Loretta Van Riet
Trying to hang out with the cool kids.
Have you ever tried the Nestles Media Crema? It's VERY thick. Great way to make your own sour cream or butter.
20 sec commercial (the package label it a little different in the USA)
FOOD Report food & grocery shortages / price increases here: 2022 Edition
- Status
20 sec commercial (the package label it a little different in the USA)
bw
Fringe Ranger
She forgave you.
bw
Fringe Ranger
My dad's parents came from Sweden. When times were hard (that's most of the time) they had "potatoes and point". They took a bite of potato and pointed their fork at a piece of fish in the center of the table, and pretended they were eating fish too.
Loretta Van Riet
Trying to hang out with the cool kids.
tnphil
Don't screw with an engineer
Damn, we're all getting old here! Lol.
My paternal grandmother was born in 1895.
I was fortunate to know and recall my maternal g-g-grandmother born in 1872. She died in 1967, when I was about 6.
Getting older is better than the alternative...it is a privilege denied to many! We who knew our grandparents are blessed. My maternal grandpa was born in 1889. Three out of four of my grand parents were born in the late 1800's. Good Lord, now I feel old! Anyway, thread drift...
If anyone here lives in NorCal...Safeway has their 16 oz Lucerne butter for $1.89 this week. I can't remember when I last saw butter for that price. Time to stock up!
If anyone here lives in NorCal...Safeway has their 16 oz Lucerne butter for $1.89 this week. I can't remember when I last saw butter for that price. Time to stock up!
school marm
Veteran Member
NE NV yesterday. Not my regular shopping day, but I had to go into town for a dr. appt., so I did the grocery shopping as well. I'd say the perishables in the dairy, deli, and frozen foods sections were only about 1/3 stocked. It was looking a little creepy to me. Ramen was almost wiped out. There were a lot of discounted steaks as well as several packages of organic hamburger.
I've made friends with the lady that does all the discount/clearance marking. She knows my routine shopping day and knows that I will buy clearance items. Anyway, she hunted me down in the store yesterday after I had already visited the clearance shelves, coming out with a cartful of TP. Asked if I wanted any. I was prepared to take it all (nine 6-roll packs), but told her I didn't want to take from others (she was going to tell the clerks it was available and ask if they wanted her to set some aside). She said not to worry--she had several more carts in back. I don't know why it was being marked down, but when I went over to the TP aisle to double check and make sure the price was good (it was half off--just had to double check my math), I saw a stocker putting in different-sized packages of the same store-brand TP.
The clearance lady also said she'd be marking down boatloads of canned goods today. Fortunately, DH is working across the street from the store today, so he'll go check things out at lunchtime.
Oh, and for you Smith's/Kroger shoppers, apparently store-brand coconut oil is on sale this week--$3.99 for 30 ounces. Screaming deal. Of course, my store was all sold out already.
I've made friends with the lady that does all the discount/clearance marking. She knows my routine shopping day and knows that I will buy clearance items. Anyway, she hunted me down in the store yesterday after I had already visited the clearance shelves, coming out with a cartful of TP. Asked if I wanted any. I was prepared to take it all (nine 6-roll packs), but told her I didn't want to take from others (she was going to tell the clerks it was available and ask if they wanted her to set some aside). She said not to worry--she had several more carts in back. I don't know why it was being marked down, but when I went over to the TP aisle to double check and make sure the price was good (it was half off--just had to double check my math), I saw a stocker putting in different-sized packages of the same store-brand TP.
The clearance lady also said she'd be marking down boatloads of canned goods today. Fortunately, DH is working across the street from the store today, so he'll go check things out at lunchtime.
Oh, and for you Smith's/Kroger shoppers, apparently store-brand coconut oil is on sale this week--$3.99 for 30 ounces. Screaming deal. Of course, my store was all sold out already.
bracketquant
Veteran Member
Marjoram - my favorite herb. The 1 oz Spice Supreme containers went from $1, last year, to $1.49, now, at Ocean State. I usually buy about 10 at a time, but I got the last 4 that were in stock. About half of the herb/spice varieties were out of stock, of about 80 different ones. It doesn't look like the store will be receiving shipments of all 80 or so anymore, as the shelf space has been cut in half. The original shelf space was the same for about 2 decades.
bracketquant
Veteran Member
Thanks for the link. Perhaps I could find additional things to justify the $7.95 shipping charge. And, I have no idea if I could find $50 worth of items, for the free shipping.
