How well can you eat in C’ville on $50/week? As it turns out…meh. #
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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I would think if you used the blue ridge food bank, stopped by a soup kitchen a few times a week, and spent the $50 like it was the last money you would ever have, then you should have money left over at the end of the week. Of course you won’t be shopping at H.T. If you use your brain this can be done easily.
Rice and Beans. High nutrition, low cost.
“Imagine this: community dollars supporting community farmers, a more resilient food system, and every American able to find and afford fresh, local food.” If we define “local” to mean Virginian, do Virginia farmers produce enough of a variety of foods that all Virginians can eat locally?
“One local family, for example, spends 15 percent of its income on food, which may sound manageable, until you realize this translates into a meager $75 per week to feed seven mouths.” I hope each those mouths use this information to see that they take advantage of the 13 to 14 years of free public education, free books, free transportation, free school supplies, free clothes, coats, gloves and shoes, free breakfast and free lunch to make sure they embark upon a career as opposed to providing seven more mouths to feed.
If we’re supposed to count on people visiting soup kitchens and food banks, then, well, the terrorists have won. I certainly hope that comment was tongue in cheek.
Pretty pathetic that given the real definition of local food, all that could be found was alcohol. Sure, that’s great, but with the amazing wealth of meat, dairy and produce available VERY close to home, why can’t more grocery stores stock those items? After all, they would save money, their customers would save money and the overall local economy would be stronger.
Dan Kachur, do the local farmers produce enough food to stock our local grocery shelves or will they have to have other suppliers? If they do, then I suspect that they must contract for it. Also, I suspect the local grocers expect to have a certain volume of goods each week to make sure their customers are satisfied, so could they do without outside sources? What I don’t know is why the local farmers don’t supply more through farmers’ markets. They’re big in Europe and S. America so I guess they could be bigger here. I remember when I was a child, there used to be farmers who road throughout the neighborhoods each week, selling vegetable produce and had quite a few regular customers. This was during a time when many people in the city had their own gardens in their side or back yards growing corn, tomatoes, beens, cabbage, peas, squash, potatoes, etc. Many locals drove around Albemarle, particularly around Crozet, and bought bushels of apples, peaches, watermelon, pears, etc.from the larger farms and orchards. All of that’s changed now, and I suspect economics had a great deal to do with it. It would interesting to get a local farmer’s take on it. Maybe that couple that are periodically harrassed by the government about their slaughtered meat could weigh in.
You’ll want to read the 2006 regional food assessment for more on that. It’s actually a wicked interesting read. In a nutshell, no, local farmers don’t produce enough food to do so, though in substantial part because the demand isn’t there. So long as land is valued more for houses than for farming (that is, the profit from farming that land is less than the profit from selling it), it’s tough to see how that will change.
Of course, there’s the secondary problem that farmers don’t grow the food-like-substances that make up the bulk of most people’s diets. But that’s a problem of eating, not of farming.