How we are hungry. (And broke.)
By Kate Stone
It started with a sweeping generalization and inherently racist comment about produce consumption in Chicago.
“Well, they don’t care about buying organic,” my terrible roommate said about the entirety of low-income food-shoppers.
“Huh?” I said. My brain rallied quickly enough to ask, “What makes you say that?”
“The stores in those neighborhoods barely even have vegetables. And they don’t even sell organic produce at all,” she said.
Huh. This is true. Low-income urban neighborhoods do not have Whole Foods stores. When presented with a map of urban grocery store distribution, you will find pockets called “food deserts” where there are no supermarkets at all. In the corner of the south side of Chicago where I used to teach, my students bought most of their food from the corner convenience store.
And the reason for this, by my roommate’s logic, is that poor people clearly do not like food (let alone organic) enough to insist that it exist within walking distance.
I have nothing against any of the recent food movements. In fact, I see and tout the benefits of vegan and gluten-free diets. But to partake in these food choices is a privilege of the non-poverty-line variety that I am now fortunate enough to enjoy. It is not yet a right that everyone has.
Not everyone has a spare five bucks to spend on a bottle of kombucha that definitely won’t make you feel full and might possibly make you vomit. It is a beverage for those with disposable income and the privileged fortitude to acquire the taste. Quinoa retails at least four dollars above pasta for the same sized box. We pay a premium to avoid pesticides and GMOs. And who, outside of elite pockets of the world, even know about kombucha, quinoa, or GMO-free foods?
And what about fresh fruit?
On Fridays in my classroom, I would bring in breakfast for those of my students who had earned the most points for the week. Points were earned by behavior, homework completion and dedication to class work. I asked them what they would like me to bring in and they always asked for donuts. And I always obliged, this being a special treat for the week and all. But I also always brought fresh mango or strawberries or pineapple. They were amazed.
There were always leftover donuts. There was never leftover fruit.
The point is, if you don’t know that pineapple even exists, how would you know to ask for it?
How would you insist on grocery stores with better produce, with organic options, with bulk prices? It – the food-war conversation – ends with this bigger point. That to tell someone how to eat food is to assume they have endless access to resources.
Which is an inherently foolish assumption to make.
About Kate Stone
Kate started taking yoga in middle school as a rebellious move against sports camp. After years of gymnastics, not having to flip over after a backbend was a relief, and the practice stuck. After college, Kate moved to Chicago to teach mean children how to read. She was marginally successful but felt severely, physically ill-equipped to deal with the fighting in her classroom. As someone who takes things literally, she became a personal trainer. Kate spent eight years in Chicago working in gyms, bars and museums, feeling like she was supposed to have a real job. Last year she realized she doesn’t ever want one of those. Kate spent all of her money on yoga training, and is now a yoga teacher, writer and bartender living in Boston.
30 Comments !
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Isabelle says:
Your post makes me sad but I am reminded of the Jamie Oliver show about school lunches. He’d show kids asparagus and leeks, and they’d say it was onions and celery. There were not even underpriviledged children in the strict sense of the word, they had just been underexposed to all the wonderful treats that Nature produces for us.
Organic, vegan, non-gluten, Pride of the World: it’s only food, non? Let’s make sure everybody has enough before we worry about whether they have the RIGHT kind, m’kay?
Kate says:
Yes, underexposed is definitely a better description than underprivileged for a lot of these issues. Everything goes back to education as the root of all abilities to expose us to new things. That should make us all less sad and more charged up.
Alexes says:
I think this is especially a problem in cities, and some country towns as well. The lettuce is wilted and the veggies are limited and poor quality.
From my own experiences, with family members, I know that it can be very difficult for the elderly and infirm to get to the bigger stores and so they are going to the corner grocery for bananas, oranges and soup as a vegetable source.
I also get a bit irked when my wealthier friends are so strident about their kids diets, and going to the farmers co-op and getting vegetables delivered to their houses etc.
But, Perdue nuggets and Ravioli from a can, (not Amy’s), are what I can afford for my kids.