If you cook or bake, you probably can. Their quality is excellent, as are the prices.
Summerthyme
bracketquant
Veteran Member
I went online looking to see when my local Aldi will open, as it's currently under construction. So, I find out that there is an Aldi, one city over. It's in an odd location between 2 huge retail buildings, stores that I would never shop in. So, I never noticed it.
This Aldi is rather small, 5 aisles, and 5 cash registers. Good prices, within pennies of the other low priced stores. A real good selection of fresh veggies and fruit, along with bread. Meat prices are OK, but I wonder if anything ever goes on sale. Not much in frozen foods, almost no shelf space for pasta, rice and beans. A large selection of prepared refrigerated foods, which I rarely buy. Milk is 1.43 a gallon, like WalMart, which saves me more than $10 a week compared to the other stores.
When the new Aldi opens, it will a few hundred feet from the other low price store in town. I think that I could do almost all of my shopping between those two stores.
And, the other store had boneless skinless chicken thighs on sale for .89/lb, marked down from $2.99/lb. I filled the freezer.
This Aldi is rather small, 5 aisles, and 5 cash registers. Good prices, within pennies of the other low priced stores. A real good selection of fresh veggies and fruit, along with bread. Meat prices are OK, but I wonder if anything ever goes on sale. Not much in frozen foods, almost no shelf space for pasta, rice and beans. A large selection of prepared refrigerated foods, which I rarely buy. Milk is 1.43 a gallon, like WalMart, which saves me more than $10 a week compared to the other stores.
When the new Aldi opens, it will a few hundred feet from the other low price store in town. I think that I could do almost all of my shopping between those two stores.
And, the other store had boneless skinless chicken thighs on sale for .89/lb, marked down from $2.99/lb. I filled the freezer.
bracketquant
Veteran Member
About a decade ago, they had a booth at our state fair. But, they never came back, and all of my purchases are long gone. I agree, it was excellent quality.
In the past, I've bought bulk herbs/spices from other sources, that often had pieces of plant stems in the mix.
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
LOL. Stupid me, I meant...margarine. The butter substitute.
bracketquant
Veteran Member
I was wondering about that, as my local WalMart rarely has marjoram...and celery seed...and cardamom...and...
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
LOL. Marjoram is a spice I've never had a need for, so never buy it. I don't know why I said marjoram, instead. Brain fog, I guess. Our Walmart is always stocked on all the different spices, I never have a problem finding the ones I do use. Mostly, I order them from Sam's, though.
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Our Walmart had Wright's 1 1/2 lb packs of hickory smoked bacon on sale for $8 a pack, yesterday, so I stocked up. It's been being almost $11/pack.
ainitfunny
Saved, to glorify God.
Stuff most people don't know:
GARLIC- You can take a $.50 head of garlic from the grocery store and EACH CLOVE in the garlic head will grow a new garlic head
IF YOU PLANT IT, EITHER OUTSIDE OR IN A container INSIDE, IN A WINDOW.
You dont have to dig a whole garden!
CHIVES - THEY LOVE to grow in a pot! Get all the chives you need in cooking
from a pot seeded with chive seeds an put in a Sunny window!
GARLIC- You can take a $.50 head of garlic from the grocery store and EACH CLOVE in the garlic head will grow a new garlic head
IF YOU PLANT IT, EITHER OUTSIDE OR IN A container INSIDE, IN A WINDOW.
You dont have to dig a whole garden!
CHIVES - THEY LOVE to grow in a pot! Get all the chives you need in cooking
from a pot seeded with chive seeds an put in a Sunny window!
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ainitfunny
Saved, to glorify God.
Celery is not going to be available when the SHTF. it is NOT EASY TO GROW! So, Make sure you have enough CHOPPED celery ,(DRIED,) and ground celery seed and celery salt, All for soup, which has a "something missing" taste without it!
DEEP GREEN CELERY IS INEDIBLE RAW and is ONLY USED FOR COOKING.
