**Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Kim Foster for an ARC of this book!**

"Hunger is not a problem. It is an obscenity. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." - Anne Frank

Kim Foster's Las Vegas community is full of poverty, and it comes in all shapes and sizes. There are neighbors dealing with every struggle under the sun from addiction to homelessness to the cycle of foster care, and Kim and her husband are there to lend a kind ear and more often, to provide a meal. Food is the universal language of love, after all, and when Kim gets the idea to start a community pantry in her front yard, this tiny spark of kindness blossoms into an impassioned flame, growing and expanding its reach ever further during the height of COVID.

But as her tiny yard pantry becomes a true beacon of hope for one of the hardest hit communities in the United States, conflict and trouble also follow, and Kim begins to question the future of the endeavor. Can she truly feed everyone who needs her help? And what about the bigger social issues and systemic issues at play? If she continues to provide a "Band Aid" in her own sense, isn't that just saying to the world that she is okay with picking up the slack in a country that often exploits its poorest, KEEPING them stuck in that strata...literally gridlocked in a cycle of generational poverty with no hope for escape?

I was drawn to this read primarily because of the focus on social issues, and the discussion of wealth and income inequality and how it relates to food (or the lack thereof). While Foster does spend PLENTY of time in the book discussing different aspects of these issues, she spends a lot MORE time with 'case studies' in the form of essays...and long, descriptive passages about some of the recipes she cooks for various people in her life. While the beginning of this book caught my attention (Foster literally details how she found a man working on her house passed out in the backyard from meth---that'll grab you!), the focus doesn't solely stay on this man and his family...and this is where she started to lose me.

It was very unclear (to me at least) what Foster's role even was---was she simply an altruistic foster parent who's also a foodie? Although it wasn't necessarily needed, I think a bit more background on Foster's life and times would have been helpful for context. There are so many different sets of people introduced via their stories throughout the book that by the time I got comfortable reading about a few of them, we were then introduced to someone else. For this reason, I never felt like I got into the 'groove' of the book. It was hard to balance so many individual stories and try to find the through lines, and I didn't get the emotional punch I was hoping to find, with such an inside look at some of the deepest and darkest struggles of those in her community.

The food descriptions were also just OTT for me. I know this is what Foster is known for (to some extent) so I probably should have prepared myself more for this fact, but as much as I love EATING incredible food (and have no doubt of Foster's culinary prowess!) I don't really need to read a page and a half or more each time she mentions a recipe. Again, the writing is probably drool-worthy to foodies and connoisseurs: this just isn't me. Again, I realize food is the driving force behind the entire book so in some respects it makes SENSE for Foster to include them: I just could have lived without it.

There's also a LOT of 'random' research sprinkled in to remind you that Foster's done her homework: some of it impactful, some that seemed sort of sporadically interspersed. In some ways, it made the whole book feel a bit less focused than I would have liked, and took away from the conversation I found more compelling: a look at how the criminal justice system and foster care system have essentially devolved into systems that keep people poor rather than give them a pathway out of poverty. Children sometimes end up with foster parents when their parents can't afford to keep them fed, clothed, or clean...yet in a foster family, the foster parents are given a check to help pay for the child's care. Who's to say if the birth parent received the same funding instead that they COULDN'T provide a suitable living environment?

Foster also brings up how misdemeanors in the criminal justice system were originally invented to 'find reasons' to criminalize people: you roll through a stop sign, get pulled over, end up with a ticket, can't pay the ticket, and now have a warrant for your arrest...and everything spirals from there. These are monumental, systemic problems: some that are being addressed, and many that are yet to be addressed in a meaningful way...and THIS is the book I was hoping to read. The whole premise of this one began as an article and in some respects, I actually preferred reading the brief article to reading this whole book. While I find Foster kind, honest, thoughtful, and inspirational, I believe I grew more enamored with her discussion of how we COULD change the world if everyone got on board rather than the in depth exploration of the various ways she tried to do it personally.

Though the structure and some of the detail in the finished product didn't quite give me the satisfaction I was looking for, this book was far from 'bare bones'....and in terms of the ever evolving discussion on how to truly solve poverty in our world?