We do eat a lot of vegetables, but they are usually not organic,haha!
(sometimes we splurge for quinoa, but i actually don’t love the stuff, give me rice any day.)
Kate says:
So true. The larger, wealthier grocery stores actually budget into their stock how many wilted lettuce heads and less-than-perfect bananas they will throw out because no one will buy them past a certain point anyway. And yet I know very well those years of only eating canned vegetables because fresh produce is too expensive. We do what we can, right?
lisa says:
Yep.
Funny how there’s a wonderful affordable “natural” grocery store being built in my neighborhood that’s somewhat of a food desert yet the very same food-snob people I know are flipping over backwards because of a large trendy chain grocery (rhymes with Hader Hoe’s) coming to a distant city near them.
lisa says:
To clarify: the response to the news of the store being built in my hood is *crickets* compared to the hoopla that the other store has recieved.
Kate says:
The press goes where the money goes, no? That said, Trader Joe’s (I cracked your code!) is owned by the same people as Aldi’s, and both have a price-appropriate business model. It’s too bad that they are branded so differently as to appeal to set markets and within prejudicial socio-economic constraints…but they make many people able to buy produce.
lisa says:
Where they’re building the TJ’s is not a food desert–it’s friggin’ Boulder, CO. lol. And I’ll bet $ they’re not going to be building in any food desert. Where they’re TRYING to build the other store in my hood is a food desert but there seems to be much much more support for the TJ’s in Boulder than the SF in my hood. I know all about the hurrah’s of TJ’s and all it’s “goodness” but that still won’t bring good food to those who might need it more based upon where it’s being built. Sorry I didn’t make myself very clear in my first post.
Erin says:
I remember watching an interview of Alice Waters a few years back. I love her food, I love her cooking ideals, and I love her edible schoolyard project.
But I was hugely disappointed when, in response to being asked why she thought some people didn’t buy organic, she said it was because they chose to spend their money on other things instead. (The actual quote was along the lines of, “They choose to spend $100 on new Nikes, where I’d spend it on food.”)
What if people don’t have the money to spend, period? What if the only reasonably accessible store is a bodega without any fresh fruits and vegetables, to say nothing of organic produce?
It disappointed me because she never paused to consider that some people don’t actively choose not to eat fresh, organic food. Rather, they never have the luxury of that choice in the first place.
Kate says:
What infuriates me about comments like that is more than the idea that most people don’t have that luxury. It’s that anyone should have to choose between fresh food and new clothes. As someone who admittedly makes poor decisions occasionally, (a certain sequined dress instead of dinner comes to mind,) I get that we are constantly re-prioritizing our lives by what and how we purchase. But in an ideal world, my ideal world at least, food shouldn’t be something we have to think about this extensively.
Robert says:
I am *totally* with you on the grotesquerie of blaming disenfranchised people for the impoverished state in which they find themselves, Kate.
Where I’d like to add a different perspective is here. You write: “We pay a premium to avoid pesticides and GMOs. And who, outside of elite pockets of the world, even know about kombucha, quinoa, or GMO-free foods?”
Well, 70 or 80 years ago, all food was organic and GMO-free. It’s only in the past few decades that we’ve created a ‘new normal’ of contamination, pasteurisation, irradiation, and homogenisation.
But that ISN’T normal, and it needn’t be the preserve of the elites. In the few places on the planet where people still live traditional lives, the production of organic, health-giving food is central to the community. There’s a fair chance that quinoa features on the menu, too.
The fact that food which is actually safe for human consumption has become a premium product is perhaps the saddest indictment there is of our food system. Our hunger for that food, it seems to me, is at heart a symbol of a confused quest for one of the most fundamental human needs: a good square meal.
Kate says:
Totally. The fact that we have to label what used to be just “food” with complicated acronyms is absurd. And the whole quinoa craze is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what the Western world does with commercializing the best products of Third World countries. The Savages Movement in art, anyone? Americans play the best game of Finders Keepers. I love your “confused quest for one of the most fundamental human needs.” Well said.
