Posted on 09/22/2011 7:36:30 AM PDT by Abathar
(CNN) -- That is the reality for the more than 40 million Americans who rely on food stamps. According to the Food Research and Action Center the average food stamp allotment is just $30 per week.
I began thinking about taking a food stamp challenge earlier this month when I met several women who we profiled on hunger for two CNN stories airing this week. These women had to make tough choices between paying bills and buying food. Often they skipped meals so their children could eat. Often the amount of food stamps they received was not enough.
Living on a food stamp budget for just one week won't begin to put me in these women's shoes or come close to the struggles that millions of low-income families face every day; week in and week out, month after month. But I do expect to gain a new perspective and a better understanding.
(Excerpt) Read more at theindychannel.com ...
I LOVE The Shoe Box! Thanks for the excuse to have someone take me there! I broke the fifth metatarsal on my right foot. You know - the one ‘we’ Ballerinas always break? LOL! I’d trust them to fit me with something perfect.
The Beau is a wonderful blessing in my life. He’s off to Bear Camp for the long weekend, but he folded my laundry* after dinner before he left. A Prince Among Men. :)
*And that is NOT ‘code’ for anything other than being kind, LOL!
>>You should break down and buy an oven.
Not a bad idea. We used cast iron dutch ovens in Boy Scouts, but my dad gave them to the troop after we all got out. Might have to look through some old yard sales (can’t spend too much money with this 0bama economy). We used to make the best peach cobbler in those on the open fire.
I do a lot of woodworking (with hand tools) and have thought of a future project making a spinning wheel. It would have to be a bit in the future as I am still a novice on the lathe.
I jumped into my 1992 pickup, my cell with a cracked screen in my pocket, and returned home to microwave and enjoy my TV dinner, still clinging to my dignity and pride. But apparently, that is not worth much these days.
It is worth a lot to me and others here.
Mmmmm! Salami Pancakes are my favorite! ;)
****** “ What’s the average weight of a Food Stamp recipient? How many cell phones do they have? How many TV’s? How new is their car? Lots of other things to consider. There are SOME people who really need Food Stamps...although I believe Churches used to help these people....but there are others abusing the system.” ******
My phone number used to be just one digit off of the Welfare Office ... The phone calls that I received were so “enlightening” I was cussed ... chewed out and ORDERED to “GIVE ME MY WORKER!” and that’s after I told them they had the wrong number. Some of them I messed with and went as far as saying “Hey we need to get together and Party Tonight” I was never turned down ...
TT
(no I didn’t follow through, Laz on the other-hand is searching phone numbers ... )
That was the one I cracked...on my left foot. Stepped in one of the infamous potholes in my closest town that had been *filled* with a collection of loose asphalt. Ballerinas, eh? SNORT!
I can wear other shoes now (15 years ago) and even boots, but those particular SAS shoes have become my faves.
Trust me, you will always know when it is going to rain.
You really have found a Keeper!
To add steam to the oven, throw some ice cubes in a pan on a lower rack at the same time you put the bread in. Add some more about halfway through.
Is there a younger version of him that he knows of?
That...is awesome. Sounds easy, cheap, and easy. And cheap.
I’m a decent cook, but can’t seem to get bread right. Can’t even get a bread machine (tried 3) to work. The loooooooooong rise time looks like a winner, coupled with stupid-simple mixing.
Will try it this weekend. IF I can fight my way into the bowels of the popup camper in the garage for the packed-away Dutch oven.
Try looking up charkas, it’s an Indian (from India, not Native American) type of spinning wheel that works a bit differently than the European ones, and doesn’t require as much lathe work to build. They can also be folded up easily so they don’t take as much storage space.
BTW, to the point of this thread: Costco has 50 lbs of bread flour for $16. Between this stupid simple “flour, yeast, salt, water” recipe and the one-time cost of a Dutch oven (could even cook in the back yard using a scrap wood fire), there is no excuse for “$30/week isn’t enough”. ~$20 would feed an adult male for over a month (yes, leaving plenty of time to earn enough for better nutrition).
I am like you. I plan on being at the top of the dog pile too!
Even being able to cook from scratch these days is not a skill set that is commonly in use and widely known these days. Many of my daughters friends mom’s only cook prepared packaged foods. Their friends are amazed that we make homemade cookies, brownies, cakes, and muffins, from scratch most of the time.
When my daughters mentioned that I had made a huge pot of baked beans completely from scratch that were excellent and so much better than canned baked beans to some of their friends, one of them asked in reply you mean she added stuff to canned beans to make them taste better? When my daughter told her that I had actually soaked the dry beans overnight to soften them and then cooked them slowly all day their friends couldn’t believe it. Another girl replied, wow, I don’t think my mom could even add stuff to canned beans so they taste better let alone make them that way.
Perhaps we will all be giving cooking lessons too!
People here are always posting that FR has the greatest collection of skills in one place. You can ask almost any question and someone will have the answer. Often, several someones.
I sold all my looms, including a 60” dobby, years ago. I wove 22-36 epi yardage and then sewed it into clothing that I sold at juried craft fairs, back in the 1980s. Production weaving is very hard on the back!
