The Meth Lunches
Food and Longing in an American City
New York : St. Martin's Press, 2023.
Format: Book
Edition: First edition.
Description: 308 pages ; 25 cm
"James Beard Award-winning author Kim Foster reveals a new portrait of hunger and humanity in America. Food is a conduit for connection; we envision smiling families gathered around a table-eating, happy, content. But what happens when poverty, mental illness, homelessness, and addiction claim a seat at the table? In The Meth Lunches, James Beard award-winning writer Kim Foster peers behind the polished visions of perfectly curated dinners and charming families to reveal complex reality when poverty and food intersect. Whether it's heirloom vegetables or a block of neon yellow government cheese, food is both a basic necessity and nuanced litmus test: what and how we eat reflects our communities, our cultures, and our place in the world. The Meth Lunches gives a glimpse into the lives of people living in Foster's Las Vegas community-the grocery store cashier who feels safer surrounded by food after surviving a childhood of hunger; the inmate baking a birthday cake with coffee creamer and Sprite; the unhoused woman growing scallions in the slice of sunlight on her passenger seat. This is what food looks like in the lives of real people. The Meth Lunches reveals stories of dysfunction intertwined with hope, of the insurmountable obstacles and fierce determination all playing out on the plates of ordinary people. It's a bold invitation to pull up a chair and reconsider our responsibilities to the most vulnerable among us. Welcome to the table"-- Provided by publisher.
Contents:
The care + feeding of a drug addict -- Surveillance of humans + their food -- Hunger, hoarding + having enough -- Food that is fast + full of meaning -- Charity, the giving + taking of food -- Food + housing, conjoined + inseparable twins -- The limits + liabilities of lunch -- Inconvenient people + the starving brain -- Slippage + the discomfort of food -- Lunch + the braided-up life.
Subjects:
People with social disabilities -- Nevada -- Las Vegas -- Social conditions.
Food security -- Nevada -- Las Vegas.
Hunger -- Social aspects -- Nevada -- Las Vegas.
Drug addiction -- Social aspects -- Nevada -- Las Vegas.
Las Vegas (Nev.) -- Social policy.
People with social disabilities -- Nevada -- Las Vegas -- Social conditions.
Food security -- Nevada -- Las Vegas.
Hunger -- Social aspects -- Nevada -- Las Vegas.
Drug addiction -- Social aspects -- Nevada -- Las Vegas.
Las Vegas (Nev.) -- Social policy.
ISBN:
9781250278777
Availability | |||
---|---|---|---|
Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
SOCIAL SCI Poverty Fos | Main (Downtown) | Third Level, Nonfiction | Out (Due: 5/24/2024) |
SOCIAL SCI Poverty Fos | Sandhills Indoors | New, Nonfiction | In |
SOCIAL SCI Poverty Fos | Wheatley (Shandon) | Nonfiction | In |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-308).