Chef Jamie couldn't change Huntingdon

[bmccasland]

One of the things that's been pointed out about unhealthy eating in poorer neighborhoods is the lack of access to healthy foods. No mega-marts. It's one thing to say: "you should eat more fresh fruits and vegetables." Sometimes it's a beast to actually find them.

A recurrent fustration in the rebuilding of New Orleans, is that supermarkets have not returned to areas where people have rebuilt their homes. You either drive a ways to where there are supermarkets, or go to local small stores or convience stores - neither of which have much on selection or the same price range when it comes to your normal supermarket. If you don't have a car, then you're pretty stuck.

[OakLeaf]

In Appalachia, it's a combination. EVERYONE has a car, because the towns are built so it's impossible to get from point A to point B without one, even if it's only a quarter mile. People just don't move their bodies for transportation, because for the most part, they can't. I can bike to the outskirts of town, but if I wanted to get from, say, the gym to the swimming pool, I'd have to go clear out of town and back around. Seven and a half miles, part of it on state routes, doesn't seem like much to you or me, but to someone who's never cycled for transportation, it's a lot. There are many more centrally located residential areas that are completely landlocked in terms of bikeable routes and way too far from anything to walk. From where I live I can get to the supermarket by bicycle (although it's an hour one way, not really possible to bring perishables in warmer weather), but I couldn't get to the small market where I buy local organic dairy products, seasonal produce and occasionally meats. You couldn't even walk to that market (which is in a fairly large shopping center with a Wal-Mart, a clothing store, a Staples and a medical complex) if you lived close enough. There are no sidewalks, no crosswalks across a major busy artery, and even if you wanted to cut across other businesses' lots, it would involve deep ditches, rip-rap, and unmowed brush.

So not only access to fresh food suffers, but fitness suffers too. And people get into the habit, so when it's a matter of going the quarter-mile or so from the Staples to the market, say, or from the supermarket to the dry cleaner's in another shopping center, it doesn't even occur to them not to move their cars.

It's always amazing to me to visit a big city, where people are forced to walk for transportation, and city planners are forced to design streets for pedestrians, and see how much fitter everyone is.


ETA: I'm remembering the time I had to take my car into the shop for maintenance on the same day I had to meet with my boss at the gym. Like, we work at a gym, okay, and both of us are fit. I figured I'd leave my car at the shop, walk the 3/4 mile or so to the gym, and walk back. My boss offered several times to pick me up and had a hard time believing I was going to walk. Now, it did involve cutting through other businesses' lots, trudging through said brush and teetering through the rip-rap and ditches, along the same artery I mentioned before. And if I'd been doing anything other than dropping the car off, you bet I would've driven. But still.

And again - if I'm having the car serviced in one of the towns near me, it's on the outskirts, and I can throw my bike in the car and go for a ride or take the bike path (privately constructed, and rare for the area) to do other errands in some parts of town, but not all - or even ride the 24 miles home and back again. To get to the dealer where I was having my car serviced that day, there are no bikeable streets in any direction.

[Tri Girl]

My boss offered several times to pick me up and had a hard time believing I was going to walk.

That made me smile because yesterday I had lunch with friends. I walked 6/10 of a mile there and was going to walk home. One of my friends offered to drive me home about 10 times- not believing I would walk that far home in the heat. It was ONLY a little over a half mile- it took me all of 9 minutes. We're so car-centered the thought of doing anything other than drive is so foreign to so many people.

[Irulan]

One of the things that's been pointed out about unhealthy eating in poorer neighborhoods is the lack of access to healthy foods. No mega-marts. It's one thing to say: "you should eat more fresh fruits and vegetables." Sometimes it's a beast to actually find them.

A recurrent fustration in the rebuilding of New Orleans, is that supermarkets have not returned to areas where people have rebuilt their homes. You either drive a ways to where there are supermarkets, or go to local small stores or convience stores - neither of which have much on selection or the same price range when it comes to your normal supermarket. If you don't have a car, then you're pretty stuck.

The access, but also the cost. A pound of broccoli for $1.69 or a "dollar meal" at the local fast food joint? It is way cheaper to feed a family on subsidized crap than it is on real food.

That being said, I love how our farmers market is now taking food stamp cards.

[OakLeaf]

That being said, I love how our farmers market is now taking food stamp cards.

Courtesy of the Farm Bill. A small but very important step. Like I said. On the other hand, the requirement of EBTs was a major hurdle that the markets have had to overcome individually.

Remember that the food stamp program is administered by USDA, not HHS. It's not anything near the scale of direct subsidies for commodity products, but it is a farm subsidy program.

[berkeley]

Huntington, WV is city of 50K. Not the middle of nowhere....

My in-laws are from West Virginia. They have poor eating habits as a cultural/regional thing, not because of lack of access to fresh foods. There's a great supermarket right down the road from their house, but they still choose to cook all their vegetables with either lard or bacon.

And yes, they are car happy. I could not believe it when they DROVE to church, which was literally 4 doors down!