At times, The Meth Lunches tried to do too much and bordered on saviorism. But there’s no denying it’s an important topic and the writing is super.

Kim Foster and her husband, David, create a food pantry in front of their house—and later, inside it—during the pandemic. It begins with the employment of one hungry handyman who’s also an addict, and from there, it mushrooms. This is her memoir of that time, and also a philosophical treatise on poverty and hunger in the United States.

My thanks go to Net Galley, RB Media, and St. Martin’s Press for the review copies. This book is for sale now.

When Foster’s family moves from New York to Las Vegas, one of the first thing she notices is the meth. It’s everywhere. Perhaps it is the milder weather; addicts in New York have to find a spot out of the weather during much of the year, but Vegas is in the desert, mild enough for the unhoused to sleep just about anywhere, warm enough that addicts don’t have to hide themselves away to get high.

The pandemic hits Vegas hard. So many people make their living from some aspect of the entertainment business, and for a while, it is a dead industry. And so, after hiring a man with an obvious dependency to do work on their property—work that he never completes—and hearing his story, the Fosters decide to convert the little free library in front of their home to a little free pantry. And from there, it mushrooms.

The pantry begins small, but Foster is a chef, and she can’t stand the notion of just putting out pre-packaged crap when she can cook food with fresh ingredients that will make others feel better. And as the book takes off, I momentarily regret taking this galley, because I generally hate stories that drop recipes into the middle of the plot. If I want cooking information, I’d rather go to a cookbook, or to a recipe website. And it was right there in the title, after all: The Meth Lunches. It’s pretty obvious from the get go that lunch is going to be juxtaposed with social issues.

But as the story continues, I don’t hate it after all. For one thing, this whole book is nonfiction. There’s no plot that is sidelined by a recipe. The whole point is that that Foster considers food, and the act of feeding others, to be a sort of therapy. She makes the point well.

Eventually, the scale of the operation becomes mind boggling. Multiple freezers to hold meat; trucks that deliver food. The pantry begins as an out-of-pocket gift from the Fosters to the down and out of Las Vegas, occasionally supplemented via Venmo from friends, when they are able to help. Inevitably, the pantry finds its way into the local media, and networks form with other food banks and nonprofits.

In between all of this, Foster develops relationships with some of the people that come by. She and her husband are foster parents—ironic, given their name, right? And we hear not only about what the children they house and love have experienced, but also about the children’s biological families. Because although it’s officially discouraged, Kim strongly feels that the children heal best if their biological parents are in their lives in whatever limited way is possible. So before we know it, she is deeply involved with some horribly dysfunctional adults as well. And it is the stories she tells about interacting with them and the children, two of whom she and David eventually adopt, that make this story so riveting.

At the outset, she intends for the pantry to be a resource for local families that have homes and kitchens, but whose finances have taken a huge hit due to the pandemic. The very poor already have resources, she reasons. But of course, the homeless find her, and she doesn’t turn them away.

And here is the rub, the only aspect of this book that I dislike. She tells us that one unhoused person in four is mentally ill, and she believes that this official figure is low, at least in Las Vegas. And then she talks about those with addiction issues.

But what she never gets around to discussing at all—unless she does it so briefly that I miss it—is the unhoused people that are not chemically dependent on anything, whose mental health is stable, but who don’t have a permanent residence because they straight-up ran out of money. To hear her tell it, you’d think they don’t exist, and you know that’s not so. So many American families live from paycheck to paycheck, even when the economy is said to be booming. And I feel that she has left these people without faces or voices. And that, in turn, perpetuates a stereotype, the one that suggests that everyone that is homeless is there because they’re either crazy or junkies or both. I use the offensive terms intentionally, because that’s how the stereotype works.

And the stereotype in turn begets a lie, the insinuation that nobody has to be unhoused. Don’t use drugs. Get mental health care. Get over yourself. And whereas I can see that Foster doesn’t intend to promote such thinking, and in fact takes a hard line over poverty existing at all in such a wealthy nation, when she doesn’t give space to the many, many individuals and families that are out there because the wage earner was laid off, or because they were just squeaking by but then the rent increased, it does distort her overall picture. I don’t come away from this book thinking that most of the homeless are not using meth or any other dangerous, life-altering street drugs, even though it’s true.