Robert says:
Thanks, Kate. I’m not so familiar with the Savages Movement, but I like your point about America playing a great game of Finders Keepers.
What gets me is that it’s such a selective game. It’s not: “Hmm, this long-lived and healthy tribe seems to live close to the land, with a tightly-knit community, deep sense of belonging, and truly representative system of governance. I wonder what we can learn from them.”.
It’s: “Eat these berries! Delicious, nutritious, and guaranteed to assuage existential angst!”.
Yummy.
Kanani says:
During the south central Los Angeles riots in the 1990s, one of the realizations that came out was the large chain supermarkets had either given up and left those areas decades before, or had gotten unfavorable market research results and decided not to build there. This made generations of residents go further distances to buy food, or for many, to depend on convenience stores.
While stores have been built, the urban areas still lag behind their suburban placements. Cities can help a great deal by encouraging the development of supermarket centers as well as farmers markets. and fortunately, ethnic markets have stepped in where the large. Haines were not willing to do so.
If you give them the access, the choices will multiply.
Kate says:
Yes, yes, yes. I know that Economics was my worst class in high school AND college, but it seems to me that this is more than just an issue of revenue from chain stores. It took jumping a huge hurdle to bring Starbucks into South Central LA as well, and now their stores are thriving there.
Mike says:
I’m not surprised that your students preferred fresh fruit over donuts. Fresh fruit that is sweet and flavorful pretty much sells itself. What a nice teacher you are, BTW!
I agree with you all the way and I think there are other issues, too, besides affordability and access.
We might assume that poor people would drink wheatgrass juice and eat quinoa if they had the choice but most probably would not. And it’s not because they are poor, it’s because food is cultural. And by cultural, I’m talking about cultural units as small as even one family. Eating patterns that get limited by access become ingrained and kids grow up eating certain foods and now that is part of the culture. I said ‘most’ because no culture is homogeneous. But in the South, for example, people generally have access to fresh vegetables and most are going to boil the shit out of them until they resemble what comes out of the can.
And health food eating is its own little subculture, too. Believe it or not, there are a lot of people that think drinking nasty kombucha and getting pale and anemic by or even orange-colored by being a carrot-juice drinking vegan and getting protein from soy powder dumped in a Vitamix is a ridiculous thing to do.
Erin points out the hidden assumption in Alice Waters’ remark but Ms. Waters does have a point. Some people could afford fresh veggies if they didn’t spend so much on the processed foods. Many processed foods are actually quite expensive. A chips and soda habit is expensive. Beans and rice are not. But chips and soda might help someone feel a little better if that’s the luxury or treat they grew up with.
As much as access to these foods is important, access to education is equally important and is a major factor in how people decide to eat. What Michelle Obama is trying to do is be a role model and educator in this regard. Plus, poverty can be quite rough. GMO or not GMO is a non-issue for someone struggling to get through each day or who is fighting to survive or just hold themselves together in a non-supportive, unhealthy social environment. Kombucha is a ridiculous concept when viewed in this light.
Maybe your friend could help things by organizing a community garden in the neighborhood she was complaining about.
Kate says:
To start, I was not actually always a very nice teacher. And the fruit was a hurdle that did not at first sell itself. One of the points you touched on is that we buy what we’re used to, what our palate has been trained to crave, so to speak. So yes, in that way, access isn’t the only issue. The other issues you presented are trickier – survivalist strategies abound in all communities and I cannot purport to be an expert on all low-income rationales. However, as someone who has been working multiple jobs concurrently for several years and has spent more years than I’d like to admit below the poverty line, here are some other reasons why I for one have been known to buy chips and soda instead of beans and rice: 1. They last longer and do not rot. 2. You don’t have to cook them, especially when you’ve been gone for 12 hours and haven’t eaten anything. 3. Everyone likes them and you don’t have convince the people you are taking care of to eat something new or weird. Just as people with all the choices in the world sometimes pay a premium for clean food, people with less choices sometimes pay a premium for convenience in the form of processed food.
