Welfare diet, food banks & food budgeting

[shootingstar]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/living-on-a-welfare-diet/article1532796/

Looks like getting food from food bank may not always yield a regularily nutritious diet. I do recognize some of the dishes from the 'welfare' diet -- hot dog rice pilaf. Sounds like stir fried eggs with chopped up wieners, onions, etc. with rice. Something I did have time to time as a kid.

We don't garden/grow food except for small container herbs. So we spend for just dearie and I, $125.00CAN per wk. on food. That includes:

1) groceries
2) daily snack somewhere usually in middle of bike ride, etc. --coffee/muffin or biscotti
3) weekly Friday night restaurant/cafe dinner "date"- we impose an approx. budget limit of $10-$15.00 per person. No, we don't go to chain fast food places. It is possible to eat out like this in big cities with diverse ethnic cuisine choices.


Of course, the above gets a bit blown apart when we vacation somewhere out of town. Or a special occasion dinner.

We rarely buy much processed food. It's very telepathic how we each grocery shop...no lists, no cellphone consultations...just checking the fridge..and buying a few veggies, some fruit or bread here and there whenever each of us alone or together are on bike.

Probably the food gardeners in TE, save a real chunk of grocery food money.

[sfa]

Here's something people with gardens can do to help: the Garden Writers Association promotes a program every year called Plant a Row for the Hungry, encouraging home gardeners to give their excess produce to local food banks to help fill out the food baskets with fresher, more nutritious items in season.

http://www.gardenwriters.org/gwa.php?p=index.html

Sarah

[malkin]

I spent a year living Nouveau Pauvre with a toddler.

You can do a lot with a little, but with nothing, it is much more difficult to do anything.

[bmccasland]

My frist job out of college was working for a Food Bank as a VISTA volunteer (VISTA was the home-bound Peace Corps). I was amazed at the stuff that was donated to the food banks - "weird" foods that many of our clients didn't know what it was or how to use.

Food manufacturers would also donate things that didn't sell well. And the donations would come in the box-car load. I was given a box of rye cereal to try, because as the food bank president said "even my bums don't like it". I did. I had all the rye cereal I wanted....

I've noticed that now food bank drives have suggested donations, which are the more basic foods. Then there's always the donation of cold hard cash - where the bank can buy food on the wholesale market.

So between strange donations from local drives, and food manufacturers, sometimes it's hard to come up with a "balanced" diet for 3-4 days which is typical of a food box from the bank.

[tulip]

My family was on food stamps until I was 12 years old. We ate incredibly healthily because my mother knew how to cook healthy food. Healthy food does not have to cost alot of money! We did not have a garden because we lived in apartments and moved alot and there were no community gardens like these days.

I adore my garden. I have no idea if it saves me money (I really don't care to figure it out), but going out back and picking a salad 10 minutes before dinner is priceless.

[NoNo]

I read this last week: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36507576/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/

Interesting that "ethnic" cooking turned out to be the cheapest. I know I cook about twice a week and just eat leftovers, but I know several people that refuse to eat them. I don't know how you can be so wasteful. Personally, I know I could spend less, but I have no problem spending more for something I know is high quality, i.e. organic or grass-fed.

[skhill]

I live in an urban food desert-- if you don't have access to a car, you don't have access to a grocery store that sells things like produce (fresh or frozen) or even as basic as flour. And a lot of my neighbors don't have cars. So those food stamps are being used in corner stores that sell only junk food... Around here at least, if you're well-enough off to have access to a supermarket, you can eat very well on very little. If you are too poor to have a car, you're probably being overcharged for unhealthy food...

And the free food distributed Thurs. evenings at the church down the street from me is of varying quality. They pass on what has been given to them; sometimes there are a lot of chips and other junk and sometimes they have better food. But never produce. The community gardens springing up everywhere help, but it's no where near enough. Depressing.

