SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — At a South San Diego strip mall, nestled between a Chinese food restaurant and an auto parts store, sits a small distribution site where shelves and refrigerators are stacked with watermelons, bags of potatoes, apples, and other fruits and vegetables.
It’s a store where low-income families, single moms and pregnant women can purchase milk, eggs and produce for a relatively low price.
Robert, who runs the store, says their selections aren’t as abundant nor as fresh as they were at the start of the year.
“The produce that is coming in is over ripe, they’re taking too long to pick it, it’s not being picked on time,” he said.
Robert blames Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids for a lack of farmworkers to harvest crops in California and in other parts of the country, leaving growers without enough manpower, and thus generating shortages and higher prices.
Most of the crops that are picked are being shipped to big supermarket chains or overseas.
But those who depend on surplus fruits and vegetables, such as food banks and distribution sites, are seeing fewer contributions coming in.
At the San Diego Food Bank, volunteers tell Border Report, they are seeing less produce than in years past.
Management at the food bank declined an opportunity to talk about the lack of fruits and vegetables its distribution hubs and how ICE raids are contributing to the ongoing situation.
According to Robert, what arrives at his store lacks quality or freshness for the most part.
“The quality is very ripe,” said Robert. “We’re having problems getting the produce, and when we do get it, some of it is spoiled it doesn’t last long on the shelves, we’re having to throw a lot of it away because it goes bad.”
Robert went on to say that the lack of available fruits and vegetables is also creating higher prices at his store and others.
“We’re having fewer customers coming in.”
He expects shortages and increased costs for produce to remain as long as ICE raids continue.
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