I have learned to make socks on the round knotting loom. Much easier than w/needles, but still takes 6 days to make a pair. I like to knit them oversized in wool and then felt them down for house socks.
I live in an area of cheese factories, artisan foodies and organic farms. We even have commercial production soap makers. My husband does medical massage therapy, so I think we will end up trading for a lot of these types of things. But, we were part of the 1970s Back To The Land Movement and we still have all the Foxfire books. Most of the people I know are fairly self-sufficient.
You know, we all expected TEOTWAWKI back then, under Carter and then turned our preps into businesses. The Second American Arts and Crafts Movement. Now, we are proficient and can turn our businesses back into survival. I just wish I was still in my 30s. This is all a lot of hard work, especially for seniors, which is why my husband has retained his practice.
errr: make that *knitting loom* NOT knotting loom.
You would be suprised how very well a person can eat on 30 dollars a week, and it doesn’t have to be just ramen noodles and rice and beans either. You just have to buy the right things and cook as many things from scratch as you can just like our grandmothers all did every day.
My husband is well over 6 feet and close to 300 pounds (a really big guy) and my stepson is not much smaller and those two men are getting very well fed in our house even though my monthly food budget for the entire family of 5 is $200 and that includes three meals a day for everyone in the family. We have a very well balanced diet and meat as a part of every dinner I cook. I use mostly all fresh fruits and veggies but supplement those with some canned and frozen produce.
That means they expect you to spend more than the AVERAGE $30 for a week's meals ... they just supplement your income to get it up to whatever level. If you receive $30, they do not anticipate that you will use only $30 for food and nothing else ... you should use the food supplement plus some amount from your income.
Since they are allocating over $46 per week ($200 divided by an average of 4.3 weeks per month) for an individual with zero income, that must be the level they anticipate you to spend.
But, just for the sake of argument, let's go with the $30 figure. It should be more, but what the hey. $30 divided by 21 meals = $1.40 per meal per person.
Last week, Kroger had chicken leg quarters for 39¢ per pound (10 pound minimum). Buy two bags for $7.80. One pound of rice for $1.29. One pound of beans (your choice ... Navy, red, pinto, whatever) for $1.29. Albertson’s had cans of Del Monte vegetables for 69¢ (10 minimum). Buy 10 for $6.90. Two dozen eggs for $1.69. One sack of cornmeal for $2.69. One sack of flour for $2.49. Powdered buttermilk canister $3.99. Total: $29.83.
Meal plan: Breakfast: 2 eggs. Tennessee Fry Bread (flour, grease, salt, baking powder, margarine)
Lunch and supper: chicken (fried, baked, roasted, BBQ, stewed, soup, over rice, etc) or beans or beans & rice, 1/2 can of vegetables, 1/2 plate of cornbread (flour, corn meal, baking powder, salt, baking soda,egg, buttermilk).
This should easily provide more than 14 meals, so the excess should be stored and mixed into the next week's supplies to provide variety.
Of course, if there are more people in the family, then the numbers skew different. If there is a single parent with one school-age child, maximum amount of food stamps increases to $367 per month or $85 per week. This is supposed to provide for 42 meals, but the child will get free breakfast and free lunch at school on M-F, so the $85 spreads over 32 meals. Again, using the bogus $30 per person per week number, that is $60 divided by 32 meals = $1.85 per meal per person … a 30% increase!
And the more children you have, the fewer meals per person per week you have to provide! And the numbers are never “normalized” according to the number of meals to be eaten at home, so you end up with more per person per meal eaten at home. Quite a bit more.
It can easily be done if you are willing to do your homework and take care of your finances.
Could we? We do.
Yesterday was my monthly buying trip, I spent slightly under $100.00 and that will feed us until next month's trip. Between now and then we will buy milk and some seasonal fresh fruit, that is it.
Yes, we have a garden that we use to supplement our diet but that wouldn't add that much to the bill. And there were a couple of things I could have cut back on if fresh or frozen veggies were needed. Like the chocolate... maybe.
BTW just for giggles I looked up my state's "Food Stamp Calculator" and found out that we qualify for $357.00 in Food stamps if we wanted. Really guys? Yes, things are tight but we are in no danger of losing the roof over our heads or going hungry.
Makes me wonder how much is going to those that need it and how much to those who simply find it a convenient source of income.
I do own a beautiful wood spinning wheel. I bought it over 30 years ago from the family of a neighbor lady that had passed away. It was late on a Sunday afternoon and they were getting ready to close up shop on a garage sale they had that weekend to sell her things that the family didn’t want. I asked them if they would mind if I looked around while they were packing the remaining stuff up in a truck to take to Goodwill to donate. I bought a large coal bucket that I now use on my fireplace hearth to hold my kindling, my spinning wheel and a whole lot of other small stuff from them. They refused to take more than $20 for the stuff I bought even though I told them the spinning wheel even back then was still worth at least $50. I felt like I was robbing them to get such a beautiful and fully functional spinning wheel and all that stuff for only $20, but I’m very glad to have enjoyed it for so many years.
You’re welcome! Is there a ping list for recipes? I’d love to see what others are cookin...;)
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