the kid sitting next to your child in school. People who think we’ve solved this problem are just wrong.”

To understand how that happens — how seemingly middle-class families end up hungry in South Carolina — Statehouse Report spoke this week with one such mother of three.

And because the longtime Richland County resident doesn’t want her now young-adult children to know what she endured when they were young, we’ll let her tell her story as Yvonne. 

‘You can’t sleep. You can’t think. And you get angry.’

Yvonne’s story is far from the stereotype, but experts say it’s typical of how hunger can appear without warning in regular people’s lives.

Raised in a loving working class family, Yvonne never knew hunger as a child. And as a married adult with a successful home-based small business and three young children, she never expected to experience it firsthand.

But then, she said, the bottom fell out. 

Without telling Yvonne, her husband stopped paying the one bill she said he was responsible for — the mortgage. 

Soon, she lost the home in which she lived and the small business she relied on to pay her bills. 

“I no longer had a place to live and I no longer had a means of income,” she said. “And I had to find both in a short period of time for my children.”

Thanks to some savings, she said, she was able to keep a roof over their heads with an apartment that costs more every month than her old mortgage. But as those savings dwindled, the job she landed barely covered the basics.

“There just wasn’t much left over for food,” she said.

And because she earned just $25 a month too much to qualify for what were then called food stamps — now SNAP — she soon found herself facing what she called ‘hard choices.’

One of those choices? Skipping meals so her children could have the food they needed — a situation she said lasted for years. At the dinner table, she would tell the children she wasn’t hungry because she’d eaten at work. 

“I never wanted them to know that I had to go without food so they could have enough to eat,” she said.

Today, Yvonne has a better job and her children are pursuing careers in the military and business. But she says she’s never forgotten what it felt like to be hungry.

“You can’t sleep. You can’t think. And you get angry,” she said. “But you have to hide it for your children.”

A web of support under stress

Roughly 700,000 South Carolinians — about 15% of the state’s population — are what experts call “food insecure,” meaning they’re either currently going hungry or consistently struggling to afford enough food. A disproportionately high number are children, seniors, and rural residents.

To address that need, the state depends on a complex web of food assistance programs that serve different populations in different ways. But the largest by far, experts say, are the big three: school meals, food banks and SNAP.

In Charleston, for instance, county schools provided almost 7 million free meals to eligible students in 2024, according to district spokesman Andy Pruitt. And in that same year, the Lowcountry Food Bank (LFB), which serves the state’s 10 coastal counties, distributed more than 45 million pounds of food — or 33 million meals.

But that safety net is under strain, LFB leader Nick Osborne told Statehouse Report.

“We’re seeing an increasing number of food insecure people,” Osborne said. “No one wants to be hungry. No one makes the choice to be hungry. It’s just a situation — an untenable situation — that people find themselves in.”

That’s why groups like Wholespire, a wellness-focused nonprofit based in Columbia, have worked with the state legislature on several bills to expand nutrition and food programs, according to executive director Meg Stanley.

Specifically, she points to three initiatives she said have made a difference.

First, under the state’s Healthy Bucks program, SNAP recipients are allowed to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables and receive additional healthy food credits in return. 

Next, the state began covering the full cost of reduced price school meals, making them completely free to qualifying students. 

And finally, Stanley said, the new requirement that every eligible school district offer free meals to all students has resulted in large-scale improvements to child nutrition in affected counties.

“In the legislature, this is a very bipartisan issue,” Stanley said. “And the common thread we see [across both parties] is that there’s no excuse for a child in our state to be hungry.”

But despite state-level progress, food advocates warn that steep SNAP cuts signed into law by President Donald Trump in July could undermine the entire system — with nearly 300,000 South Carolinians projected to lose benefits, according to a new Urban Institute study.

Charleston Democratic State Sen. Ed Sutton, who said he keeps a copy of Hollings’ book on the shelf at his home, called the cuts “unacceptable” as lines at food banks continue to grow.

“We’re the wealthiest country in the world, yet bread lines are still a common thing,” he said. “And this administration is just pouring gasoline on the fire.”