Lauri Lumby says:
Kate, Thank you for bringing this very important issue to light. This is an issue I struggle with in my own life. Do I want to choose organic produce, meats, clothing and cleaning products….ABSOLUTELY. As a single mother of two do I have the luxury of making those choices all the time…..Absolutely not! And it strikes me that there might be an even bigger issue at foot……the commercialization of agriculture and lack of effective distribution. Farmers who make the choice to go organic…..do so because they feel passionately about it….not because it is a profitable venture. And manufacturers and distributors of organic clothing, cleaning products, etc. have to charge exorbitant prices just to cover their costs. Organic, Fair Trade, etc. have become products for the rich…..and the rest of us quite simply have to make the choice to feed and clothe our children. There is something very wrong in a world where the only affordable options are bad ones.
Kate says:
Ugh, I know, exactly! It’s so odd to me that one would have to be wealthy to essentially go back in time and eat food.
Warriorsaint says:
I am hoping the the proliferation of seasonal farmer’s markets will impact the lack of fresh fruits and vegetables in poor urban neighborhoods. Michael Pollen, the guru of the local food movement made the point in one of his books that most farmer’s market produce is naturally organic as small growers don’t have the sophistication to use pesticides.
Where I live in N Jersey we have a chain of low priced fruit & vegetable markets call Mira. As much of our population is Asia and N African in my little neighborhood they have created a demand for good produce. The stores are always packed with people!
My dream it to see the Mira food store chain expand to all urban poor neighborhoods in the US
Kate says:
Ooh, me too, me too! There are some cool things happening in Chicago with honey bee preservation on the near south side and *some* farmer’s markets, but I hope it expands as well.
Tori says:
Yep. I teach in a school in a food desert. Given our constraints, our school cafeteria does its level best to get fruits and vegetables to students. For every meal — breakfast and lunch — there’s at least one fresh produce option; for lunch, there might be two or three. But I also know full well that we’re sometimes getting the culls and rejects (produce that’s too small or bruised/funny shaped/etc. to be sold regularly). Not only is organic or exotic produce out of the question, but sometimes having any meaningful choice about type of produce is unworkable as well. (Allowing for “meaningful choice” to be limited to quantities sufficient to serve the student population.)
And even agreeing with Mike’s acknowledgement that food choices are to some degree cultural — I also know that in the breakfast and lunch lines, the fresh fruits and vegetables are always the first to run out here. (Second, the cooked dishes made from scratch. Third — by which I mean they never run out — the food of Processed Meatlike Substances.)
Kate says:
Tori, yes!!! I’ve been there, I totally know. It’s so frustrating to see that even the reject fruit is the best and most-sought-after option on the lunch line. What rang through my head most often while teaching was, “If you children only knew how badly you are getting screwed over.”
Laura says:
as a poor student living in a food desert in a deprived area of London in the late 80′s, i went out of my way to eat healthy, fresh food, cycling to far away street markets that mainly catered for Asian families.
I didn’t spend more than other students who relied on junk food and take away. It certainly took me longer to prepare my meals. I guess that’s why some people cannot be bothered. They’d rather sit in front of the telly than wash and cut vegetables.
Whenever i go to the supermarket i am shocked to see what most people buy. Junk food is not cheap. A bottle of Coke costs more than tap water, a pack of cookies more than a bread roll!
I spend less and come home with bigger grocery bags than them.
Money is not the only issue.
Kate says:
Money is not the only issue, but money is the first issue. Money is the issue that leads to funding for education which is the root of all issues, everywhere. I think the key to your proactive food choices lies in your first sentence – “as a poor student.” You were a student. You were already on a path that many people do not have access to. What happens when tap water is too dirty to drink? What happens when your mother gave you Coke when you were were two and you turned out fine? What happens when you recognize the cookie package but the bread looks weird? We do what we know how to do.
Alexes says:
There are a lot of gray areas here.
