Summersville, WV (September 16, 2026) — For the first time, Gauley Fest will host a booth built around one fact: Aramark, the hospitality company behind the Adventures on the Gorge (AOTG) resort, also feeds people in West Virginia's prisons and jails under a $20+ million state contract.
Incarcerated people allege they’re cornered into purchasing costly commissary items to replace spoiled milk, rotten meat, and meager meals—allegations now moving forward in Smith v. Aramark Corporation after a federal judge in the Southern District of West Virginia recently denied Aramark's motion to dismiss.
AFSC-WV and CNP's Take Back the Tray campaign makes the contrast literal: meals at Mount Olive Correctional Complex and Adventures on the Gorge are served roughly twenty-five miles apart—one plated on a prison tray, the other a steak dinner and craft beer on a patio over the gorge.
WHAT: A prison food reform booth, a Gauley Fest first, sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) West Virginia and the Carceral Nutrition Project (CNP), featuring the "Twenty-Five Miles Apart" graphic and findings from CNP/CSPI's national report, Private Food, Public Harm.
WHO: Teri Castle, author of a 2023 exposé on WV state prison food; Leslie Soble, author of the 2026 James Beard Award-winning Eating Behind Bars; representatives of AFSC-WV and CNP.
WHEN: Gauley Fest, September 18-19, 2026. Castle and Soble available for interviews throughout, contact AFSC or CNP to schedule.
WHERE: Gauley Fest festival grounds, Nicholas County Veterans Memorial Park, Summersville, WV.
WHY: Advocates highlight that Aramark—which runs the buffet, steakhouse, and craft-beer pub at Adventures on the Gorge—also holds West Virginia's prison food contract, days after a federal judge let a class action over the company’s monopoly on prison food move forward. “Time to take back the tray,” reform proponents say.
Editors: Documents for Smith v. Aramark Corporation (2:25-cv-00710, S.D.W. Va.) available on request.
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The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) promotes a world free of violence, inequality, and oppression. Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine light within each person, we nurture the seeds of change and the respect for human life to fundamentally transform our societies and institutions. We work with people and partners worldwide, of all faiths and backgrounds, to meet urgent community needs, challenge injustice, and build peace.