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Las Vegas is a natural food desert. The soil is bad and not much grows here. One of the things I looked at when I was thinking about moving here was distance to a grocery store. I have one about a mile away, not bad until it hits 100 degrees. But then you need to worry about getting stuff home before it spoils. There is little great produce here for any price. It's usually pretty tired looking. Not great for salads but fine for cooking.
My neighborhood is urban working class. The real issue here is jobs that don't pay enough to live on, part time, and no benefits. You can get by as long as you are very healthy and have 2 or 3 of these McJobs. Plus these crappy jobs are very hard work. You finally get home after working 2 jobs and 12 hours on your feet. You are wiped but you still have to do baths, laundry, lunches, homework, and get the kids to bed. So you can get up and do it all over again tomorrow.
No, you are not going to spend an hour steaming squash and making salad. Yes, you are going to open a can of refried beans and a bag of tortilla chips. Cheap, fast, and ready now! Food that kids will eat is an issue too. Not many kids, or their parents, will eat a dinner of kale and lentils. They would rather starve.
If you have the luxury of 2 days off, the pattern can be changed. On day one, the family plans their menus and shops. On day 2, the family cooks. In just a couple hours, with everyone helping, you can make meals for a week in advance. You will save money and teach your kids valuable life skills. I particularly like the idea of frozen crock pot meals. You just grab a bag out of the freezer, dump it in the crockpot and dinner is ready when you get home. It's really not more work, it's just changing when you do the work.
1. Invest in some insulated bags and small coolers for taking your food home from the grocery store. You can get home in about 10 min, no?
2. Most people don't want to spend the majority of their weekend time preparing meals.
3. There are some safety rules to follow when cooking with a crock pot. Cooking frozen meat in a crockpot is not recommended. 10 Food Safety Tips for the Slow Cooker
The problem isn't lack of retailers, transportation or products. It's that the people on SNAP have never been educated to prioritize food money in an intelligent way and so it runs out after 10 days. Here's how you eat well and stretch a few dollars.
Priorities:
1) Cheap bulk grains to meet caloric minimum (see above - I've had nothing but rice and wild apples/pawpaws/persimmons from city parks for a week and its not fun but its better than a significant number of people around the world have it)
2) Highly nutritious bulk grains to meet nutritional minimums and the luxury of variety (dried beans, quinoa, lentils, peanuts, oats)
3) Bulk cooking oils
4) Cheap sources of animal protein such as eggs and milk (chicken or pork loins if you want to splurge)
5) Inexpensive fruits and vegetables (collards, beets, carrots, potatoes, bananas, others when in season)
6) Bulk cooking ingredients such as sugar, salt, flour, spices
7) Fruit/nuts from public spaces - the bounty is unbelievable once you look and you can't beat the freshness and flavor of food at peak ripeness.
The simple rule of thumb is that if it has more than one ingredient you probably can't afford it on SNAP. If I was in charge, the rule of thumb would be the law.
The problem isn't lack of retailers, transportation or products. It's that the people on SNAP have never been educated to prioritize food money in an intelligent way and so it runs out after 10 days. Here's how you eat well and stretch a few dollars.
Priorities:
1) Cheap bulk grains to meet caloric minimum (see above - I've had nothing but rice and wild apples/pawpaws/persimmons from city parks for a week and its not fun but its better than a significant number of people around the world have it)
2) Highly nutritious bulk grains to meet nutritional minimums and the luxury of variety (dried beans, quinoa, lentils, peanuts, oats)
3) Bulk cooking oils
4) Cheap sources of animal protein such as eggs and milk (chicken or pork loins if you want to splurge)
5) Inexpensive fruits and vegetables (collards, beets, carrots, potatoes, bananas, others when in season)
6) Bulk cooking ingredients such as sugar, salt, flour, spices
7) Fruit/nuts from public spaces - the bounty is unbelievable once you look and you can't beat the freshness and flavor of food at peak ripeness.
The simple rule of thumb is that if it has more than one ingredient you probably can't afford it on SNAP. If I was in charge, the rule of thumb would be the law.
Ah Amazon does not accept SNAP. Amazon prime costs $99, where is a low income person going to get that? Also SNAP is not supposed to cover 100% of the food bill for the month and should run out. The amount of benefit varies but it does not matter if the person spends it all in ten days or it last all month.. It needs to be used or else it will reduced. Also frankly getting stuff shipped to an location can be a pain in the rear as it could arrive when you are not at home or you need to make a special trip to pick it up.
1. What city on earth plants fruit trees in the parks and allows people to harvest the fruit.
2. Ok, that is cheap stuff and yes SNAP does cover this and yes this is easy to find even in a food desert.
3. This is the hard part to find in a food desert as the stores might not carry meat or it might not be fresh(I can give you some stories on this one).
4. Somewhat easy to find
5. Try carrying an bulk container of oil, three blocks cause you have no car. Try finding one in the little tiny stores that you can walk to in an area.
6. What on earth is in season in December in North America.
Anyway a more realistic plan would be:
1. use SNAP to purchase all meats and expensive food items.
2. use cash to buy the rest as veggies, beans, rice are cheap.
