I travel out of state once a year to do my bulk grocery shopping because I live in a food desert.
I can do that because my sister lives where I shop so I can visit her and buy groceries at the same time. She thinks it's funny that I want to go grocery shopping when I visit her, and I think it's sad that I feel I have to travel so far to get real food.
She lives in a food oasis and I live in a food desert. I give a lot of thought to that. Since I spend time making sandwiches for homeless people, I wondered how the homeless managed. Most of them can manage to find or beg $20 a week (some more, a few less).
In Oklahoma, you really need a car, our public transport system is pathetic, expensive, and it doesn't take you anywhere you really need to go in anything close to a timely fashion. If you're lucky, you live within a mile of a bus stop and that bus actually takes you places you need to go, like work or the grocery store, in a timely manner, but chances are, it can take an hour or more to get to a store by bus and you'll probably walk at least 2 miles. That's not so bad if the weather is pleasant, but in rain, or ice, or in Oklahoma's brutal heat, that's just not doable. Especially not in our heat - food would spoil before you got it home even using thermal shopping bags.
You shop close to home, and here, that means shopping at 7-11 or Walgreen's. Our 7-11s carry bananas and apples for 50¢ each, 1 pound bags of flour for $1.00 and 1 pound bags of sugar for $2.00 (but you can buy a 2 pound box of sugar packets for $1.50), instant oatmeal packets for $1.00 each and pop tarts for $1.00 a packaged pair - or a box of 4 pairs for $3.00. Made up sandwiches are $2.99 each, but you can buy a package of lunch meat for $1.50 and a loaf of bread for $1.00 (town talk bread, both white and whole wheat) and a jar of mustard for $1.00 and make 8 sandwiches for under $4.00. An 8 ounce jar of peanut butter is $3.00, so you could make 8 peanut butter sandwiches for $4.00. You save $20.00 making your own sandwiches. Hot dogs are $4.00 a package of 10, but the 7-11 doesn't sell hot dog buns so you use slices of bread - 10 hot dogs for $5.00 is cheaper than paying $1.35 per hot dog at the gas stations that sell cooked hot dogs, you save $8.50. Canned soup is $1.50 and stews or chili are $2.00. A can of tuna is $1.25. An ounce packet of cheese or a pint of milk or a pint of orange juice costs $1.25. A 66 ounce cup of soda costs $1.00, but if you've sprung for a refillable cup ($3.00), the refill is 89¢. A can of pork and beans is $1.00. A box of saltines is $2.50.
They also carry beef jerky ($4.00 for a 1.7 ounce bag), Slim Jims ($2.00 a stick), snack cakes and cookies ($1.45 and up), chips ($1.89 and up), and individual ice creams, donuts, and "gourmet" cupcakes and muffins ($2.00 each). Peanuts are $1.00 for a snack pack.
There are no carrots, celery, potatoes, radishes, lettuces, greens, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, cabbage, berries, cucumbers, melons, squashes, cauliflower, broccoli, grapes, or green beans. The only meats are sliced lunch meats or hot dogs.
At Walgreen's you can find rice (1 pound for $1.99), dried stuffing mixes (8 ounce box for $2.00), and hamburger helper ($2.99), but no ground beef. The canned goods are a bit more extensive - you can find canned peaches ($1.50) and fruit cocktail ($1.50), canned salmon ($2.99), canned chicken ($2.00), spam ($3.99), and more canned beans than just pork and beans. You can also find bags of spaghetti noodles ($1.99) and cans of spaghetti sauce ($1.89). You can get milk in gallon jugs for $2.75, packets of Kool-ade (3 for $1.00), boxes of tea bags ($2.89), and bulk containers of Country Time Lemonade (19 ounces for $2.89). They carry ice cream and frozen TV dinners. Still no fresh veggies and the only fruit are the apples and bananas at 7-11.
If you are homeless and have $20.00 a week (and you don't have to pay tax on food, like you do here in Oklahoma), you can make some meals off the food you can find at a 7-11 or Walgreen's. If you've splurged on a $3.00 refillable 66 ounce cup at 7-11, you can refill that from any water fountain for free as well as from the soda fountain at 7-11 for 89¢. A loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter will give you 8 sandwiches for $4.00. That's 50¢ a sandwich. Add a banana or an apple for another 50¢. A $3.00 box of pop tarts will give you 4 breakfasts.