Nevertheless, this is a poignant, stirring tale that won’t be told by anyone else, because it can’t be, and bearing in mind the caveats above, I recommend it to you, both as audio and print.

This book is not just about food...it touches on how drugs can ruin families and how poverty is hard to overcome. Many questions were posed by the author and it really made you think outside the box and look at things from her perspective and others. I would recommend this book to all my friends. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was surprised at how this story unfolded. I was expecting a focused commentary on the meth crisis in this country and instead got an expansive perspective on poverty and addiction and how this leads to food insecurity. The author befriends a day worker struggling with addiction and connects with him through home cooked meals (which sound delicious!). Her journey leads to creating a food pantry during the pandemic, fostering children, and continuing to help her community and people in need. This is a story of how good brings people together. For fans of How the Other Half Eats.

Kim Foster's "The Meth Lunches" delves into the challenging aspects of society, including food scarcity, addiction, and homelessness. Foster crafts a compelling narrative that is both heart-wrenching and uplifting, especially when circumstances take a turn for the worse for all those involved. I admired Foster's proactive efforts to improve her own neighborhood by providing food to the homeless through her voluntary pantry. Her unwavering commitment as a foster parent and her dedication to ensuring her foster children knew their history are truly commendable. The issues explored in this book will resonate with readers, prompting them to ponder, "What can I do to help?" The narration was beautifully delivered, enhancing the overall experience. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this ARC

If you haven't read Meth Lunches, now is your chance!
Kim Foster has a way with words that you will never forget. She easily draws the connections between food, community and family. She asks the hard questions about our safety nets, our states, our government without political agenda. She will inspire you to cook tonight, and perhaps try an amazing new dish at your next restaurant visit. She models what the modern American should be and I invite you to listen to this beautiful story.
#SaraSheckells #TheMethLunches #KimFoster

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

It’s like an investigative memoir. She puts her money where mouth is and integrates all the concepts into her own life.

She has no NIMBY (not in my backyard). She wants it in her back yard. At one point, she invites people with addiction to her dinner table. She sets up a food pantry on her front lawn and people come to her front door.

At first, I was afraid it was performative. But it was too in depth for too long of a time period.

She’s not perfect. She’s flawed. She’s messy. She’s imperfect. Compassion fatigue sets in from time to time. She has a myopic point of view. She owns up to that. I appreciate that she talks about rewriting the sections because they originally painted the wrong picture. She doesn’t want to be glorified and she actively undercuts that. But she is always relentlessly trying. She’s trying and maybe not succeeding. But she’s trying to just do better than the last interaction.

She thinks one way. She reconsiders. She thinks another, better way. I like that she owns her privileges and names them. She checks herself on saviorism and ableism. She owns her terrible, regrettable mistakes on her part when she is aware of them.

What is most commendable and I most want to imitate is this: She is trying with people whose circumstances don’t make them easy: People with active addiction, schizophrenia, contempt for society, etc... She is good at seeing and showing humanity across the board. She wants to know new people who are struggling and have them in her community. She wants to exchange phone numbers. She is yelling for numbers as people walk away. She is interested in sharing her social capital with anyone and everyone.

There is a juxtaposition of Instagram-worthy food recipes with the struggles of the less privileged. I like that she never lessens her recipes just because someone is struggling. She doesn’t make lesser, crappier meals to share with struggling people. She pulls out the stops for everyone. She makes the same meals she would make for herself and her family.

It is extremely well-written prose. That can be abandoned if cuss words are necessary or useful. It is not humorless or joyless—which is a real possibility with such heavy topics.

Her characters feel so well drawn and human—even though she acknowledges these stories are all through her own lenses.

If I have one large criticism of the book, it’s that despite its overwhelming kindness, it constantly uses stigmatizing terms like addict and junkie. It’s really dehumanizing language. Literally the word choice is the problem. She is better with her language with other marginalized communities. If she used person-first language, I think it would have accomplished her intent much better.

