I fed four people on $600 a month for food. (Another $200 bought cleaning supplies, etc)
And we ate well. Eggs, milk, real butter, cheese, meat, rice, fresh fruit, frozen veggies. We couldn’t afford lobster, salmon, and other expensive stuff, but we did have steak once a month.
Lots of hamburger and chicken. Spaghetti sauce, ‘burger, and rice. Some ice cream for a treat. Spices.
It was boring, but the kids had nutrition. Fresh veggies were harder because there was too much waste.
That was with a gluten-free diet. (Both my kids are diagnosed Celiacs and my son’s a T-1 diabetic, so carbs had to be kept reasonable.)
$450 is more than enough for three people, especially without special dietary needs.
The problem’s that the mom doesn’t want to actually cook. She’s not going for cheap. She’s going for instant, prepared foods. If she made her kids a big plate of scrambled eggs with a little cheese, a single slice of toast with real butter (or a small amount of pre-prepared rice), a glass of milk, and a 1/2 of a piece of fruit, it’d cost one hell of a lot less than the crap she’s feeding them now and she’d have enough to get them chewable vitamins.
Granola bars cost more than $1 each!
Bump!
When you subsidize something you get more of it. These kids learn from her and she learned from her mother and... All these do-gooders are doing is crippling generations of what could have been productive - self-sufficient people.
Absolutely, $4.50/day you can get 2000 calories of quality food (boring but healthy). If the story is even mostly true we are doomed.