By Stephen Smoot
The late, great Professor Robert Maddox of Marshall University used to say of West Virginia’s United States Senators, and sometimes also the Representatives, that they served a vital purpose in Congress. Most of the state’s roster of Senators going back before Stephen Benton Elkins through Harley Kilgore and Robert Byrd, he saw as the men in the middle. Had he lived, he would probably include Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito in the same club.
What he meant was that West Virginia’s Senators were the ones quietly helping to forge compromises and bringing sides together for practical work.
That legacy continued in the past week when Senators Capito, Jim Justice, and John Fetterman banded together to propose a simple measure with a big potential impact, the hot rotisserie chicken bill.
The SNAP program, traditionally known as food stamps, was barred from payment for prepared foods in grocery stores, and for good reason. A number of grocery stores offer a wide selection of prepared foods that can range from simple fare to rather elaborate and pricey options. Since purchasing many of these would tend to draw down a SNAP card quickly, prepared foods were struck off the list.
Then last year, sodas and other non nutritional foods were removed as well. Removal of these items came after years of rapidly rising cases of juvenile type two diabetes and other problems related to too much consumption of too many of the wrong foods.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, which administers the food stamp program, in 2023 55 percent of households with children had earned income. This meant that at least one individual in the household enjoyed gainful employment. Working families with children find most days a race between jobs, children’s school, homework, and other activities, and often also church.
Ideally, households would create proper meals from options heavy on nutrition and light on additives. When families get busy, however, the time to prepare proper meals slips away quickly on most days. This leaves too many parents with the unpalatable option of overprocessed “heat and eat” options.
Enter the Hot Rotisserie Chicken bill.
Senator Jim Justice and Senator Capito, along with Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, came up with a common sense way to help families in those kinds of binds. That meant simply allowing hot rotisserie chickens to be placed back on the approved list.
So why just chicken and not any other prepared foods?
Most grocery stores offer this product at a cost lower than most fast food “value” meals, usually between $5 and $8.00. One can combine this with quickly heated frozen vegetables, tossed salad, or canned vegetables to create a healthy dinner fairly rapidly. Additionally, chicken serves as the lowest priced meat product that is acceptable to all religions’ dietary doctrines.
But wait, there’s more!
These chickens offer more versatility than meets the eye. Leftover chicken gets reinvented as a sandwich, or chicken salad. But do not throw away the rest. One can take the juice left in the bottom and use it for sauces and gravies. Or one can put it in a pot of water with the bones, leftover meat, vegetables, and seasonings to make a stock.
One can then take the stock, remove the bones, slice the boiled vegetables, then boil some diced potato in it. When that all cooks, drop a few pieces of American cheese in and in a minute one has cheesy baked potato soup.
Creative cooks can get a lot of mileage out of rotisserie chickens.
This bill inspired praise, but also backlash from those who view it as a handout and not a hand up. When considering the big picture of who uses these programs and also why and how, the alternative to families working with regular time crunches would be to purchase frozen foods, usually deep fried, with many more chemical additives that usually also, by the way, cost more per ounce than the rotisserie chicken.
Federal regulators will want to keep a sharp eye to ensure that grocers follow the spirit as much as the letter of the law. Unscrupulous stores may suddenly haul out massive birds and massive prices, expecting that the law will cover them as well.
On the positive side, this bill would encourage almost any business that sells food and takes food stamps to get into the rotisserie business, thus expanding options farther afield.
One also cannot forget that the bill will generate expanding demand for chicken, which brings economic benefits to poultry producing areas, such as the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia.
This bill will not save the world. No one will construct statues to those who proposed it. It will, however, make some people’s lives a little easier and a little healthier.