[shootingstar]

I read this last week: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36507576/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/

Interesting that "ethnic" cooking turned out to be the cheapest. I know I cook about twice a week and just eat leftovers, but I know several people that refuse to eat them. I don't know how you can be so wasteful. Personally, I know I could spend less, but I have no problem spending more for something I know is high quality, i.e. organic or grass-fed.

$68.00+ per wk. for feeding a family of 4 at even today's lowest prices, is still very tight. Assuming they don't have a garden either.

I know I could buy from Chinatown 1-2 fresh veggies, 1 of them a Chinese green veggie, freshly made Asian light pasta, some onions, garlic bulb, ginger root along with some fresh mushrooms, fresh water chestnuts and enough fruit for 2 people for 2-3 snacks..that could be approx. @$12.00CAN and it would last for up to 3 days.

It does mean some 1-2 repetitive dishes on consecutive days. But life doesn't always have to be dynamic/exciting every single day. And children won't suffer if they don't mind eating a similar dish for 2 consecutive days. Tough love.

And it doesn't have to be leftovers frequently.

I eat leftovers at most 1-2 times per week or less. Certain styles of cooking do not taste well as leftovers or at least, the nutrition is leached out even more, the 2nd time round.

With canned pasta sauce from store, I used to use only some of it for a meal and add in some fresh tomatoes, some half-cooked cooked chicken meat, etc. ....so that the pasta sauce would 'stretch' and also there would be a different dish in itself, not just the pasta tomato sauce.

skhill- Agree that some areas are awful for local residents to access groceries if they didn't have a car (nor did/could they bike at all). Am reminded of this whenever we cycle out in some rural areas and some poorer villages.

[Crankin]

A few years ago, I had my students do a persuasive writing unit on hunger in Massachusetts. They had to research facts, etc. to get the information for the essay. Their job was to persuade their legislator that we needed to refund the bill that provides money for food programs for low income people. In the course of this unit, i learned a lot. One year, I took about 10 students on the Walk for Hunger and we walked 11 of the 20 miles, raising about $1,000.00 in a very short time.
It was an eye opening experience for me; even when I was single and living paycheck to paycheck, I would never skimp on food. I probably spent way too much on fresh fruit and vegetables, because tis was the way I was used to eating. I guess the whole learning experience made me more tolerant of what I see others putting in their grocery carts.

[OakLeaf]

Accessibility is a part of this equation that's only just getting some notice recently - and food deserts are by no means only "urban."

Time is another part of the equation that gets nearly no notice. The chefs in the recent study all remarked on how time-consuming the process was. That's fine when you're a professional chef or a stay-at-home parent. But most people on food stamps work two or three jobs; the ones who don't, have to work off their food stamps at a rate below minimum wage. Most of them also have young children. You get home from work, the kids are hungry. Even if all you plan to do is nuke leftovers, you still have to clean, do laundry, shop, cut the grass, do what the kids need for their school activities. You probably never have a large bloc of time on your days off work (if any) to make a large quantity of food.

I'm lucky never to have been chronically poor, but I spent most of my career working with the poor. For the short time that my family of origin was poor, it was a single-income, two-parent household, with plenty of time to grow a garden, bake bread, cook from scratch, and make the two-hour round-trip drive to buy ingredients and canned fruits and vegetables in institutional-sized containers. For all its egalitarian talk, American society is incredibly stratified by class. Most people who've never received public assistance have no idea what survival is like at that level. People our age, even those who were poor as children, don't necessarily appreciate how the welfare repeal of the '90s changed the landscape of poor people's lives.

[abejita]

[QUOTE

We don't garden/grow food except for small container herbs. So we spend for just dearie and I, $125.00CAN per wk. on food. That includes:

[/QUOTE]

I am glad that you posted your food costs for the week. I always have this nagging feeling that i am spending too much on groceries just for the two of us. We spend about $80-100 per week. Sounds like we eat very similiar. No processed food. About a year ago, we switched to grass fed beef, pastured pork and the like. In order not to blow our budget, we substantially cut back on our meat consumption. We used to have meat every night, but now usually only twice a week and seafood once. We also have been very lucky with our veggies. We found an organic co-op near our house. The cost was $25 every two weeks for a big tub of fruits and veggies. We have since started helping sort the veggies at the co-op and now we get free veggies and 2 dozen free range organic eggs.

