is this true? a "crisis"?? (Kapaa: for sale, unemployment)

[PalmSpringsDan]

Aloha....question for all you residents:

My wife has a couple friends who currently live on Oahu. One of them said that the food crisis (rising costs) has gotten so bad she literally eats spaghetti almost every night. Her other friend, just said it was "sad" to see so many families struggling with the food.

Have you guys seen any of this going on? How bad is it?

[hotzcatz]

We are at the wrong end of a long shipping line. 90% of the food in this state is imported and the price of oil is causing food prices to double. Also, tourism is way down - down by twenty percent or more since the beginning of this year so folks are making less money. In a tourist economy most of the wages paid are low so a lot of folks' income is dependent on tips or they have two or even three jobs to make ends meet. If tips are down or they lose one or even two of their three jobs - technically they aren't unemployed and aren't in the unemployment numbers but they are still eating saimin and pasta instead of more expensive food.

We don't go to the grocery much anymore since we won't buy stuff at the prices there. We are making a lot of food from scratch such as soup which is inexpensive.

[manoagirl]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

We are at the wrong end of a long shipping line. 90% of the food in this state is imported and the price of oil is causing food prices to double. Also, tourism is way down - down by twenty percent or more since the beginning of this year so folks are making less money. In a tourist economy most of the wages paid are low so a lot of folks' income is dependent on tips or they have two or even three jobs to make ends meet. If tips are down or they lose one or even two of their three jobs - technically they aren't unemployed and aren't in the unemployment numbers but they are still eating saimin and pasta instead of more expensive food.

We don't go to the grocery much anymore since we won't buy stuff at the prices there. We are making a lot of food from scratch such as soup which is inexpensive.

Wow, I had two jobs when I lived there, now you say some people have 3 Jobs? (sad) That sounds like what is called the "working poor". It seems like you have three main groups of people on the Island, 1. The Rich 2. The working Poor 3. People on public assistance. Very few middle class families. That is why it is difficult for a middle class mainland family on the mainland to make it economically on the islands.

[Sweetbeet]

I just went food shopping at Safeway, here in Kapaa (Kauai). I spent $187 for a week's groceries. Now, I bought some stuff that I won't be buying every week (e.g., large bag of rice, enough granola bars for 2-3 weeks), some meats (italian sausage, some andouille sausage which was over $6, a large package of boneless skinless chicken thighs), and lots of fresh fruit (a weakness of mine). Hubby got some dried Aku poke, which is like $20/lb (he only got 1/4 lb, but still). I'm still stocking my kitchen, but I did buy a lot of 'stock up' stuff at Costco last week (plastic baggies, paper towels, laundry soap, cat food, etc.). Anyway, what I bought at Safeway would have cost me about $165-175 at my old store in upstate NY (NOT NYC! Upstate has relatively low prices).

I don't think that's so bad. We'll have to see how it works out in the long run. But Costco had 3 boxes of Cheerios for $6, we found a nice Chardonnay we like for under $9/bottle, and we got a pineapple last week at KMart for $2.99. You just have to pay attention to prices. Yeah, the cheapest bread was $3.99/loaf, that's high (though with the way wheat was going up I don't know what it would be in NY right now), and milk is up there, but if you can take advantage of BOGOs and stuff like that, you can mostly make up the difference, if you're flexible.

JMHO (and some facts). Oh, and I'm shopping for a family of 3 (me, hubby, and 12-yr-old son with a huge appetite who take his lunch to school every day.) We eat out at MOST one hight per week, and probably won't this week. We cook for three other people (auntie, grandma and cousin) at least three times per week.

AND, when we got home, the guy down the street had fresh caught ocean fish for sale, we bought a 4 lb. yellowfin tuna, caught today, for $8 total. YUMMY dinner!

I know I'm not poor, but I also don't think of myself as rich. I know $800/mo. for food is a LOT for many people, but it is one of the things we have always spent a lot on, even in NY. Hubby loves to cook and does it very well, so we eat good-restaurant quality dinners almost every night. The point is that we're not spending all that much more on food here, and we haven't decreased the quality or quantity much - we just have to be a little more careful when we shop, and pay attention to prices.

[hotzcatz]

In May & June of this year we averaged $211 in groceries and household supplies for a family of two.

We do have a garden and share the extras with the neighbors in exchange for whatever surplus they have in their gardens. With avocado season here and with the four new free range hens starting to lay this month we may manage to spend a bit less this month. Although I may have to get rather a lot of sugar to make gauva jam & jelly for Christmas presents so that may put us over budget for this month but it will save money in December. We also buy flour in 50# bags and make all our own bread, noodles and pastry so that keeps the costs down. (We don't buy food, we buy ingredients.)

With your pineapple top, if you twist it off the pineapple, peel a few of the lower leaves off of it to expose the little root nubs and then push it into the dirt somewhere in your yard several years from now you will have another pineapple. Save the seeds from your papaya and plant them. In six months or so, you will have more papaya.

[Mar0]

I really don't find the cost of food so bad....I buy things that I eat frequently, like chicken and cereal, in bulk at costco. Same with milk...$4.19/gallon last week. I pay about $45/week in groceries but it is just me and I get meals at work.

Other than that, my friends give me items from their garden (basil, peppers, tomatoes, spinach) and I have a ton of fruit trees (avocado, pomelo, orange, lemon, starfruit, grapefruit, guava) and my friends also give me some of their fruit (mangoes, papayas, bananas, lilikoi). Also, my friends are into diving so they give me whatever fish I want. It is a very great community, where people truly support one another. This is the key to staying afloat in the island, imo.

[PalmSpringsDan]

Does anyone hunt wild boar for food, just out of curiousity???

[Calico Salsa]

Originally Posted by PalmSpringsDan

Does anyone hunt wild boar for food, just out of curiousity???

Not me, but yes, some do. Deer too. And there's fishing.

[Mar0]

There is a lot of goat and pig hunting here in Kauai....I have friends who go EVERY weekend

[hotzcatz]

We trap the feral pigs to keep them from digging up the garden. They then become sausage which goes good with the garden vegetables on pizza.