48.1 million Americans are currently food insecure.
When most people think of food insecurity, they think of food deserts. A food desert is a community that does not have access to healthy foods, meaning those that live in a city, an island, or somewhere far from fresh foods, or they simply cannot make it to a supermarket that provides nutrient dense products. While food deserts are an extreme issue in America, there is another problem happening right under our noses-even in your "Garden State." This problem is that while there might be plenty of healthy food to choose from at the super market, or at the produce market, many people still don't have access to it. Why? Because they can't afford it.
In many places fast food is significantly cheaper than a few pounds of produce. Fast food meals don't require much knowledge, cookware, or even electricity. With $2, anyone can go to McDonald's and purchase a meal that requires no effort. The same cannot be said about taking $2 to ShopRite.
14% of all the households in the United States are food insecure, and another 6% are extremely food insecure. (FeedingAmerica.Org)
Doug Rauch, former executive of Trader Joe's is trying to change that, one grocery store at a time.
"Hunger and wasted food are two problems that could have one solution." -Doug Rauch, Founder of Daily Table and former Executive for Trader Joe's
Daily Table is a starter company aimed at giving lower income families the option to not only feed themselves-but to do so healthily. As a not-for-proft company, Daily Table started in Dorchester, Massachusetts; not-for-profit meaning that the focus of this store is not to create a large income for the executives, but rather to better the community.
In order to bring low price nutritious foods to the shelves, Daily Table is partnered with vendors such as Stonyfield, Wegman's, and Whole Foods, to purchase rejected foods at really low prices. Daily Table also operates with the help of food donations from various organizations. To see more of the funders and vendors of this project visit their site here.
Most of what is sold, by request of the community, is pre prepared fresh foods, made in the kitchen that day. The executive chef, Ismail Samad, has his staff working diligently each day with the incoming foods they receive.
The menu is constantly changing based off of what shipments the store has accepted, and what foods they have a surplus of. Most prepared meals and snacks are under $2. The idea here is to compete with "fast food" stores, to bring fresher more healthy options to this community. The prices for the shelved products are also extremely cheap, many items being under a dollar.
To give an idea of just how cheap their products are, here I've compared their prices with some of the prices at the local ShopRite, which currently happens to be the cheapest supermarket in my area.
A dozen eggs: Daily Table, $1.29 // ShopRite, $2.89
Cereal: Daily Table, $.70 // ShopRite, $3.49
Tuna: Daily Table, $.55 // ShopRite, $.99
While there may be cheaper grocery stores than ShopRite, this just goes to show that a food insecure family in my area could literally spend less than half of what they are currently spending on their groceries, had there been a Daily Table in my community.