Your first week on $20.00 you get that refillable cup ($3.00), 2 loaves of whole wheat bread (2.00), 2 jars of peanut butter (6.00), 7 apples or bananas ($4.50), a box of saltines (2.50), and 2 cans of beans ($2.00). If you live in Oklahoma, you have to give up the 2 cans of beans to pay taxes. You get a piece of fruit a day, a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, a peanut butter sandwich for dinner, a snack of 1/4 packet of saltines (and 1/3 can of beans, if you didn't spend that money on taxes), 66 ounces of soda to start the week off, and then all the water you can drink. You have 2 extra peanut butter sandwiches to eat and 1/4 packet of saltines.
Your 2nd week, you have that $3.00 from the refillable cup you bought and you should still have at least 2 packets of saltines left from the box of saltines, so you have that $2.50 as well, so you can add a jar of mustard so you can trade out a jar of peanut butter for a package of lunch meats (assuming you have a way to keep the meat from spoiling during the week). If you don't buy the lunch meats, you can still use the mustard to make a spicy tuna spread for the bread. 3 cans of tuna will give you 6 - 8 sandwiches. You get 2 loaves of bread, a jar of peanut butter, 3 cans of tuna, 7 bananas or apples, and 1 can of beans (3 if you don't have to pay taxes). You have 75¢ left over from your $20.00.
By now, you're really hungry. Your third week, you decide to forgo the bananas and apples and spend that money on beef jerky instead, and that's good for 2 days. You get the bread and peanut butter, and another box of saltines. You buy 2 cans of tuna and 1 can of beans (without taxes, that could be 3 cans of beans).
By the 4th week, you're really tired of peanut butter sandwiches, but there really isn't anything you can trade off for and still eat the entire week. You sometimes skip the tuna and a can of beans to buy a canister of Country Time lemonade, because you can flavor the water with it - 1 teaspoon in 66 ounces of water gives it a slightly citrus flavor and the canister can last you a month or more. 2 loaves of bread, 2 jars of peanut butter, 2 cans of tuna, a canister of Country Time Lemonade, 7 bananas or apples. You still have half a box of saltines. If you don't pay taxes, you can add 2 cans of beans.
You eat some variation of this for as long as you can get $20 a week. If you have no wildcrafting skills, that's pretty much what you're going to be eating around here. If you luck into more than $20 in a week, you might splurge on washing your clothes or a meal in a fast food place. The dollar menus at Wendy's, Braum's, What-a-burger, Sonic, and Taco Bueno can be your friend.
If you're not homeless, you fare a bit better, because you can buy things you can cook, dried beans instead of canned beans and bags of rice. If you can get to a real grocery store instead of living off of 7-11, you can do quite a bit better, buying real meat (a $5 chicken can last you 2 weeks if you use it more as a condiment than as an entree, and it's cheaper than canned chicken by far). You might even be able to afford some veggies.
If you're not homeless, you can also grow some of your food in containers from seeds and bits of the food you buy - tomatoes, carrots, lettuces, microgreens, kale, chard, peppers, spinach, mustard green, turnips, cucumbers, peas and beans, radishes, and herbs. You might even be able to grow some berries if you have a sunny window or a patio.
I have more than $20 a week to spend on groceries if I want to, but because I bulk shop out of state and have gardens, and I can wildcraft and hunt, what I spend at the grocery store consists of the things I don't have ready access to - milk, cheese, baking soda, eggs, vinegar, cooking oil, baking powder, peanut butter, bananas, oranges, lemons, figs, celery, cabbage, grapes, cherries. I don't buy all of these all the time - milk, cheese, and eggs are weekly purchases, everything else varies according to need and season. I'll buy the occasional coconut or pineapple, for instance.
When I shop at my sister's, I buy bulk fruits and vegetables to put up, bulk flour, salt, sugar, cheeses we don't have locally, exotic herbs and spices, cooking oils, and imported foods from German Deli (mostly seasonings, German vinegar, wursts, krauts, mustard, syrups, Nutella, and gummi bears).
I know how lucky I am to have a working car and the ability to shop at good grocery stores in another state. If we had good grocery stores close by, I'd have to find some other reason to visit my sister.
Living in a food desert, even with all the advantages I have, isn't easy. It requires a lot of pre-planning.
If I were not as advantaged as I am, it would be much harder to live in a food desert, and if I were homeless? I'd do my best to find my way to somewhere else that had more and better grocery stores.