And it’s those SNAP cuts that most worry the Appleseed Center’s Berkowitz as well — particularly, she said, when SNAP provides nine meals for every one supplied by food banks.

“SNAP is the foundation,” she said. “When you pull that out, the whole system collapses.”

MORE NEWS

McMaster joins RFK Jr.’s push to ban junk food

By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau  |  S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster took to social media this week to announce his plan to ban junk food and sugary drinks under the state’s federally funded SNAP nutrition program.

“America is getting healthy, and South Carolina will do her part,” McMaster said in an Aug. 6 post. “In the next few days, I will issue an executive order directing the Department of Social Services to place common-sense limits on purchases made using SNAP benefits, formerly known as ‘food stamps.’”

The move came two days after U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a public event celebrating the six states that have received federal permission to make junk food purchases ineligible — West Virginia, Florida, Colorado, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.

“For years, SNAP has used taxpayer dollars to fund soda and candy — products that fuel America’s diabetes and chronic disease epidemics,” Kennedy said in a release. “These waivers help put real food back at the center of the program and empower states to lead the charge in protecting public health.”

In another high-profile health move this week, Kennedy, a Trump appointee, also made news when he canceled about $500 million in federal grants and contracts for mRNA vaccines — a technology he calls “dangerous” but that research has consistently shown to be safe and effective.

In S.C., with the legislature out of session, reaction to McMaster’s announcement was muted. 

But one Democrat, Charleston Sen. Ed Sutton, told Statehouse Report he couldn’t help but notice the double standard — noting that every time he visits the governor’s mansion, they’re serving sugary sodas with public dollars.

“If we’re going to ban that stuff, let’s do it across the board,” he said. “If it’s not OK for a hungry family, it shouldn’t be OK for a bunch of politicians in Columbia.”

As of press time, no further details were available about precisely what food and drinks would be banned under McMaster’s plan.  

In other recent news

2026: Mace launches campaign for S.C. governor. U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., announced her campaign for governor on August 4 at The Citadel. She will face several GOP candidates in next June’s GOP primary.

SC-1: Deford launches campaign for S.C. 1st Congressional District. U.S. Coast Guard veteran, former law enforcement officer and attorney Mac Deford announced his candidacy to represent the constituents of South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District.

Jasper Co. schools now under state control. Following a Tuesday vote by the state Board of Education, the state Department of Education will take over the beleaguered Jasper County School District. State Superintendent Ellen Weaver, who proposed the takeover, cited years of financial turmoil as well as a report released last month that found potential fraud, conflicts of interest and mismanagement. It is the fifth school district that the state has taken over since 2017.

S.C. lawmaker calls for action after school districts deny parental leave following stillbirths. The sponsor of a law guaranteeing S.C. teachers six weeks of leave after giving birth is asking S.C. Attorney General to clarify that stillbirths are covered by the legislation. S.C. Rep. Neal Collins, R-Pickens, said the move was necessary after at least three school districts denied leave requests after stillbirths — a situation Patrick Kelly of the Palmetto State Teachers Association called “infuriating.”

Friends, colleagues say they feel ‘angry,’ ‘betrayed’ after child porn charges against May. In interviews with 22 associates of former S.C. Rep. and S.C. Freedom Caucus member R.J. May, The Post and Courier heard tales of bewilderment, betrayal and anger. “It’s horrifying,” Rep. April Cromer, vice chair of the Freedom Caucus, said. “I didn’t know RJ May. He obviously lived two lives, and the one that I knew was the fake R.J.”

S.C. public media to lose federal funding starting this fall. Public radio and TV in South Carolina anticipated receiving at least $3 million from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. But the CPB, which gave grants to public stations, announced it would close in the fall after Congress authorized a federal rescissions package.

Three more radioactive wasp nests found at S.C. nuke facility. Energy officials say now that a total of four radioactive wasp nests have been discovered at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, leading them to believe there may be previously undetected environmental contamination at the site.

ROBERT ARIAIL’S LOWCOUNTRY

The next plague

Credit: Robert Ariail

Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for poking a little fun in just the right way.  This week, he takes liberties with escaped monkeys, radioactive wasps (nests) and more.

