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Transcription
The Real Mississippi podcast discusses the issues faced by residents of Collinsville, Mississippi, regarding the quality and availability of food. The local grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, often sells expired and moldy produce, but residents still prefer it over other options due to convenience. The store receives produce from various farmers, leading to inconsistency in quality. The lack of fresh and healthy food options in Collinsville qualifies it as a food desert. The elderly population in the area struggles to afford nutritious food, and some have resorted to illegal hunting to survive. While the Piggly Wiggly's problems may not be life-threatening, they greatly impact the community. The podcast aims to address these issues and provide better food options for the residents. Hi, I'm Liz Burton, and this is Real Mississippi, a student podcast written, recorded, and produced by students at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. The typical sights and sounds of a traditional grocery store can still be observed in a small, unincorporated community about 40 miles south of Meridian, Mississippi. However, there is one crucial sensory difference between traditional grocery stores and the ones on Collinsville. It's the appearance of the food. Instead of, This looks okay to eat. It's more like, Ew, this looks disgusting. As you glance across the produce aisle, you see moldy cauliflower, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, you name it, and it's probably the moldy-on-the-shelves Collinsville's take away. Sausages fry, vacuum-sealed on the shelves with a sell-by date of nearly a year ago. But how exactly does this affect the lives of Collinsville residents? Because the residents of Collinsville are 14 plus miles south from the nearest city, As you can see, this sometimes results in over an hour-round trip to Meridian, if they require something that Piggly Wiggly doesn't keep a date. Though the Piggly Wiggly isn't the only store in Collinsville, some residents consider it a safer option than the Dollar Store, which has failed certain inspections due to a rat infestation, which left behind a stash of dead rats wrapped within for months. So, even though the Piggly Wiggly is known for having unreliable food, many residents just prefer to accept the expiration dates, because the pig is the only grocery store around for 14 miles. Even now, a teenage employee of the Piggly Wiggly comments on the community's mentality. Yeah, so you probably said, like, the reason why it gets so much business is because it's just convenient. Yeah, I think it is. Because, literally, I have conversations with customers sometimes who are like, well, why are you here? And they're like, because it's Piggly Wiggly, and I don't want to go to Walmart. Just because of the state of the Walmart that we have. And the other one in town, like over there by Bonita, is like, you're going to get trafficked or something. So, most residents just decide to live with the Piggly Wiggly's expiration dates, because it involves the least hassle. However, according to Damon, the issues with expired produce are more complex than what can be observed at first glance. We don't do our own produce. We have people come deliver it. And they're not consistent. So, a lot of the produce will go bad. This suggests that there's more to the expiration dates than just failure of management. Matt Williams, the son of the man who owns the Piggly Wiggly, also speaks to the fact of how the Piggly Wiggly receives its produce. 90% of the produce we get comes from produce farmers all over the country. However complex the issue is, it still needs to be solved. Because it's taking a negative toll on the residents. One reason why some of them don't bring back the expired food or complain about it is because the customers feel like it's their fault for not paying attention to the expiration dates and grabbing things in a rush to get back home and cook dinner. This is problematic because residents end up feeling guilty or even stupid because the pig field will take the expired goods off the shelves. Yet, it's hard to get angry at those employees because the majority of them are children who attend the local high school. It is also just generally difficult to get things in a community like Collinville. Especially since, like the Piggly Wiggly, Collinville could fall within the definition of a food desert. A food desert can be defined as a region where access to fresh food retail is limited or non-existent. When asked about whether she would consider Hansel a food desert, Daylen says, Yeah, I'd fall into it. But like, everywhere's hot at the moment. So there's a lot of, like... It's harder to access good food everywhere, but... Right. Well, yeah, we don't have a lot of, like, access. Or to anything, really, because Collinville is shipping and we're in the middle of nowhere. The issue of fresh and healthy supplies is self-explanatory. And, as a matter of fact, comms will not be longer in this state. In more rural areas like Arkansas, this is especially a problem. Naomi Simpson, a fellow student of MSMS, has family in this state and is able to paint a picture of what these food deserts look like. She talks about how the people who live there are sometimes forced to rely on the community around them to provide for their needs, especially those who are elderly. Another thing about Arkansas is it's a lot of blue-collar, lower-income, like, minimum-wage workers. And so, even when there is food available within a distance that disqualifies a certain area from being a food swamp or a food desert, there's the question of, can I actually afford it? With Collinville's median population age rising to a 2024 average of 56 years old, a future with residents or elderly is not too far off. Naomi even goes on to explain how a grandmother who lived in one of these areas was forced to survive the majority of her adolescent life off of illegally hunted game so that her family would not starve. While the pig doesn't have quite as life-threatening of a problem as those found in other states, the pig's failure to adhere to the recommended dates on the food list greatly affects the lives of the residents. And in order to solve the large problems, we must first address the little things that stand in the way. The pig is an integral part of Collinville. And I do not desire particularly to go out of business. I just desire to provide more food that the community is comfortable with having on their tables. Because, in the words of the Derrick Gaines, where nobody wants to live in a town that doesn't have good food. I'm Liz Britton, and this is Real Mississippi. This episode has been produced by Logan Woods. If you'd like to hear more about the top ranked school in Mississippi and one of the best public high schools in the nation, please go to themsms.org.
