The government’s online food assistance program doesn’t include independent grocers and ignores the gaps in rural infrastructure.
After 33 years in Okanogan County, Wash., there is nowhere else Lael Duncan would want to be — considering the Okanogan River, which churns with salmon in the fall; the rare mix of forest and highland desert; and the jagged peaks of the North Cascades Mountains, often referred to as the Alps of North America. Approximately 250 miles northeast of Seattle, the sprawling county is home to slightly more than 40,000 residents — which, as Duncan notes with a laugh, works out to about 7 or 8 square miles per person. The county also has a 17% poverty rate.
Poverty looks and feels different in a rural community. Much of rural America has no public transportation and residents may live miles away from basic services (such as gas stations and grocery stores), and the pervasive lack of high-speed internet often renders technological solutions irrelevant.