It proved MORE than enough to whet my appetite!

3.5 stars


#TheMethLunches #KimFoster #SMPInfluencers #StMartinsPress

Such a chilling and raw look into the lives and struggles of families battling with addiction, poverty, and uncertainty.

The Meth Lunches by Kim Foster offers an important perspective and is a very impactful read. This easily digestible (haha see what I did there) non-fiction describes foster's experience integrating the vulnerable, indigent, and unhoused into her community as a friend, foster parent, and administrator of a little free library turned viral food pantry after her move to Las Vegas. Basically using meals as a starting point for creating community. I really enjoyed reading this and recommend it to anyone looking for a new perspective on people experiencing homelessness and our larger societal problems.

Foster seamlessly weaves very important facts and historical context throughout the novel, each chapter addressing different systemic issues that our society faces-- for example, drug addition, the collateral consequences of the legal system (including things as seemingly benign as traffic tickets) for person's already living paycheck to paycheck, mental illness, and other larger problems often faced by the unhoused. Meth Lunches discusses how these larger systemic issues go hand-in-hand and raises the age old chicken or the egg question in relation to them, i.e. Are people mentally ill because are are unhoused, or unhoused because they are mental ill? There was a little saviorism mixed in, which would be hard to avoid, but I thought Foster did a very good job of calling herself out when she did that and reframing her perspective to move forward. And the book did an excellent job of highlighting the numerous systemic flaws and institutional problems (America focused) and providing context for how they came to exist, while allowing the reader to form his or her own take-aways or conclusions from that information. **This book was many things, but it was not preachy. And it was not condescending: it didn't tell me to do more, or to do anything, really.**

On a personal note, many of Foster's experiences mirrored some of my own when I was working more closely with displaced persons, both as an indigent criminal defense attorney and working on the side trying to fund and implement a mobile shower project for the unhoused. It can be rewarding, heartbreaking, frustrating, and it can just BE. I love that this book ultimately was a call to action for compassion and it's "solution" or whathaveyou (NOTE: Foster did not try to solve the experience of homelessness) was small(ish) and simple(ish) and something that everyone(ish) can work towards: build inclusive communities. Maybe it's as simple as making eye contact with your local unhoused. Saying "hi" the next time. Treating everyone with compassion, respect, and dignity. We're all a work in progress, but it might be just a little easier if we were working together.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing me with a advanced physical copy of this book and an e-arc through netgalley.

3.5 stars

This is an emotional and unfortunately relatable story (not relatable to the author).

This is life in America, and so many turn a blind eye. Foster did a good job writing with compassion and understanding. It didn’t feel like judgement, more like an open mind and heart.

I’m glad I read it, but it was difficult.

This book was so good but do not read it on an empty stomach. It’s a book about a family who moves to Nevada and with the need of day help of the workers get very involved in their plight and mistreatment The fact that she knew so much about the different day workers in the wrongs they have suffered tells me the author must be a very nice person who is approachable and talks to everyone because I was astounded at some of the things she knew about the men who worked on her studio and around her home. This book is so interesting and although I am not a big fan of biographies I found this whole book interesting and hard to stop reading. No wonder this author has won awards safari talented and this is a book I highly recommend. I want to thank the publisher and net galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

This is an informative eye opening read about poverty homelessness hunger in the streets of America.The author got to know the people she reports on from interacting with them in her neighborhood l read the first essay and knew this was a book I would really learn from and want to discuss.#netgalley #st.martins.

I really appreciated the Meth Lunches and the stories about the homeless, addicted, and mentally ill. The author handled the others' stories with compassion.

This book was well researched and addressed poverty in America in a way that wasn't preachy but still hit all the feels. An incredibly important read that offers solutions.

I received a advanced copy of this book that discusses poverty and addiction and how her providing food was how she got to know people and their stories her essays tell the story of a troubled city and her compassion for homeless and addicts and those with mental illness she tried to look for the good in people the book did jump around at times im glad she provided an update on people at the end instead of letting the reader wander how things turned out

THE METH LUNCHES looks at how food intersects with community and provides comfort even when people are addicted to drugs, incarcerated, unhoused, in the foster care system, and/or dealing with trauma, health problems, or mental illness.