The celery you eat raw is green celery that was "BLANCHED" while it is growing, which is "made white" or lighter, by some way sunshine is prevented from hitting the stalks.
Usually they do this by mounding up dirt, burying the stalks. Preventing sunlight from hitting the stalks makes them whiter, mild, not strong tasting, and not bitter, or very stringy.
DEEP GREEN CELERY IS INEDIBLE RAW and is ONLY USED FOR COOKING.
The celery you eat raw is green celery that was "BLANCHED" while it is growing, which is "made white" or lighter, by some way sunshine is prevented from hitting the stalks.
Usually they do this by mounding up dirt, burying the stalks. Preventing sunlight from hitting the stalks makes them whiter, mild, not strong tasting, and not bitter, or very stringy.
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packyderms_wife
Neither here nor there.
I get my herbs from Amazon, most of these places, like Atlantic Spice Co., have stores there, and use my prime for the free shipping.
ainitfunny
Saved, to glorify God.
Our forefathers KNEW you HAD TO eat something fresh, green, and that had some CALORIES , IN THE SPRING, AFTER YOUR WINTER FOOD STORE WAS EXHAUSTED AND BEFORE ANY OF THE NORMAL CROPS WERE READY TO PICK.
They solved this two ways. With wild spring greens, AND WITH COOKED RADISHES and COOKED RADISH GREENS, WHICH ARE READY TO HARVEST IN ONLY 28 DAYS!
You can plant radishes before most other crops, while it is still cold!!
COOKED RADISHES DO NOT TASTE LIKE RAW RADISHES, THEY TASTE LIKE LITTLE TURNIPS!
They are good boiled, quartered, baked with olive oil and garlic powder, sliced, and fried in butter with or without onions, or boiled and mashed.
The radish greens are boiled with bacon or ham and maybe onions.
BUY LOTS OF RADISH SEEDS!
They solved this two ways. With wild spring greens, AND WITH COOKED RADISHES and COOKED RADISH GREENS, WHICH ARE READY TO HARVEST IN ONLY 28 DAYS!
You can plant radishes before most other crops, while it is still cold!!
COOKED RADISHES DO NOT TASTE LIKE RAW RADISHES, THEY TASTE LIKE LITTLE TURNIPS!
They are good boiled, quartered, baked with olive oil and garlic powder, sliced, and fried in butter with or without onions, or boiled and mashed.
The radish greens are boiled with bacon or ham and maybe onions.
BUY LOTS OF RADISH SEEDS!
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ainitfunny
Saved, to glorify God.
mz kitty- i try to keep my protein between. $.65 and $3.00 a lb.
$15-$25 a lb is out of the reach of about 40% of the people, I'd guess.
Chicken (dark meat) $.65 a pound bought in 10 lb bag of leg quarters.
Chicken livers- $2- $2.50lb
PORK - $1,50 a pound on sale or marked down.
GROUND PORK-$2.50lb
BEEF - HAMBURGER $3 Sometimes $2 a pound.
Beef Liver --$2.50 a pound
Fish- Canned Mackeral at dollar store, TUNA FISH $ 1.50 can
Hot dogs- $1 lb
sliced ham (generic sandwich meat) $2-3 a lb
generic smoked sausage/kielbasa <$3 lb
generic peanut butter 18 oz <$3
liverwurst < $3 lb
EGGS- $2,50 for a dozen -$3 for 18
COSTCO roast chicken -$5 for a weeks worth of meat!
$15-$25 a lb is out of the reach of about 40% of the people, I'd guess.
Chicken (dark meat) $.65 a pound bought in 10 lb bag of leg quarters.
Chicken livers- $2- $2.50lb
PORK - $1,50 a pound on sale or marked down.
GROUND PORK-$2.50lb
BEEF - HAMBURGER $3 Sometimes $2 a pound.
Beef Liver --$2.50 a pound
Fish- Canned Mackeral at dollar store, TUNA FISH $ 1.50 can
Hot dogs- $1 lb
sliced ham (generic sandwich meat) $2-3 a lb
generic smoked sausage/kielbasa <$3 lb
generic peanut butter 18 oz <$3
liverwurst < $3 lb
EGGS- $2,50 for a dozen -$3 for 18
COSTCO roast chicken -$5 for a weeks worth of meat!