COMMENTARY

S.C.’s rural places face hollowing of people, spirit

By Andy Brack  |  Rural communities in South Carolina are in the midst of a “Great Hollowing,” a reduction in the number of people, their economic power, their political might and, in some ways, their sense of place.

Meanwhile, urban areas like Horry, Greenville, Charleston and Berkeley counties grew as the state added more than 360,000 people between 2020 and 2024 — a whopping 7% overall growth rate.

Some of our rural areas, such as the towns of Hampton and Hartsville, still feel alive and robust.  Too many others have downtown areas that resemble ghost towns with empty store fronts, weathered wood and virtually no foot traffic.

“If you’re not growing, you are unfortunately dying,” said state Sen. Russell Ott, a Democrat who makes rural St. Matthews his home.  But as the coast and Upstate suck up new residents like sponges, some people still want small-town life with slower paces and graces.  Ott says they’re not put off by driving 30 minutes to get to good restaurants and bigger stores.  

Still, too many who live in smaller towns may be trapped by few job prospects, an education system that aspires but is still left behind and generational issues that keep them stuck.

Ott said the difference between a rural town that succeeds and one that’s isolated often comes down to invigorated local elected leadership that plans what it wants its community to be – and then makes it happen.

But even rural communities with good leaders face ongoing challenges of needing more water and sewer infrastructure for economic growth or money for downtown revitalization or more money to pay good teachers competitively.  

“It’s the chicken or the egg,” Ott said. “You’re not going to open a Cracker Barrel unless Cracker Barrel runs the numbers and knows there’s enough there to support them.”

Part of the money problems that smaller counties with lower tax bases have is they’re still dealing with Act 388, which swapped lower property taxes for higher sales taxes and reduced a local area’s ability to tax.  Ott said Act 388 needs to be scrapped because it hampers small businesses, which absorbed the brunt of lost local government revenues. 

And there’s something else at work that is hollowing rural parts of the state – the graying, or aging, of the people who live there.

Daniel Tompkins, a state data analyst, noted, “Without a working-age population growing equally fast, counties with an age distribution like Horry, whether rural or urban, will need to attract a workforce to support the ballooning retired population.”

Data show the state will increase in the number of children in 12 urban counties.  And those areas will grow in the number of people who are in the workforce (ages 18-64) in the next few years.  But a clear swath of rural Upstate counties and those in a wide band from the Pee Dee southwest to Barnwell, Allendale and Bamberg counties could lose up to 30% of their workforce in the next few years.

These maps should be scary for rural elected officials.  They’re a clear warning that more needs to be done.  And some of that work needs to be shouldered by state legislators, who need to focus more on small businesses than landing the next big industry in an urban area.  

For the last 15 years, we’ve urged lawmakers to create a cabinet-level position in state government to add and retain 10,000 small business jobs in the state per year.  This strategy would benefit rural areas sooner than later.

“Politicians talk about helping small businesses,” we remind leaders every year.  “This would force them to.”

Get to work.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper.  His weekly column on politics has appeared in South Carolina media for more than 20 years.  Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.

MYSTERY PHOTO

Interesting memorial

A reader sent along this stumper for the weekly mystery.  It might not be as tough as last week’s but it still won’t be easy.  We’ll just say it’s in a rural S.C. location.   Where is it?  If you have a good mystery picture to share with fellow readers, send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.  

Last week’s mystery photo, “Under construction,” apparently caused much consternation.  No one correctly identified it until just minutes before we published Friday when veteran sleuth George Graf of Palmyra, Va., sent what he called a “desperation guess.”

After trying to figure it out for a long time, he concluded the photo might be the new chapel at Porter Gaud School in Charleston but said he had “not one shred of evidence to confirm.”  

Well, turns out he was exactly correct.  If you tried to figure it out, you likely were not able to guess the mystery because Google image or other AI tools couldn’t find anything online about this building from this angle.  (There’s is, however, a rendering from another angle here.)  It will seat 600 people when finished.

Here’s to successful sleuthing this week.

FEEDBACK

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  • Have a comment?  Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com.  Make sure to provide your contact details (name, hometown and phone number for verification.  Letters are limited to 150 words.
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