Foster shares stories of people in her Las Vegas community who she fed via the food pantry she set up in her front yard during the early days of the pandemic, by cooking delicious meals, or with food from places like McDonalds. Whether it’s her drug-addicted handyman, the mothers of her foster children, the traumatized cashier at the local grocery store, or the unhomed people who seek her help, Foster emphasizes with their situations and how the system keeps people in poverty and how drugs become an escape. She explores how food becomes a comfort whether what’s being consumed is a happy meal, something cobbled together from prison food, or a dish she’s lovingly concocted in her kitchen.

This kind of book could be a big downer, but Foster infuses the stories with hope and descriptions of the magnificent meals she makes. She inspires the readers to have compassion for the people she writes about as she welcomes them to her table and into her heart.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley.

I was interested in this book after reading Benjamin Lorr's "The Secret Life of Groceries." I was hooked on the style of investigative journalism focused on food and supply chains. When scrolling through NetGalley, "The Meth Lunches" caught my eye.

The first chapter was great -- it's an essay the author had previously submitted and as she explains, it gave her her start as an essayist. I hadn't read it before, so it caught my attention, making me glad to have picked up this read.

Overall, Foster does an amazing job giving context and color to the lives of those struggling with poverty, addiction, and being unhoused. She gives us insight into the lives of her community members-turned-friends. I admire her passion and compassion for people. I think we all want to be a bit of Kim Foster. Or to at least eat something delicious from her kitchen.

But there were some parts of the book I struggled with. Chapters 2-4 were a struggle-- I was tempted to put the book down for good in places because the pacing lagged and pulled focus from the book's initial premise.

But I'm glad I stuck with it. The pacing returned by Chapter 5 onward, with the most compelling plot line of the book: the free food pantry Foster, her family, and community operated out of her front yard during COVID.

Overall three stars for me, and a huge thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher for early access to this title. The author explores the personal side of poverty in Las Vegas, with food as a lens for a series of vignettes. Very well written, puts a human touch on challenges in a city we often only think of in terms of "excesses".

A beautifully written and important, albeit depressing, series of essays about those who live along the poverty line in Las Vegas. Foster didn't expect what she found when she moved to the city but she set out to help individuals. And then she began to rail a bit against the system- or more accurately, systems. All of this is centered around food and how we as a society feed ourselves and others, Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Foster writes with an urgency that will have you turning the pages even as you might want to turn away.

I’ve been an ER nurse for 16 years. I’ve witnessed first hand how meth has changed over the years and how it has negatively affected people’s lives. The people in Portland, Oregon where I live, are suffering the same way the people in Las Vegas are. It’s an epidemic! It’s very, very sad.

This is a very thought provoking read. The author’s use of food as a way to discuss social issues was interesting. It was somewhat repetitive in parts, but still kept me engaged. I did think it was a bit strange how the author talks about many, many different fancy meals and things she likes to cook. It seemed odd in a book about people living in poverty. I also think the title was picked for shock value, but is a bit misleading. The author tells stories, but does not offer much in the way of how to truly help those suffering.

Overall, this book will have you feeling all sorts of emotions. It’s dark and sad and deeply personal. It will definitely help me look at my patients differently.

I just finished The Meth Lunches by Kim Foster and it's s story that needs to be heard and read!
It's a compelling and thought-provoking story.
And Foster's writing is phenomenal here and she touches on subjects that needs to be heard.
I thought it was an incredible and poignant non-fiction book.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press
for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I'm going to be real honest. I wanted to DNF this book so many times. The first two chapters were slow going for me, and I thought to myself, "This is not at all what I thought it was," yet I kept going, something kept urging me to read on. Somewhere in the middle of chapter two or chapter three, and I started getting into it more, then I wanted to DNF because the rawness and truly devastating and gut-wrenching stories will just shatter your heart. I got to the chapter where Kim and her family became foster parents, and being a former foster/adoptive parent myself, I could relate to so many of those stories. I pushed through, and I don't regret it.

The Meth Lunches will make you feel some type of way and will certainly have you all up in your feels. Just know that going in.

