A diet fueled by food stamps is making South Texans obese but leaving them hungry

[haele]

92. I know, I live in Chollas View. But the bodegas are getting better about fresh food.

And the local IGA isn't too bad.

But honestly, I think a lot of the "food desert" is a mixture of culture and city planning. When I lived in North Park, an elderly original neighbor used to tell me that he had arrangements with all the neighbors to pick and sell the fruit and vegetables from their back yards - and he did this from 1938 wen he moved into the "new" development up until 1972, when the last of the neighbors stopped growing enough to sell.

Here in Chollas, we've had an influx of refugees and immigrants here, and there's a huge agricultural and home cooking tradition that promotes these stores to stock a better selection of produce at reasonable prices. Heck, there's a small Laotian grocery down the street where occasionally, they purchase fruits and veggies come from my next-door neighbor's 1940's style "double" back yard, where he's got seven or eight fruit trees (persimmons, blood orange, figs, pummelos, citron), two each dragonfruit vines, lychee and mango bushes and a three planter beds full of south-east Asian herbs and vegetables. His kids come over every weekend to pick and pack a few bags to sell for the local markets. Across the street, another neighbor provides sapotas, limes, lemons, loquats, and guava when they ripen, they do the same thing with other local markets. And they've been doing this since the 70's.

White-bread areas like El Cajon and Lemon Grove do have problems - and my theory is that seems to be more of a symptom of middle/working class "American Happy Days" stereotype on steroids - the family structure has broken down and advertising shows them how food, friends, and family are supposed to interact - which is to grab snacks or eat out. Cooking or bringing your own food means you're a loser. If you can buy something and eat it there, it's a sign of success. Sort of a modern day hunter/gatherer. Only the hunting tool is money...

But, I digress. Some of the homegrown nurseries (City Farmer, in particular), the county DoA, and a few of the CFA groups have gotten together to get several community teaching gardens going in vacant lots - including two that are technically in Lemon Grove and Paradise Hills.
They get a lot of the "at risk" youth to work and have started going "big time", selling at the Little Italy and Hillcrest farmer's market; I got some great Okra, Basil, and Japanese eggplants from their booth a couple weeks ago at a very reasonable price.

But that's pretty much because we live in Southern California

Haele