[katherine]

For all its egalitarian talk, American society is incredibly stratified by class. Most people who've never received public assistance have no idea what survival is like at that level. People our age, even those who were poor as children, don't necessarily appreciate how the welfare repeal of the '90s changed the landscape of poor people's lives.
True Story.

We used to have meat every night, but now usually only twice a week and seafood once. We also have been very lucky with our veggies. We found an organic co-op near our house. The cost was $25 every two weeks for a big tub of fruits and veggies. We have since started helping sort the veggies at the co-op and now we get free veggies and 2 dozen free range organic eggs.
I manage to feed a family of four on about $100 a week, we rarely eat processed foods(I have two small kids and go to school full time, sometimes allowances are made for chicken nuggets). We do something similar, I often include a little bit of meat in a dish, but rarely is meat the center of the meal. We eat a lot of beans and lentils, which are cheap, easy, nutricious, and when done well delicious. I also figure it's helpful to teach the kids how to prepare cheap, healthy food so that when they leave for college they have no excuses to starve or eat junk! We purchase fresh eggs from a friend, and eat a lot of them. Those who help at our CSA are rewarded with veggies (excellent, organic, fresh ones!) but for those who wouldn't have time to help we also reserve a few "shares" for those who cannot afford them.

[shootingstar]

We eat a lot of beans and lentils, which are cheap, easy, nutricious, and when done well delicious. I also figure it's helpful to teach the kids how to prepare cheap, healthy food so that when they leave for college they have no excuses to starve or eat junk! We purchase fresh eggs from a friend, and eat a lot of them.

Very true, katherine. Children can learn. Whatever Asian dishes I cook, at least 75% is borrowed technique and childhood memory from my mother ..whole food cooking where she had to get abit creative because in the 1960's to 1970's there was hardly the choice of fresh Asian produce in supermarkets in small-medium size Canadian cities, as found now. (I was stunned a few years ago in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, we were moving my household across Canada: one could buy over 1 gallon of soy sauce from a national chain grocery store there. Ok. Obviously for the rural areas to bulk purchase....:o This would have been unheard of where I grew up.)

Alot of my style of Chinese home cooking is genuinely what peasants prepare and...eat in rural areas. Some of the stuff is not common in Chinese restaurants (unless one asks to have it specially prepared..if the cook will oblige), because it's not visually elegant/dynamic or too 'simple' in technique to serve to paying restaurant customers...but it's darn healthy food!

I used to eat alot more meat...but simply due to laziness and cost-savings, I only eat meat once or twice per wk. or even less. Only seafood, chicken breast and an occasional gourmet sauage as part of supper, not breakfast. With nice veggie on side.

Later it may well be I may have to cut back even more on daily coffee, snack but have not bought any dressy/fashion clothing for past few months except for cycling clothing if there's a deal/something got worn out. I've cut my personal pleasures right down to the bone. So these snacks..I justify ...as left to enjoy and it's transportation fuel after all, since we don't have a car. :) Well, that's my rationale.

Really my fashion, right now..is literally my fitness/good health..because a reasonably healthy, fit body is always in "fashion". :)

I agree Oak, that time is a serious matter for any parent(s) with child(ren). However for some meals, I sincerely hope people throw out their boxes of Minute Rice in the garbage can, and buy a rice cooker. Buy rice. So simple these....days with some of our appliances to help us. Making rice from scratch is just brainless with an electric rice cooker.

And am also thinking of the recipes that TE members have mentioned about using slow cookers that don't require babysitting food while it cooks.

So tv dinners and processed foods only happen here and there during a month. Doesn't need dominate a family's regular eating repetoire.