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rafter
Since 1999
Aldi's had quite a bunch of empty spaces today. Big gaps in cookies, canned tomatoes, spaghetti sauce and other places. Looks better in the canned soup than it has in probably a year. I did find the canned ham and bought 3 of them.
Butter is still below $4 at $3.98 so added another 3 of those to my stash.
Frozen selections are spotty. Eggs $2.02
Butter is still below $4 at $3.98 so added another 3 of those to my stash.
Frozen selections are spotty. Eggs $2.02
Well, sorta, maybe.
It depends on if the variety is good for your location and if it has been treated with something to inhibit sprouting. If you plant it in a pot in a window you will probably get tiny little bulbs that are worth less than the original bulb. You can use the green sprouts, but that is not going to give you much unless you have a LOT of pots. If it has been treated then you probably won't get anything. Garlic is easy to grow, but it does need some thought and care. Most grocery store garlic has come from China. If you want to grow garlic it is best to buy seed garlic for your zone or at least buy garlic grown in your area from a farmer's market and plant it properly. Where I live in zone 5, softneck garlic does not do as well as hardneck which is what I plant. I have tried softneck and some does ok, but hardneck out performs it by a lot.
I just planted 90 cloves in my backyard garden. I cut back this year, I usually plant around 120.
bracketquant
Veteran Member
Save lots of radish seeds.
Let one plant flower and go to seed. The plants do get fairly large, about 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide. When the pods turn brown, it's time to harvest. Birds may get many of the seeds, but I've never seen them get anywhere near all of them. A well grown radish plant will grow 100+ pods (there are edible podded varieties, like Rattail), and 1,000+ seeds.
Barry Natchitoches
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I never thought about radishes and radish greens before, probably because in regular life neither I nor my DW eat them. But they would be a good food to grow for the chickens, and if grocery supplies got thin enough, foe me and my DW as well.
That is a good idea, Braquetquant. Thanks for the suggestion.
That is a good idea, Braquetquant. Thanks for the suggestion.
nomifyle
TB Fanatic
I’ve cooked radishes in a roast instead of potatoes and you can’t tell the difference
Barry Natchitoches
Has No Life - Lives on TB
As many of you know, I use the local food bank for alot of my family’s food, and send unused grocery money on to my wife’s cancer treatment center to help pay down her bill.
I thought you folks might be interested in knowing what is happening in the food banking system right now. It is a different view of how grocery prices are shaping up right now.
I go three times a month to different mobile food pantries, where they load up the trunk of my car with whatever they have to offer that day. whatever they offer x that is what I will be making into meals for my DW and myself.
Fortunately, my local food bank is as generous as they are able to be. And I am learning to be a good cook - and even a creative one - by meeting the challenge of whipping meals out of whatever is in the trunk of my car.
To understand how the contents of my car’s trunk over the past few month relates to the themes on this thread, you must first understand at least a little bit about how food banks operate.
The parent charity - Feeding America in case of my local Memphis food bank - gets lots of bulk foods (pallets, or even truck loads full) of food donated by food producers, huge food warehouses, etc. (They also get smaller donations like unsold items at your local grocery or restaurant, and individual canned items from generous folks like you, but I am not going to discuss these smaller donations in this post).
For example, chicken producer Tyson foods might have, lets say for the sake of this example, 20 pallets of chicken leg quarters that they are donating (or selling at a very low price ) to the mother charity. At the same time, Louisiana producer Tabasco, might donate 20 pallets of Louisiana hot sauce and products made with that hot sauce. A Mississippi farmers cooperative might donate 20 pallets of locally grown cabbages that they have not been able to sell in the regular civilian market. Meantime, a California farmers cooperative might donate 20 pallets of california grown tomatoes.
Feeding America has an internal system for determining which food bank will get those food pallets, that is very unique, but highly effective.
This system is really great, because it allows individual food banks like the Memphis food bank - which actually feeds people in 38 different counties in three separate states - to choose what donations will be sent into their area, based upon what local people traditionally eat as well as transportation and “cost” considerations. For example, Louisiana and Texas food banks like alot more of the severely spicy food that comes available, than Memphis does.
