From Beth Macy 'Thinning pantries, the soaring price of fall chili, and America's Thanksgiving dilemma'
Thinning pantries, the soaring price of fall chili, and America’s Thanksgiving dilemma. ‘We do not lack the resources to fix food insecurity; we lack the conviction.’ Posted with permission from Beth Macy from her October 22, 2025 post.
As the leaves morphed from amber to burnt orange, my dear friend and hairdresser told me she was struggling to afford ingredients for the chili she makes to herald autumn—something my frugal mom also relied on to fill our bellies in winter and fall.
My hairdresser has two daughters in college studying the health professions, and they are accruing student debt, as so many are. Their dad, a school teacher, manages rental properties as a side hustle, and his wife helps, both of them often working 50 to 60 hour weeks. Last week, the couple could only afford to buy the cheapest ground beef (rather than the lean kind they prefer), draining off the grease.
They remember a time, earlier in their three-decade marriage, when if they needed to buy a decent used car, they could do it. But no more.
I hear a lot of that on book tour these days. Coffee prices are up by 26 percent, beef 14 percent, and chocolate — my favorite food group— has increased 11 percent. A Roanoke retailer told me he was going to have to stop selling the Brazil-imported beans at his shop because of a 50-percent tariff the Trump administration slapped on that country. The owner of a kitchen store I frequent said her last order of products totaled $1,700 when she ordered it but, with the last-minute tariff added, the bill came to $2,400.
At Evie’s Bistro and Bakery in Roanoke, where I’ve been inhaling the eggplant-parm sandwich called Dragon’s Tooth for 35 years, ingredient prices have more than doubled in the past six months. “We get a big food delivery every Friday,” said owner Amelia Ammann, whose parents opened the fabulously popular Wildflour Bakery that grew to spawn four other popular eateries.
“That delivery used to cost me $2,500 to $3,000,” Amman added. “Now it’s pushing seven grand,” and profits are scant.
She hesitates to raise the prices for customers; she’s already noticed her patrons are eating out less , and that national chains that bulk-buy foods are charging less than she can afford to. “It’s getting really scary,” she told me. “My take on all this is they’re trying to completely abolish small business with the tariffs and then coming after our workforce, too.”
Amman is doubling down on turning Evie’s into a safe space for marginalized groups and a community gathering spot. She’s holding the first in a series of open mics starting today at 5:30 p.m., this one for supporters of domestic and social violence survivors.
The USDA cuts dropped on Americans in the wake of DOGE and forthcoming cuts to Medicaid make supporting local gathering spaces like Evie’s, on Fourth Street in Roanoke’s Old Southwest , even more critical. “We need to really dig into our community now more than ever,” she said. “Relying on each other instead of Amazon or Walmart. Like, ‘Come to Evie’s instead of Chik-Fil-A.’ ”
Most worryingly, if the federal government shutdown continues, 177,651 Southwest Virginians will lose their SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits—colloquially known as food stamps—on November 1, according to Pamela Irvine, executive director of our region’s Feeding Southwest Virginia food bank.
Helpline calls from desperate recipients have doubled in recent weeks, Irvine said, including a Smyth County resident who said her Mom and sister, who head a family of six, including small children, were almost completely out of food. A Salem parent called to say: “We are struggling, and I need help with food and whatever other resources are available.”
Another caller reported: “I am homeless staying at the Travel Inn… . My mom and my fiance passed away within the last few months, and I have no one to help me at all. I’m disabled and on disability, but it’s eating all my money up just to scrape up rent. I sold a car just to make this week’s rent; I don’t know what I’m going to do next Monday but I’m out food and I haven’t started receiving food stamps yet. … Is there any way I can get a food box delivered to me here at my room?”
Irvine calls the SNAP program “the first line of defense” for the 114,000 people the food bank helps feed; roughly half of the neighbors in recipients’ catchment areas rely on food stamps. “Food banks can’t make up the difference. People are already anxious; they’re calling and wanting to know where they can get food. We’re trying to prepare organizationally now as we would for any disaster.”
