Poor people can't afford healthy food

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When new grocery stores open in these food deserts, they typically cannot turn a profit and our frequent targets for theft. People don’t suddenly start buying and cooking vegetables from scratch just because there’s a grocery store nearby. Most poverty in America is a cultural issue rather than a simple lack of money.

And your source for this conclusion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we have lost the plot, I guess OP didn’t articulate her thoughts correctly. Clearly, she wasn’t referring to the 0.1% subset of poor people who may not have a house or a stove etc.

I think she was alluding to lower income people relying on fast and junk food instead of trying to cook from scratch. As the obesity rate in America is inching closer to 42% and 78% of the population is overweight and obese, I think we all need to take ca stock and reduce processed and fast food consumption.

Sure, there are always lots of arguments as to why something can’t be done, but the truth is those arguments are valid for a very tiny subset of low income or poor population. Rather than stoves and access to food, what would help us tremendously is if people have more time to plan and cook, this applies to all income levels.

Our policies don’t support healthy eating, downtime and a culture where we take care of ourselves. It’s all about the bottom line and that obsession is being reflected in the health of our people.

I agree. I go through long work days and easy half work days, in waves. When I work more I tend to cook from scratch less and just don't have as much mental space or time, I have limited energy. I also snack more mindlessly. Food is easy reward when stressed and tired. And I think there are issues too with our food supply and that doesn't help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the OP. Wow. This has gone off the rails way faster than I thought it would. I absolutely do not think poor people are lazy, unmotivated, etc. I grew up poor. My family in Africa is poor. My family has the hardest working people I have ever met.

I think that it possible for the many of the working poor (of course not everyone in every circumstance) to eat healthier. If they don't, of course it doesn't mean they are lazy, unmotivated, or whatever judgment you would like to attribute to me. People have lots of things going on in their lives that they may not be able to control.

I am not poor anymore, but I can absolutely feed my family of 5 on $100 per week if we don't eat out.

Of course you can if all they eat is porridge and rice, WHICH IS NOT HEALTHY!!

Huh? Op here. Are you saying that fast food is healthier than curried veg and rice? Or stew beans and cornmeal porridge?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the OP. Wow. This has gone off the rails way faster than I thought it would. I absolutely do not think poor people are lazy, unmotivated, etc. I grew up poor. My family in Africa is poor. My family has the hardest working people I have ever met.

I think that it possible for the many of the working poor (of course not everyone in every circumstance) to eat healthier. If they don't, of course it doesn't mean they are lazy, unmotivated, or whatever judgment you would like to attribute to me. People have lots of things going on in their lives that they may not be able to control.

I am not poor anymore, but I can absolutely feed my family of 5 on $100 per week if we don't eat out.

Of course you can if all they eat is porridge and rice, WHICH IS NOT HEALTHY!!

Huh? Op here. Are you saying that fast food is healthier than curried veg and rice? Or stew beans and cornmeal porridge?

Chicken nuggets have protein. So yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When new grocery stores open in these food deserts, they typically cannot turn a profit and our frequent targets for theft. People don’t suddenly start buying and cooking vegetables from scratch just because there’s a grocery store nearby. Most poverty in America is a cultural issue rather than a simple lack of money.

And your source for this conclusion?

This is kind of what happened in Detroit around 30-40 yrs ago. The major grocery stores pulled out and we're replaced by middle eastern owned grocery stores. Theft was common and the food in these stores is mostly crap. Even only 10 years ago, I couldn't even find a single loaf of wheat bread! So there obviously isn't a demand for decent food. But I do feel sorry for the few people in the community who want to eat healthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When new grocery stores open in these food deserts, they typically cannot turn a profit and our frequent targets for theft. People don’t suddenly start buying and cooking vegetables from scratch just because there’s a grocery store nearby. Most poverty in America is a cultural issue rather than a simple lack of money.

And your source for this conclusion?

New Poster, come over to the poor counties on the eastern shore. Go into any grocery store. Look in the shopping carts.
It is obvious that grocery buying decisions are cultural. Very few are buying bananas, rice, beans, potatoes and heads of cabbage (some of the cheapest foods in grocery stores.)

Carts are loaded with 2 liter sodas and processed food in packages.

[Anonymous]

01:15 poster here--I frequently observe in the very poor areas of the eastern shore that the Haitian Americans, speaking creole who are the poorest of the poor in the county buy mangoes, avocados, rice beans and don't buy packaged foods and don't buy 2 liters of soda.

They are buying and eating better due to cultural traditions compared to the local population who buy the 2 liter sodas, processed foods in packages, and fried fast foods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we have lost the plot, I guess OP didn’t articulate her thoughts correctly. Clearly, she wasn’t referring to the 0.1% subset of poor people who may not have a house or a stove etc.

I think she was alluding to lower income people relying on fast and junk food instead of trying to cook from scratch. As the obesity rate in America is inching closer to 42% and 78% of the population is overweight and obese, I think we all need to take ca stock and reduce processed and fast food consumption.

Sure, there are always lots of arguments as to why something can’t be done, but the truth is those arguments are valid for a very tiny subset of low income or poor population. Rather than stoves and access to food, what would help us tremendously is if people have more time to plan and cook, this applies to all income levels.