The Feeding America distribution system is built to help facilitate regional food choices, as well as normal seasonal and geographic variations of available food stuffs, in its overall, nationwide distribution patterns.
To make this explanation as simple as I can, Feeding America buys whatever bulk food is not outright donated. Then they put it “on bid” to all Feeding America food banks across the country.
Every food bank in their system is given a budget - they have “X” number of “Feeding America (FA) dollars” (think something like Monopoly money) they can spend for donated food any way they want. Some food banks - like Memphis, where hunger is really bad - get alot more of these “FA dollars” than, say, Martha’s Vineyard.
But once a food bank has their allotted “Feeding America dollars” in their computerized account, they can spend them any way they like.
This is done through a computerized internal bidding system similar in many ways to eBay’s auctions. Except that food is purchased per pound, with no consideration to what the specific food is.
This means that - on FA’s internal market, at least - a pound of frozen chicken cost the same as a pound of cabbage or a pound of hot sauce.
But food is made available whereever it might be at the time it is donated. That food must be transported from the donor’s dock to the food bank that has the winning bid. And the winning food bank must pay for that food’s transport into the winner’s area.
What this means, in practice, is that the cheapest thing most food banks can buy in that system, is LOCAL stuff. The closer it is to you, the cheaper it will be to go get it and bring it back to your home base.
So with this rudimentary understanding of how food banks work to distribute food to the different food banks, I will continue on - in a post to follow, since this one is getting long - to explain what I am finding in the trunk of my car lately.
And I will then try to relate all this back to the issues central to this thread.
Bear with me, it might take some time to type this out. But it will be forthcoming, and I think many of you will find this relevant.
I thought you folks might be interested in knowing what is happening in the food banking system right now. It is a different view of how grocery prices are shaping up right now.
I go three times a month to different mobile food pantries, where they load up the trunk of my car with whatever they have to offer that day. whatever they offer x that is what I will be making into meals for my DW and myself.
Fortunately, my local food bank is as generous as they are able to be. And I am learning to be a good cook - and even a creative one - by meeting the challenge of whipping meals out of whatever is in the trunk of my car.
To understand how the contents of my car’s trunk over the past few month relates to the themes on this thread, you must first understand at least a little bit about how food banks operate.
The parent charity - Feeding America in case of my local Memphis food bank - gets lots of bulk foods (pallets, or even truck loads full) of food donated by food producers, huge food warehouses, etc. (They also get smaller donations like unsold items at your local grocery or restaurant, and individual canned items from generous folks like you, but I am not going to discuss these smaller donations in this post).
For example, chicken producer Tyson foods might have, lets say for the sake of this example, 20 pallets of chicken leg quarters that they are donating (or selling at a very low price ) to the mother charity. At the same time, Louisiana producer Tabasco, might donate 20 pallets of Louisiana hot sauce and products made with that hot sauce. A Mississippi farmers cooperative might donate 20 pallets of locally grown cabbages that they have not been able to sell in the regular civilian market. Meantime, a California farmers cooperative might donate 20 pallets of california grown tomatoes.
Feeding America has an internal system for determining which food bank will get those food pallets, that is very unique, but highly effective.
This system is really great, because it allows individual food banks like the Memphis food bank - which actually feeds people in 38 different counties in three separate states - to choose what donations will be sent into their area, based upon what local people traditionally eat as well as transportation and “cost” considerations. For example, Louisiana and Texas food banks like alot more of the severely spicy food that comes available, than Memphis does.
The Feeding America distribution system is built to help facilitate regional food choices, as well as normal seasonal and geographic variations of available food stuffs, in its overall, nationwide distribution patterns.
To make this explanation as simple as I can, Feeding America buys whatever bulk food is not outright donated. Then they put it “on bid” to all Feeding America food banks across the country.
Every food bank in their system is given a budget - they have “X” number of “Feeding America (FA) dollars” (think something like Monopoly money) they can spend for donated food any way they want. Some food banks - like Memphis, where hunger is really bad - get alot more of these “FA dollars” than, say, Martha’s Vineyard.
But once a food bank has their allotted “Feeding America dollars” in their computerized account, they can spend them any way they like.
This is done through a computerized internal bidding system similar in many ways to eBay’s auctions. Except that food is purchased per pound, with no consideration to what the specific food is.