My husband and I have lost four family members in the last year to overdose between our two families. It's been a rough year, and we still have family members fighting the daily battle. Our family knows all too well the impact drugs, especially meth, fentanyl, & heroin can have on addicts and their families. This was one of the reasons I was unsure if I would be able to finish this book. Love can not and will not save addicts. It's been a hard lesson to learn and even harder to accept.

This book is about so much more than that, though. You get an inside look at poverty, homelessness, people needing food, etc. You see how quickly someone's life can lead them down this really dark path for a multitude of reasons. It's excruciatingly painful to read about, and I can't imagine having the front row seat to this daily. I'm so thankful that Kim and her family have hearts for their community, even in the midst of her own families' battles, because without them, these families in this book would have had no one.

Thank you to Netgalley & St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is the author’s story of living in Las Vegas, in a neighborhood with hunger and drugs. I thought this was going to be a lot more analytical/or at least somewhat analytical. But it was pretty much just a memoir. I think that should be in the subtitle to make it clear this is just Foster’s story.

Within the first half of the first chapter, I was convinced I was going to dislike this book. I had an inward groan as I thought it was going to be centered around performative altruism and inauthentic. I am ever so glad that it came around, slapped me in the face, and ended up being one of the more heartfelt and incredible books that I've read in a while.

Love is the act of feeding someone.
from The Meth Lunches by Kim Foster

“Poverty is a policy choice. We have poverty because we choose to have it.” Kim Foster bluntly attacks the status quo of how society deals with critical issues–homelessness, hunger, addiction, and mental illness.

Her book is engaging and enraging, compassionate and frank.

Foster and her family moved from New York City to a handyman special bungalow in Las Vegas. She tells the stories of people she befriended. The handyman meth addict living in the desert. Meth-addicted parents who lose custody of their children. The homeless. Families struggling to find food during the Covid pandemic. Traumatized foster children.

Food is at the center of the book.

If you don’t have a home, you can’t cook. If you have no income, you receive generic food boxes that rarely satisfy your needs or reflect your cultural tastes. School lunches are sadly deficient in quality and nutrition, like a breakfast of graham crackers and raisins covered in flavored sugar dust. Prison food may be spoiled and often lacking in calories and nutrition.

Feeding the hungry is an act of compassionate love. Foster fed the handyman lunch. She fostered a child with trauma from food insecurity. During the early Covid pandemic, she organized a free community food pantry, filling it with healthy food.

Her descriptions of the dishes she prepares and shares which will make your mouth water. The spices and sauces, the thick soups and crispy chicken. These are meals I would expect to be served in the finest restaurants.

Foster attacks the misdemeanor system that allows police to arrest people for vagrancy and small infarctions like rolling through a stop sign. People don’t have the money for bail. Jailed, they can’t get to their jobs. They lose their job, then they lose their home, then they lose their car, and last they lose their children—caught in a no-win cycle. This, Foster contends, is how people stay poor.

Then there is the foster care system. Parents who can’t house or feed their children lose them. The foster parents get financial and social support for the children, and the kids get health care and clothes and toys.

What if, Foster challenges, what if we gave this support to the parents so they could keep their children? “What if the goal isn’t to save the children but to save the family?” “What if free day care was available for every family, particularly struggling ones?” We need a new paradigm to solve these problems.

Another way we fail people in need is how we deal with the mentally ill. We fills the jails with them. Foster shares that WHO has called for a radical shift in how we deal with mental illness. New studies are revealing a connection between gut health and autoimmune disease and illness–once again, highlighting the importance of food.

A few years ago, an elderly woman whispered to me that “those people” were behind 90% of crime. Too many of us believe that poverty and race and criminality are connected, that “those people” don’t take care of things, that “those people” soak the government for handouts when they could get a job, that “those people” choose to be poor. We have diluted and curtailed the programs created to address poverty because we don’t trust the poor. What we have been doing doesn’t work. We ignore the problem.

Foster’s book challenges us to think of new ways to address these issues. After all, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is insanity.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

Not exactly what I was expecting but enjoyed it! A very heavy read, so go into it with that in mind. Thank you St Martins Press, Kim Foster and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read The Mets Lunches before its release!