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Comment by lobbyingWins | Hacker News Reader

Can't afford food? Between food stamps and eating for $1.50/day (source- https://efficiencyiseverything.com/eat-for-1-50-per-day-layo...) I don't think the problem is the cost of food.

Rent, sure. Health insurance, sure. Food? Not the major expense, especially with food stamps.

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A lot of people live in so-called "food deserts" [1]. That means they don't have access to fresh produce or bulk ingredients like milk, flour, eggs, beans, rice, pasta, or potatoes. Instead, they're stuck with convenience store food which is mostly junk food.

If they wanted to buy healthier food they'd have to travel a long way to reach a grocery store, a problem greatly exacerbated for those who do not own a car. It's not easy to carry home 10lbs of potatoes and 10lbs of beans by public transit, let alone on foot.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert

They define "food desert" as 10 mile distance. I don't know how many of those 23 mil. don't have any means of transportation, but most probably do, in which cases 10 mile is just 10-20 minutes of driving away.

by comparison, I'm in greece and no matter where I go in this city, there's always little shops with fresh vegetable ad fruit withing a 5 minute walk tops

People are going hungry because they live in food deserts. The GP has proved this and you dismiss it. Why would people make this argument if people weren’t actually going hungry?

From the Wikipedia article (emphasis mine):

>In 2010, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that 23.5 million Americans live in "food deserts", meaning that they live more than one mile from a supermarket in urban or suburban areas and more than 10 miles from a supermarket in rural areas.[6]

Food stamps in some states are almost impossible to get.

I haven't had much luck finding milk, flour, eggs, or rice in stores unless I go at 6am. I'm not sure the state of appying for food stamps right now, but it can't be great. For unemployment, it took my friend over 3 weeks to get their unemployment debit card, and he only got it because it was sent by mistake to his neighbors house who kindly hand delivered it. California EDD is so backed up, and you can't really call them or contact them in any way right now.

Food stamps come with a whole bunch of restrictions on what you can and cannot buy with it. Want a big jug of milk to save and you need a big one anyway cause you have kids? Nope, the only approved milk is the half gallon, etc. etc. So for some people, while it might not be the top #1 problem it's def up there.

I don't think that's true, WIC is the one with restrictions like that. You can buy any food with food stamps. Certainly there is no restriction on any kind of milk.

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