Welfare diet, food banks & food budgeting

[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...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...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.