Our policies don’t support healthy eating, downtime and a culture where we take care of ourselves. It’s all about the bottom line and that obsession is being reflected in the health of our people.

I agree. I go through long work days and easy half work days, in waves. When I work more I tend to cook from scratch less and just don't have as much mental space or time, I have limited energy. I also snack more mindlessly. Food is easy reward when stressed and tired. And I think there are issues too with our food supply and that doesn't help.

All well said.

I’m pretty nutrition-conscious and enjoy cooking (and have enough income to afford it). I also work from home three days a week, which allows me to throw something in the slow cooker at lunchtime so we can have a decent dinner. I often think of my immigrant grandmother, who spent hours every day commuting by Metrobus from her home in SE DC to her job as a domestic in Georgetown. She could walk to smaller, not great grocery stores but was mugged on more than one occasion, so once a week we picked her up and drove to better ones.

Based on that experience, it’s not hard for me to understand why it’s easier for my family to eat healthy food than it might be for someone of lesser means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When new grocery stores open in these food deserts, they typically cannot turn a profit and our frequent targets for theft. People don’t suddenly start buying and cooking vegetables from scratch just because there’s a grocery store nearby. Most poverty in America is a cultural issue rather than a simple lack of money.

And your source for this conclusion?

Should have shopped whole wheat pita bread.
This is kind of what happened in Detroit around 30-40 yrs ago. The major grocery stores pulled out and were replaced by middle eastern owned grocery stores. Theft was common and the food in these stores is mostly crap. Even only 10 years ago, I couldn't even find a single loaf of wheat bread! So there obviously isn't a demand for decent food. But I do feel sorry for the few people in the community who want to eat healthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I can’t get over the derision over how these poors can’t get to the grocery stores and to cook and properly, when so many people take advantage of take out, eating out, meal kits, and food delivery. If it’s so easy, even for the riches, these things wouldn’t be a thing.

Not many of us are saying it is easier. But it’s doable and if you don’t have much money then unfortunately you have fewer choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:01:15 poster here--I frequently observe in the very poor areas of the eastern shore that the Haitian Americans, speaking creole who are the poorest of the poor in the county buy mangoes, avocados, rice beans and don't buy packaged foods and don't buy 2 liters of soda.

They are buying and eating better due to cultural traditions compared to the local population who buy the 2 liter sodas, processed foods in packages, and fried fast foods.

There is a selection process here, only educated or smart people from those countries can navigate complex immigration process to come here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:01:15 poster here--I frequently observe in the very poor areas of the eastern shore that the Haitian Americans, speaking creole who are the poorest of the poor in the county buy mangoes, avocados, rice beans and don't buy packaged foods and don't buy 2 liters of soda.

They are buying and eating better due to cultural traditions compared to the local population who buy the 2 liter sodas, processed foods in packages, and fried fast foods.

There is a selection process here, only educated or smart people from those countries can navigate complex immigration process to come here.

That’s true for say Nigeria and Pakistan, I think a lot of Haitians in the US came via other processes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When new grocery stores open in these food deserts, they typically cannot turn a profit and our frequent targets for theft. People don’t suddenly start buying and cooking vegetables from scratch just because there’s a grocery store nearby. Most poverty in America is a cultural issue rather than a simple lack of money.

And your source for this conclusion?

New Poster, come over to the poor counties on the eastern shore. Go into any grocery store. Look in the shopping carts.
It is obvious that grocery buying decisions are cultural. Very few are buying bananas, rice, beans, potatoes and heads of cabbage (some of the cheapest foods in grocery stores.)

Carts are loaded with 2 liter sodas and processed food in packages.

And this is why food stamps should be changed to be like WIC - the gov gives $ to help people eat. It shouldn’t be able to be spent on soda and chips. Let them spend their own money on that and food stamp $ on healthy food.

[Anonymous]

It’s fundamentally a cultural problem, which is not going to be solved by government programs. People don’t know how to cook, people don’t value cooking, people aren’t used to eating healthy food — you can easily lose all that in a generation but you can only regain it that quickly through hard and concerted work. (There are some interesting nonprofits trying to reintroduce lost foodways to various American cultures that have stopped cooking, but even if they work it’s very hard to scale.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up poor. My single mom made minimum wage her entire life as a personal support worker. She is from southern Africa and only has a 6th grade education. We ate very healthy food. What made it work was that she cooked from scratch and we ate the same food several days in a row.

She managed the cost of food by preparing simple healthy dishes (stews and cornmeal porridge, or stews and rice).

She managed the time it takes to shop and cook by cooking one or two big pots of stew per week, so there was not so much variety in what we ate. We didn't have a car, so we took the bus to the grocery store once a week.

She got paid every Thursday and on payday we would have a treat (maybe a pizza or burgers).

Anyway, she came from a different place and a different time, but that is how you can be poor and eat healthy.

So why don't you go to a store today, armed only with $300 in food stamps for one month for 4 people and see how you do. Feel free to come back and show us how you did it.

Large amounts of mixed greens and beans and small amounts of meat. It’s really not hard.