The person doing the healthier cooking and eating the good veggies, etc. may also be eating the Paul Newman cookies and Organic veggie chips and getting a $6.00 Tiramiso from the Wholefoods bakery.(washed down by a Blackberry Izzy).
I think Kate’s article was about people having healthy fresh and affoirdable food available to them . If you have been to some of these markets you know how unappealing or scarce the vegetables can be, one I know of in particular even had frozen food that was off somehow.
There is a cultural part too, but it is not easy to categorize people that way, so I won’t.
As far as income, I have known wealthy people with terrible diets and some poor minimum wage Mom’s who made tortillas from scratch and provided balanced meals that were also delicious.
There is kind of a sacrifice as well, the poor family who chooses to eat well cannot afford treats or special dinners.
The wealthy can afford their organic meals and their treats and wine and restaurant dinners and so on.
Alexes says:
Oops!
I meant to reply this to Laura’s comment right above Kate’s:)
Lisa says:
The crazy thing here in Los Angeles is I am finding that our Farmer’s Markets have become just as expensive if not more expensive then Whole Foods. There is also brewing controversy regarding the issue around organic produce. Seems it has been found many growers at FM “imply” they are organic-but they are actually conventional. I buy a lot of produce at Trader Joe’s now.
Children def need to be exposed to fresh food so they know their is a choice. The issues are complex and there is not one answer for every situation.
I was raised by a step Mom who just didn’t cook. Hence as an adult I had to learn new ways of eating as I was raised on a lot of processed food. My taste buds were effectively shut down. I don’t remember as a child having fresh fruit in the house. We are white, were middle class and living in New York at the time I was growing up.
I think giving people the facts and the tools to make better choices for their family is key. Most parents want to do the best they can for their family. But many people think, with the media’s help, that is it fine to eat at Mc D. And it can be cheap, cheaper then trying to cook a healthy meal at home.
Access to wholesome food at a reasonable cost, along with real facts about nutrition I think would go a long way in helping people live a better more “fruitful” life! At least a step in a positive direction.
Julia says:
So true! I have some good news though: here in Minneapolis I was at the central farmer’s market last spring and was surprised to see vendors with kiwis and grapefruits and bananas (this was April in Minnesota – we don’t see asparagus until May). So I went to the information desk to inquire and they told me that the farmer’s market allowed produce vendors like the ones with the kiwis and bananas and grapefruits, although they’re not locally sourced, to sell their produce there because the farmer’s market is located in an area of Minneapolis that is a food desert. For the residents of that neighborhood the farmer’s market is the only source of fresh produce. Way to go Minneapolis, way to set up a year round farmer’s market in a low-income, under-served neighborhood.
I also want to share that, in the Twin Cities area, the farmer’s market movement has been a huge boon to the Hmong immigrant community that came here as a result of the Viet Nam war. It’s given a lot of the older immigrants, with poor English skills, a livelihood and allowed the Hmong, who were mountain farmers in Laos and Viet Nam a way to share their knowledge and culture.
Nichevo says:
Well written and well said. Some people’s attitudes on food reflect a rather myopic world view in total. I grew up in the inner city and poor diet was not a matter of choice, it was a matter of lack of education and financial means.
Here in Afghanistan, I have watched hungry children pick through garbage. I don’t think concerns with GMO and HFC are high on the list of concerns. I have sat for meals with tribal elders where plain muffins, (which are viewed in the states with the same disdain as everything else on the continental breakfast table), are offered to guests with a sincerity seldom found back home because it is the best they have. Fruit can be found in abundance, (usually tangerines from the south of the country and Pakistan), but is pricey compared to the wages earned by the average Afghan. Plain bread (naan) is treated with an absolutely sacred reverence. (You can not throw bread on the ground and any bread left over from a meal is not thrown away, it is essentially composted.)
My wife and I are lucky, we are able to provide our children with extremely healthy foods and a variety of them. Prior to coming over here, I had lost sight of that. I don’t plan on forgetting again.