3. use a food pantry if needed
4. keep an eye out for USDA food distribution
Ah Amazon does not accept SNAP. Amazon prime costs $99, where is a low income person going to get that? Also SNAP is not supposed to cover 100% of the food bill for the month and should run out. The amount of benefit varies but it does not matter if the person spends it all in ten days or it last all month.. It needs to be used or else it will reduced. Also frankly getting stuff shipped to an location can be a pain in the rear as it could arrive when you are not at home or you need to make a special trip to pick it up.
1. What city on earth plants fruit trees in the parks and allows people to harvest the fruit.
2. Ok, that is cheap stuff and yes SNAP does cover this and yes this is easy to find even in a food desert.
3. This is the hard part to find in a food desert as the stores might not carry meat or it might not be fresh(I can give you some stories on this one).
4. Somewhat easy to find
5. Try carrying an bulk container of oil, three blocks cause you have no car. Try finding one in the little tiny stores that you can walk to in an area.
6. What on earth is in season in December in North America.
Anyway a more realistic plan would be:
1. use SNAP to purchase all meats and expensive food items.
2. use cash to buy the rest as veggies, beans, rice are cheap.
3. use a food pantry if needed
4. keep an eye out for USDA food distribution
Sorry to nitpick, but I remember that several cities in Morocco had citrus trees everywhere and people simply picked them whenever. I believe chestnuts used to be like that in many cities in the US, but the problem was the blight killed the hell out of them--unfortunately, it's mostly inedible horse chestnuts now. I know that a decent number of Chinese people take the ginkgo nuts from the trees in NYC to eat. Not the most ideal situation as the flesh around the nuts have a smell that not everyone is a fan of.
I think it's a great idea to plant hardy plants that bear edible fruit in large quantities. If you're going to green up your city, might as well provide a bit of something, especially something that's recurring.
One thing I'd like to see more of in northern cities is greenhouses for public spaces (including community gardens). They can be pretty cheap to manufacture and durable these days--it'd be a nice respite from the cold come winter and would allow for some year-round crop growth.
Sorry to nitpick, but I remember that several cities in Morocco had citrus trees everywhere and people simply picked them whenever. I believe chestnuts used to be like that in many cities in the US, but the problem was the blight killed the hell out of them--unfortunately, it's mostly inedible horse chestnuts now. I know that a decent number of Chinese people take the ginkgo nuts from the trees in NYC to eat. Not the most ideal situation as the flesh around the nuts have a smell that not everyone is a fan of.
I think it's a great idea to plant hardy plants that bear edible fruit in large quantities. If you're going to green up your city, might as well provide a bit of something, especially something that's recurring.
One thing I'd like to see more of in northern cities is greenhouses for public spaces (including community gardens). They can be pretty cheap to manufacture and durable these days--it'd be a nice respite from the cold come winter and would allow for some year-round crop growth.
1. Fruit trees/plants only produce fruit for so many years before they stop producing fruit.
2. Food grown in an Green house is more expensive than produce grown outside.
3. The hidden costs in the green house are heating and staffing.
1. Fruit trees/plants only produce fruit for so many years before they stop producing fruit.
2. Food grown in an Green house is more expensive than produce grown outside.
3. The hidden costs in the green house are , butheating and staffing.
Understood, but depending in the tree it's a large range of years. I have a cherry tree that still produces nowhere near its prime, but still produces and from what I understand has been there for half a century. The crazy thing is that they can last for a while, produce past their prime in lesser quantities, and be replaced decades on when they are not productive. Such is the miracle of plants!
The many costs of a greenhouse is there and I'm not unexperienced with them--I am actually working on an open source project (no personal profit! Wow!) for iterarive plans on them as a hobby. They are much cheaper these days, but the best thing about them isn't just the produce, which is wonderful, but a respite into a warm, green environment in the midst of a northern winter. Tell me what about this do you dislike especially in list form as that's wonderfully concise.
Understood, but depending in the tree it's a large range of years. I have a cherry tree that still produces nowhere near its prime, but still produces and from what I understand has been there for half a century. The crazy thing is that they can last for a while, produce past their prime in lesser quantities, and be replaced decades on when they are not productive. Such is the miracle of plants!
The many costs of a greenhouse is there and I'm not unexperienced with them--I am actually working on an open source project (no personal profit! Wow!) for iterarive plans on them as a hobby. They are much cheaper these days, but the best thing about them isn't just the produce, which is wonderful, but a respite into a warm, green environment in the midst of a northern winter. Tell me what about this do you dislike especially in list form as that's wonderfully concise.
Oh, I do like urban green houses but they are not a good solution to the problem of food deserts. Chicago has two of them.
Are grocery stores actually leaving inner-city neighborhoods compared to how many they were 5 or 10 years ago? Or is the OP's complaints only true about Las Vegas
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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The city next to ours has a lot of edible landscape. In the late summer the street is littered with fallen fruit that goes to waste, very few people take advantage of it. The median family income is $88k there, so there is no real need for free food, and I think there is some hesitation to eat something that's growing on the side of a main thoroughfare.
Are grocery stores actually leaving inner-city neighborhoods compared to how many they were 5 or 10 years ago? Or is the OP's complaints only true about Las Vegas
Well, I don't know. Part of the problem is the definition of "food desert". Leave it to me to talk definitions, right? Here's the FDA definition: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-produc...documentation/
Not just bodegas, convenience stores, but also corner grocery stores don't count.
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