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\u2014something my frugal mom also relied on to fill our bellies in winter and fall.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
I hear a lot of that on book tour these days. Coffee prices are up by 26 percent, beef 14 percent, and chocolate \u2014 my favorite food group\u2014 has <\/span>increased 11 percent<\/a>. 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. <\/span><\/p>\n At Evie\u2019s Bistro and Bakery in Roanoke, where I\u2019ve been inhaling the eggplant-parm sandwich called Dragon\u2019s Tooth for 35 years, ingredient prices have more than doubled in the past six months. \u201cWe get a big food delivery every Friday,\u201d said owner Amelia Ammann, whose parents opened the fabulously popular Wildflour Bakery that grew to spawn four other popular eateries.<\/p>\n \u201cThat delivery used to cost me $2,500 to $3,000,\u201d Amman added. \u201cNow it\u2019s pushing seven grand,\u201d and profits are scant.<\/p>\n She hesitates to raise the prices for customers; she\u2019s already noticed her patrons are eating out less , and that national chains that bulk-buy foods are charging less than she can afford to. \u201cIt\u2019s getting really scary,\u201d she told me. \u201cMy take on all this is they\u2019re trying to completely abolish small business with the tariffs and then coming after our workforce, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Amman is doubling down on turning Evie\u2019s into a safe space for marginalized groups and a community gathering spot. She\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The USDA cuts dropped on Americans in the wake of DOGE and forthcoming cuts to Medicaid make supporting local gathering spaces like Evie\u2019s, on Fourth Street in Roanoke\u2019s Old Southwest , even more critical. \u201cWe need to really dig into our community now more than ever,\u201d she said. \u201cRelying on each other instead of Amazon or Walmart. Like, \u2018Come to Evie\u2019s instead of Chik-Fil-A.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Most worryingly, if the federal government shutdown continues, 177,651 Southwest Virginians will lose their SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits\u2014colloquially known as food stamps\u2014on November 1, according to Pamela Irvine, executive director of our region\u2019s Feeding Southwest Virginia food bank.<\/p>\n 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: \u201cWe are struggling, and I need help with food and whatever other resources are available.\u201d<\/p>\n Another caller reported: \u201cI am homeless staying at the Travel Inn\u2026 . My mom and my fiance passed away within the last few months, and I have no one to help me at all. I\u2019m disabled and on disability, but it\u2019s eating all my money up just to scrape up rent. I sold a car just to make this week\u2019s rent; I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m going to do next Monday but I\u2019m out food and I haven\u2019t started receiving food stamps yet. \u2026 Is there any way I can get a food box delivered to me here at my room?\u201d<\/p>\n Irvine calls the SNAP program \u201cthe first line of defense\u201d for the 114,000 people the food bank helps feed; roughly half of the neighbors in recipients\u2019 catchment areas rely on food stamps. \u201cFood banks can\u2019t make up the difference. People are already anxious; they\u2019re calling and wanting to know where they can get food. We\u2019re trying to prepare organizationally now as we would for any disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n 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, \u201cI need to keep my powder dry.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIn general in this country, we do not lack the resources to fix food insecurity; we lack the conviction,\u201d Hardwicke said. Here\u2019s what the experts suggested we do:<\/p>\n \u2022 Check on your neighbors, even if they don\u2019t seem to be the type to rely on food assistance. Forty percent of people who need food assistance don\u2019t qualify for SNAP, Hardwicke said, and a car repair or utility bill can mean the difference between going hungry or not.<\/p>\n \u2022 Reach out to your federal representatives and ask them to restore the cuts made to food programs in Trump\u2019s OBBB.<\/p>\n \u2022 Roanoke-area attendees of the rallies outside Congressman Ben Cline\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u2022 If you aren\u2019t already making donations to Feeding Southwest Virginia part of your monthly routine, please consider <\/span>doing so here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n 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: \u201cIt\u2019s like getting to attend my own funeral with the added benefit of not having to die.\u201d Thank you, Roanoke! And thanks to Carole Tarrant for organizing such a flawless event.<\/p>\n From St. Louis to Winston-Salem to the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, the main question on readers\u2019 minds was this: How do we get through Thanksgiving? How do we mend fences with relatives whose views repulse us?<\/p>\n I\u2019m not an expert, though I\u2019ve spent the past two years trying out various divide-bridging techniques \u2013 with mixed results. I\u2019ve lost relatives and friends along the way, and I\u2019ve managed to patch some relationships up, too.<\/p>\n \u2022 Show up for the dinner. You don\u2019t have to stay for more than an hour if you don\u2019t want to, but go (and, obviously, bring a dish\u2014maybe my <\/span>all-time favorite stuffing recipe<\/a>?). 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\u2019s OK to follow the words of Mr. Rogers, who advised \u201cuse your words.\u201d It\u2019s OK to say, \u201cI\u2019m getting mad, and if we want to have a relationship at all, let\u2019s not discuss this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 Try not to take things so personally\u2014I know, I know. That\u2019s easier than it sounds with family members who\u2019ve been pushing your buttons since you were five! Extend grace, especially when a person hasn\u2019t had the same exposure to difference or the same experiences as you.<\/p>\n \u2022 Lastly, I remind people: Rediscover the things that once bound you together as a family, whether it\u2019s a favorite card game or my Mom\u2019s bawdy Irish toast. (I\u2019ve been making readers recite it with me at the end of events.) We have to start mending our fractures.<\/p>\n TOUR NOTES AND ADDITIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m 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 <\/span>this link to join<\/a> the livestream.)<\/span><\/p>\n Tomorrow night I\u2019ll be at the Historic Masonic Theatre in Clifton Forge, where many of the scenes in Hulu\u2019s \u201cDopesick\u201d were shot. (You can hear me talk about that and more in this video from the <\/span>Allegheny Journal<\/a>.) Tuesday at Virginia Tech, I\u2019ll be keynoting <\/span>a humanities conference<\/a> at the Moss Arts Center at 7 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m 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,![\"\"](\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!Q2kt!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe89f77b-6b35-4fff-8c55-1a8fccce430a_4032x3024.jpeg%20424w)
<\/picture> followed by a last-minute diverted flight to Charlottesville, where I was rescued by my seat-mate and new friend, Dawn who took me to her home in Lexington, where my husband picked me up.<\/p>\n