Hunger in America, Food and the Wal-Mart Connection

A recent library find was Breadline USA: The Hidden Scandal of American Hunger and How to Fix It, by Sasha Abramsky.  There has been much press the last few months of the escalating use of food shelves by working families.  Abramsky’s timely book includes his volunteer efforts at a local food shelf as well as becoming a “client” of these services as he attempts to live on a working poor person’s budget.  He tells painful stories of laid-off workers from Alcoa (formerly Reynolds Aluminum) in Longview, WA who were within months of retirement before losing their jobs, health benefits and, in some cases, having their pensions delayed for several years.

I was surprised to learn of research studies that exposed the high cost of Wal-Mart workers using public programs such as food stamps, WIC, and energy assistance.  As Abramsky mentioned in his book, a 2004 study by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at University of California in Berkeley estimated that the cost to the State of California for providing programs to Wal-Mart employees was $86 million annually.  A similar report in D.C. by the Democrats on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce (and mentioned in the Berkeley study) estimated a cost of over $400,000/year just for one 200-employee store in that area.  Here is a link to that report:   http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/retail/walmart.pdf.

The Wal-Mart studies reminded me of Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America published back in 2001.  Ehrenreich’s experiment at trying to live on poverty-level wages ended with her working at a Wal-Mart in the Twin Cities.  I anticipated that her MN experience would have been more satisfactory than her previous locations in Maine and Florida, but the author’s story was that the MN experience was the most difficult.  This was, in part, due to high rents in the Twin Cities at the time, but she also was quite vocal about her poor experience with Wal-Mart management and how they treated their employees.

Here are other books on food that I  highly recommend.  The first two authors thoroughly covered food safety and production issues, nutrition, the cost of oil used to produce and distribute food, and the benefits to eating local.

In Defense of Food – An Eater’s Manifesto and The Omnivore’s Dilemma:  A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan.  Here is a link to his recent appearance on MPR:  http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/05/19/pollan/.

The End of Food by Paul Roberts was a great read.  Here’s a link to a speech he made at the Commonwealth Club which covers the key points of his book:  http://fora.tv/2008/06/18/Paul_Roberts_The_End_of_Food.

The Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky contains unpublished essays written by the Federal Writers Project, a New Deal program started in the late 1930s.    This book tells stories of regional food events (such as community dinners and fairs) and also includes recipes (although I don’t think I’ll be making chitlins anytime soon!).