I was just on the food thread, and you know what strikes me as absurd? The fact that people keep ragging on the poor for their food choices, as if they had alternatives. I'm not poor, yet I can't afford most fish these days, unless it's got Mrs. Paul's or Gorton's on the package. (I prefer the latter, actually.) Chicken, which used to be the be-all and end-all for low prices, along with ground beef, is now through the roof, unless you count the higher priced cuts of meat like lamb, etc.

What can poor people buy? Pasta...large loaves of white bread...potatoes...I could go on, but you get the drift, I'm sure. Not to mention junk food, which is extremely tempting, and no wonder why.

I've been in grocery stores in poorer areas of the US where people made rude comments because someone used food stamps to buy chips and beer. Not that I approve if that's all they buy, but who's business is it of theirs? How can we teach nutrition if the prices are too high to make it realistic?

How can you get people to buy prescriptions if it means giving up something else? I'm thinking about Vets, here. BTW, the waiting period for prescriptions used to be 6 months where I used to live.

Fresh vegetables? I don't know about you, but where I live, they're at a premium at the grocery store, which is why I got a membership at Costco's. But that price keeps rising, too. I get more pound per buck there, and the quality is better, but what are the poor supposed to do? They can't even get there, if they could split a membership.

I did some volunteer work before Thanksgiving quite a while ago with a group I belonged to. We went to grocery stores and asked for pledges of food, turkeys and all of the fixings or whatever the store manager/owner wanted to donate. We signed them up and then went back to pick up and distribute the food. I was quite pleased with the results. However, when we were in the initial phases, I had a couple of markets I had to visit that were in poorer areas, and I can't tell you how disgusted I was by the lack of quality of their produce and their meat departments. The meat was literally green in the wrapper. Not just one pack, but almost all. Spoiled fruit and vegetables...it was a travesty. We only asked them for canned or frozen products, and at that we were reluctant. I'm sure that still exists. Is it any wonder the poor react the way they do?