This means that - on FA’s internal market, at least - a pound of frozen chicken cost the same as a pound of cabbage or a pound of hot sauce.
But food is made available whereever it might be at the time it is donated. That food must be transported from the donor’s dock to the food bank that has the winning bid. And the winning food bank must pay for that food’s transport into the winner’s area.
What this means, in practice, is that the cheapest thing most food banks can buy in that system, is LOCAL stuff. The closer it is to you, the cheaper it will be to go get it and bring it back to your home base.
So with this rudimentary understanding of how food banks work to distribute food to the different food banks, I will continue on - in a post to follow, since this one is getting long - to explain what I am finding in the trunk of my car lately.
And I will then try to relate all this back to the issues central to this thread.
Bear with me, it might take some time to type this out. But it will be forthcoming, and I think many of you will find this relevant.
Barry Natchitoches
Has No Life - Lives on TB
OK, I am back.
In my last post, I suggested four bulk, corporate donations that are typical of what corporations donate to the parent food bank - Feeding America - as a way to illustrate what is happening.
Those four donations I chose to use for illustrative purposes included 20 pounds of frozen chicken leg-quarters donated by a Tyson warehouse in eastern Arkansas, 20 pallets of Tabasco sauce donated out of the factory in southwest Louisiana, 20 pallets of fresh heads of cabbage out of north Mississippi and 20 pallets of tomatoes out of California.
For most of the last two years I have been using the food bank, I have been able to roll up to the distribution point in my car and get a relatively healthy amount of frozen chicken out of Arkansas or frozen catfish out of the catfish farms in north Mississippi.
Food banks across the country wanted that food - but Memphis got a large share of the food close to us - because the Memphis food bank could bid higher for the available pallets of food (since it would be cheaper for the food to be shipped to Memphis than, say, Alaska or northern Idaho). Transportation costs - unlike the cost of the food itself - had to be paid by the food bank using real dollars. Not the FA monopoly money.
At the very same times that many of you complained about chicken shortages in your local supermarkets on this thread, I was finding many pounds of the frozen chicken loaded into the trunk of my car. For free.
continued to another post.
In my last post, I suggested four bulk, corporate donations that are typical of what corporations donate to the parent food bank - Feeding America - as a way to illustrate what is happening.
Those four donations I chose to use for illustrative purposes included 20 pounds of frozen chicken leg-quarters donated by a Tyson warehouse in eastern Arkansas, 20 pallets of Tabasco sauce donated out of the factory in southwest Louisiana, 20 pallets of fresh heads of cabbage out of north Mississippi and 20 pallets of tomatoes out of California.
For most of the last two years I have been using the food bank, I have been able to roll up to the distribution point in my car and get a relatively healthy amount of frozen chicken out of Arkansas or frozen catfish out of the catfish farms in north Mississippi.
Food banks across the country wanted that food - but Memphis got a large share of the food close to us - because the Memphis food bank could bid higher for the available pallets of food (since it would be cheaper for the food to be shipped to Memphis than, say, Alaska or northern Idaho). Transportation costs - unlike the cost of the food itself - had to be paid by the food bank using real dollars. Not the FA monopoly money.
At the very same times that many of you complained about chicken shortages in your local supermarkets on this thread, I was finding many pounds of the frozen chicken loaded into the trunk of my car. For free.
continued to another post.
Barry Natchitoches
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Continuing on:
For a long while, high trucking costs on the open market were actually increasing the amount of chicken in my trunk. It was costing so much for the frozen meat to be shipped into your area that sales lagged.
This resulted in fewer pounds of chicken being sold by Tyson on the open market, and more chicken remaining unsold on Tyson company’s dock.
When Tyson could not sell the meat, they donated it to Feeding America, where Memphis had a distinct advantage in getting a generous share of the product because of its close location to the producer.
But now fewer chickens are being donated due to the shortages, and there has not been any chicken in my trunk for a month now.
In fact, we have not been given any meat at all for the last monrh.
The single cheapest thing that most food banks can put into people’s trunks right now is fresh produce.
Fresh produce is lighter per pallet, so it does not take as many of the internal FA dollars to win a bid for a pallet of produce than a pallet of canned goods or frozen meat.