In Floyd, Va., Plenty Farm and Food Bank director Shannon Hardwicke is serving a record number of first-time clients. Some longtime donors have cut back on giving because of general economic uncertainty, with one saying, “I need to keep my powder dry.” Donations from people who usually over-buy their own groceries so they can donate to Plenty have also decreased by a third since the start of the year, and grocers are donating far less of their excess food, too.
“In general in this country, we do not lack the resources to fix food insecurity; we lack the conviction,” Hardwicke said. Here’s what the experts suggested we do:
• Check on your neighbors, even if they don’t seem to be the type to rely on food assistance. Forty percent of people who need food assistance don’t qualify for SNAP, Hardwicke said, and a car repair or utility bill can mean the difference between going hungry or not.
• Reach out to your federal representatives and ask them to restore the cuts made to food programs in Trump’s OBBB.
• Roanoke-area attendees of the rallies outside Congressman Ben Cline’s office collect nonperishable food each week that volunteers with DoGood Virginia then deliver to area pantries. Join us at the intersection of Franklin and Jefferson between noon and 1 p.m. Mondays.
• If you aren’t already making donations to Feeding Southwest Virginia part of your monthly routine, please consider doing so here.
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Thanks to folks who keep coming out for my book-launch events, especially the 400 people who attended my Roanoke book launch last week. Roanoke has been my reporting home for 36 years, and as I looked over the sold-out crowd, I told my faithful readers: “It’s like getting to attend my own funeral with the added benefit of not having to die.” Thank you, Roanoke! And thanks to Carole Tarrant for organizing such a flawless event.
From St. Louis to Winston-Salem to the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, the main question on readers’ minds was this: How do we get through Thanksgiving? How do we mend fences with relatives whose views repulse us?
I’m not an expert, though I’ve spent the past two years trying out various divide-bridging techniques – with mixed results. I’ve lost relatives and friends along the way, and I’ve managed to patch some relationships up, too.
• Show up for the dinner. You don’t have to stay for more than an hour if you don’t want to, but go (and, obviously, bring a dish—maybe my all-time favorite stuffing recipe?). One thing I learned from my frequent visits to Ohio for the book is that showing up matters. When offended, avoid discussing politics if you can. It’s OK to follow the words of Mr. Rogers, who advised “use your words.” It’s OK to say, “I’m getting mad, and if we want to have a relationship at all, let’s not discuss this.”
• Try not to take things so personally—I know, I know. That’s easier than it sounds with family members who’ve been pushing your buttons since you were five! Extend grace, especially when a person hasn’t had the same exposure to difference or the same experiences as you.
• Lastly, I remind people: Rediscover the things that once bound you together as a family, whether it’s a favorite card game or my Mom’s bawdy Irish toast. (I’ve been making readers recite it with me at the end of events.) We have to start mending our fractures.
TOUR NOTES AND ADDITIONS
I’m looking forward to speaking at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C., at 7 p.m. tonight, in conversation with the inimitable Andrea Pitzer, my dear colleague and friend. (See this link to join the livestream.)
Tomorrow night I’ll be at the Historic Masonic Theatre in Clifton Forge, where many of the scenes in Hulu’s “Dopesick” were shot. (You can hear me talk about that and more in this video from the Allegheny Journal.) Tuesday at Virginia Tech, I’ll be keynoting a humanities conference at the Moss Arts Center at 7 p.m.
I’m so relieved that the airline travel part of my tour is mostly behind me, and my husband is driving us to D.C. as I type. This, after a 12-hour day of air travel on Sunday, by which I mean delays and delays,
In the meantime, I’ll be adding more events to my website in the coming weeks, including details for another livestream-able conversation in Abingdon with the great Barbara Kingsolver on December 10. Thanks to the Friends of the Washington County Public Library for suggesting and organizing that.