I also disliked her glorification of ‘old meth’ being better than ‘new meth.’ As someone who has a brother who is in long-term recovery from ‘old meth’, I don’t have any wistfulness for the good ol’ days. But this is a common trope around drugs. In order for the new variation to be taken seriously, the old is often diminished. Fentanyl is terrible, but it didn’t make oxycontin any safer. So I dislike this approach to things.

But, overall, there is a great depth of compassion, kindness, and empathy here. She is extremely trauma informed. She understands and builds an interlocking narrative across many overlapping struggles.

I highly recommend.

Writer by trade, home chef by hobby, Kim Foster feels deeply that having access to healthy food and a safe place to eat it are the key to creating community. In this book, Foster describes her experience trying to keep the less fortunate members of her community a float during the pandemic by starting a small food pantry. Foster quickly learns that food is just the tip of the iceberg where the community's problems as concerned.

I found this book absolutely fascinating. The idea of starting a free little pantry (similar to a free little library) blows up quickly and turns into something becomes nearly unmanageable and Foster learns that access to food is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fixing communities.

This book is both hard to read and hard to put down. Foster's experience with so many different parts of the problem with homelessness, hunger, health care and general well-being really give you a good introduction to how we (those Foster refers to as 'the well') can - and can't- help to create an inclusive community where everyone's basic needs are met. I sincerely believe that society as a whole would benefit from people reading this book and gaining at least a basic overview of the struggles this country faces despite the solutions (or at least improvement!) being well within the capabilities of a first world country.

One thing that I thought was interesting, that honestly distracted me a little, was that Foster simultaneously talks about how she has to discontinue visits with her foster kid's parents when they bring meth-addicted friends or partners around the kids...... and then in the next breath talks about how meth addicts would knock of her door and her husband would invite them in for lunch or hire them to do odd jobs. I fully understand that a well-educated, stable person employing a meth addict on a short-term basis is a very different situation than a meth-addicted parent bringing another meth addict to live with them... but I couldn't help but feel that creating a situation - altruistic as it might be- where meth addicts feel comfortable knocking on your door as all hours is also pretty dangerous. When she discusses how she found homeless people sleeping on her neighbor's lawn waiting for the pantry to be filled, I felt like I would be very upset if I were the neighbor. I am 100% in support of any and all productive programs to help those in need, but you also have to be aware of people who are quietly struggling to provide a safe home for their own families. As person who works hard to keep up with the high cost of living in suburban Long Island, I would be absolutely distraught to find meth addicts and homeless people on the lawn just feet from where my toddler's room is. I so appreciate the dive into how we can help but felt relieved when the home base for the effort moved off of her own lawn. There needs to be a safe, comfortable place for everyone in our society.... but that place is not on someone else's front lawn. In any case, I was truly fascinated by every single part of this book and couldn't put it down. This book makes you so eager to help, and really illustrates why there needs to be massive policy change in this country to really solve the problem.
 
The only criticism I have of this book is a small one. The detailed listed of ingredients (often 8-10 per dish) become tedious after a while. At first, I enjoyed hearing all of the love that went into the meals she was making, but after the first couple dishes it got to be distracting from the point of her book, which I think is very important. When she was addressing her experience with societal problems, I kept thinking, "This should be required reading at school!" and then she would go into a lot of detail about a number of dishes and I would think, "Teenagers wouldn't read this, her message would be lost as they struggled with all the extra food details."

- REALLY good long-form essay style book on food and how it impacts our lives
- A specific analysis of food when it intersects with other experiences: poverty, substance abuse, mental illness, homelessness, incarceration, foster care, trauma, etc.
- I have researched this topic personally, so was not shocked by much of what I heard, but I LOVED the people-first, stories-first presentation of harsh realities that humanized them rather than losing that humanity in data.
- I liked this as an audiobook, but I found myself wishing I had a hard copy, as I know so many people I would have passed along my hard copy to, likely with notes in the margins, if I had read it in print.
- Great, honest author. Every time I felt myself saying something like "this feels like white saviorism," she'd say it too. There was a great, self-aware angle I appreciated.
- I cried a few times in the book. I felt truly connected with the message.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

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.