And because it is cheaper to truck fresh produce into many geographic areas, including Memphis, that is what is hitting our trunks lately. Lots and lots of fresh produce.
The increasing cost of produce in the open market is also increasing the amount of produce being donated. When the food gets too expensive to sell on the open market, it (at least temporarily) increases what is available for food banks to offer their clientele.
This, too, is increasing the load of fresh produce I am currently bringing home to my family.
On a personal level, I love it.
Those cabbages that the Mississippi farmers over produced and now cannot sell, made for a grat cabbage soup last night for me and my DW. With her cancer, she needs to eat whole foods loaded with nutrition.
Tomato season, locally, has just about passed now. In the Memphis area, our open market is selling mostly California tomatoes now (as Florida farmers have beeN hit hard by Hurricane Ian.)
I would imagine that California agricultural cooperatives are finding it harder to sell their tomatoes on the open market, and thus, offering more tomatoes to the food bank system.
But it costs alot of real money to ship California tomatoes to Tennessee.
So, I have not seen any fresh tomatoes in my trunk since our season ended.
One time this month we were given four cans of tomato based pasta sauce, but that donation came through a completely different source - the USDA - rather than the internal Feeding America auction process.
USDA donations to food banks are an important part of this story, and I will be getting to them later. For right now, let me just say that those four cans hit my trunk through a different - yet important - route.
But whereas I have not seen any fresh tomatoes in my trunk, it has been flush with plenty of fresh garden produce every time I have gone to a food bank mobile pantry distribution this past month.
Lots of fresh squash, zucchini, cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, plums, peaches and carrots.
No onions at all, even though they are grown relatively close to us (northern Georgia). That is probably because of the onion crop failures.
We have gotten some fresh potatoes, too, but far less than we normally get. And have gotten very few apples (as apples do not grow well in these parts).
I think the potatoes and apples that we have gotten have come from the USDA’s emergency food (TEFAP) program and not Feeding America, which is one reason why we are able to get any at all. I think USDA pays transportation costs for USDA foods.
Meantime, we have not gotten any hot sauce or tobasco products in my part of town, despite the fact that transportation costs out of Loiusiana are not all that bas.
What little hot stuff that the Memphis food bank does bif for is mostly distributed to those distributions that tend to serve lots of hispanics, as they tend to like the hot stuff more than average Memphians.
For a long while, high trucking costs on the open market were actually increasing the amount of chicken in my trunk. It was costing so much for the frozen meat to be shipped into your area that sales lagged.
This resulted in fewer pounds of chicken being sold by Tyson on the open market, and more chicken remaining unsold on Tyson company’s dock.
When Tyson could not sell the meat, they donated it to Feeding America, where Memphis had a distinct advantage in getting a generous share of the product because of its close location to the producer.
But now fewer chickens are being donated due to the shortages, and there has not been any chicken in my trunk for a month now.
In fact, we have not been given any meat at all for the last monrh.
The single cheapest thing that most food banks can put into people’s trunks right now is fresh produce.
Fresh produce is lighter per pallet, so it does not take as many of the internal FA dollars to win a bid for a pallet of produce than a pallet of canned goods or frozen meat.
And because it is cheaper to truck fresh produce into many geographic areas, including Memphis, that is what is hitting our trunks lately. Lots and lots of fresh produce.
The increasing cost of produce in the open market is also increasing the amount of produce being donated. When the food gets too expensive to sell on the open market, it (at least temporarily) increases what is available for food banks to offer their clientele.
This, too, is increasing the load of fresh produce I am currently bringing home to my family.
On a personal level, I love it.
Those cabbages that the Mississippi farmers over produced and now cannot sell, made for a grat cabbage soup last night for me and my DW. With her cancer, she needs to eat whole foods loaded with nutrition.
Tomato season, locally, has just about passed now. In the Memphis area, our open market is selling mostly California tomatoes now (as Florida farmers have beeN hit hard by Hurricane Ian.)
I would imagine that California agricultural cooperatives are finding it harder to sell their tomatoes on the open market, and thus, offering more tomatoes to the food bank system.
But it costs alot of real money to ship California tomatoes to Tennessee.
So, I have not seen any fresh tomatoes in my trunk since our season ended.
One time this month we were given four cans of tomato based pasta sauce, but that donation came through a completely different source - the USDA - rather than the internal Feeding America auction process.
USDA donations to food banks are an important part of this story, and I will be getting to them later. For right now, let me just say that those four cans hit my trunk through a different - yet important - route.
But whereas I have not seen any fresh tomatoes in my trunk, it has been flush with plenty of fresh garden produce every time I have gone to a food bank mobile pantry distribution this past month.
Lots of fresh squash, zucchini, cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, plums, peaches and carrots.
No onions at all, even though they are grown relatively close to us (northern Georgia). That is probably because of the onion crop failures.
We have gotten some fresh potatoes, too, but far less than we normally get. And have gotten very few apples (as apples do not grow well in these parts).
I think the potatoes and apples that we have gotten have come from the USDA’s emergency food (TEFAP) program and not Feeding America, which is one reason why we are able to get any at all. I think USDA pays transportation costs for USDA foods.
Meantime, we have not gotten any hot sauce or tobasco products in my part of town, despite the fact that transportation costs out of Loiusiana are not all that bas.
What little hot stuff that the Memphis food bank does bif for is mostly distributed to those distributions that tend to serve lots of hispanics, as they tend to like the hot stuff more than average Memphians.
ioujc
MARANTHA!! Even so, come LORD JESUS!!!
The only fresh produce or meat that we receive at food banks in my part of the Ozarks, is canned chicken or salmon, And as far fresh produce, I have gotten small bags of potatoes 3 months in a row. Twice it has been Yukon Gold taters, which I LOVE!
I buy a LOT of meat that has been reduced, due to not selling immediately. I find the best days to buy meat is on Monday mornings and Wednesday afternoons. Mondays it is the meat that didn't sell over the weekend. Wednesday afternoons, you can get reduced meat from the old sale ads, which change on that day. I also get reduced produce that has NOTHING WRONG with it, again, due to the change in sale bills on that day. Overall, I make out like a BANDIT!!!
ANYONE can do this if you eat according to the sales!! It is NOT difficult and allows me to have SIGNIFIGANTLY MORE food for about HALF the price!! ADD to that, digital coupons, reward points and amounts, and cash back for elderly individuals at Harp's or Cash Savers stores that have that program set up.
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Barry Natchitoches
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Continuing on:
Alot of what I have covered thus far, you probably already knew. I might have provided an understanding of the system that you did not have before, but other than that, you might have sensed alot of the rest of the story. Even if you did not know the specifics.
But now, I am going to venture out into some things that you may not know - but will affect YOU folks buying food in the open market in the next few months. In a way you might not be expecting.
That will be in my next post, as my battery is almost dead, and I will have to continue this on my wife’s fully charged tablet.
Alot of what I have covered thus far, you probably already knew. I might have provided an understanding of the system that you did not have before, but other than that, you might have sensed alot of the rest of the story. Even if you did not know the specifics.
But now, I am going to venture out into some things that you may not know - but will affect YOU folks buying food in the open market in the next few months. In a way you might not be expecting.
That will be in my next post, as my battery is almost dead, and I will have to continue this on my wife’s fully charged tablet.
Barry Natchitoches
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Quick note, before I go on with my narrative: As I understand it, don’t you live in the Ozark mountains?
Trucking fresh produce into your area would be much more expensive than my area (Memphis).
Yet the food per pound, at least on the Feeding America national bidding platform - is the same whether the food bank is “buying” canned chicken or eggplant.
I am guessing, of course, but it may be that if your food bank is going to have to pay high shipping costs anyway, that they would rather spend those dollars shipping in canned protein than fresh squash.
Just a thought…
bracketquant
Veteran Member
Up here in New England, which is not the hot bed for hot food, food insecure people (all races and colors) at the soup kitchens and food pantries, appear to use far, far more hot sauce than most people. Many put it on basically every meal. If there's a large demand up here, I can't imagine what it's like down south.
Wyominglarry
Veteran Member
I see people at food pantries with thousands of dollars worth of tats and driving very nice cars. I do not feel sorry for most of them. they made poor life decisions.
bracketquant
Veteran Member
If you want STRONG, try Asian cutting celery.
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