Gastography

A recent early-Spring walk in Flushing Corona Park brought us up close and personal with ruins from the 1964 Worlds Fair. How I wish they still had Worlds Fairs. I would absolutely love to see one of the ‘house of the future’ exhibits.

 

 

Today, April 8, 2013, food bloggers all over the country are taking place in Food Bloggers Against Hunger in an effort to raise awareness about the millions of people in this country for whom not knowing where their next meal is coming from is an everyday occurrence.

The question posed by The Giving Table, organizers of Food Bloggers Against Hunger is what would you do if you were hungry? Well, what would you do? Being hungry all the time isn’t fun in the slightest and not knowing how your next meal is going to happen is a terrifying prospect.

50 million people in the United States (including 1 in 4 children) are food insecure. This is in our country, where fresh food is thrown away by the boatload for being less than gleaming perfect. This in a country that has more than enough resources to provide food that is not only adequate but nutritious and affordable for every single one of its citizens. These are not just people without jobs and the homeless; food insecurity affects everyone including the very young, the elderly, and many working families in both rural and urban areas.

This issue is not partisan; it strikes at one of the most fundamental pillars of having a government; safety and the assurance that by joining up with a group of other people, life won’t have to be as hard as going alone.

I believe that if government is going to provide certain safeties (like a mechanism for assuring none of its subjects will starve to death – mechanisms for which our government and its peoples have made time and time again a priority), it should do an adequate job and make that safety readily available for all people who need it.

Of course I’d like to see that need fulfilled by private organizations; and private organizations do a sometimes great job of fulfilling that role – but not always and private organizations cannot be the complete answer. And that’s where government steps in. If we as a people can spend boatloads of cash legislating things like what grown people do regarding sex and money, waging a war on drugs and providing mad money to the very businesses some think are dragging this planet to the brink of destruction (I’m looking at you, Monsanto), I think we can certainly allocate tax dollars for something as fundamental as making sure all our school-aged kids have enough to eat so they can grow up to become a healthy and skilled work force. If this country, which by some metrics is the wealthiest and top in the world can’t assure its people can eat, who can? Aren’t we supposed to be #1? That’s some third world stuff right there.

And I don’t think this is just a money thing – education is also needed. Education about the types of foods that are healthy, how to prepare nourishing meals for your family, and exercise are all paramount in defeating this problem.

While I’ve never personally been on food stamps (or SNAP), I do remember what it is like to not really have enough money after the bills are paid to be able to afford any good kind of food. In college and right after, I waited tables – and preferred making sure my animals had food over myself because I could always snake a few yeast rolls for dinner or a 50 cent serving of pasta. I mostly subsisted on eggs and frozen hash browns, microwave popcorn, lean and light freezer meals, ‘dinner in a box’ kits, and pasta with frozen vegetables. And that’s pretty much what I could afford – when I could afford it. I was fairly certain that things like “real” meat and fresh vegetables were way out of my budget zone.

Where I live (Brooklyn, NY), SNAP recipients receive roughly $5.92 per person per day (more than the national average of $3-4). As a baseline example, I calculated my grocery budget on a two-person household (using a mother and child over age 5 as my guideline example). For this family of 2, SNAP pays out $367 per month, or $82.87 per week.

For more information on New York’s SNAP program, click here.

For my shopping, I stuck to my neighborhood Key Foods. This is the only “regular” grocery store within close walking distance of my house (there are plenty of bodegas and specialty stores like butchers, fish mongers and produce vendors) and plenty of other grocery stores (and farmers markets!) a train ride away; but I was figuring a single mother with a child would rather get her groceries in 1 shot between the train and home.

I spent $82.31 – enough for more than a week’s worth of healthful and vegetable packed dinners (that make enough so mom can have leftovers for lunch), breakfasts, and after school snacks.

The Menu

Breakfast

Oatmeal with sliced pears

• 1/2 cup oatmeal + milk + 1/2 a pear

Bacon, eggs and sweet potato hashed browns on one weekend day

• 4 slices bacon + 4 eggs + 2 sweet potatoes + 1/2 an onion

Lunch

Each dinner meal makes enough for mom to take leftovers for work. School lunches cover the rest.

Dinner

Whole wheat pasta with mixed vegetables and fresh spinach dressed with olive oil, garlic and parmesan cheese

• Half a box of whole wheat pasta + half a bag frozen mixed vegetables + 1 bag fresh spinach + olive oil, garlic and parmesan cheese

Lentils with fresh kale, bacon and eggs

• 1 cup lentils cooked in half a container vegetable stock + half a bag fresh kale, wilted + 4 slices chopped bacon + 1 onion + 4 poached eggs

Fried brown rice with pork and frozen peas & carrots

• 1 cup brown rice + 1 pound pork stew meat + half a bag of frozen peas & carrots + 1/2 an onion + soy sauce

Beef chili with tomatoes, frozen mixed soup vegetables and fresh kale

• 1 pound ground beef + 1 can diced tomatoes + half a bag frozen mixed soup vegetables + half a bag fresh kale + 1/2 an onion + cumin + chili powder

Chicken meatballs with lemony chickpea mash and broccoli

• 1 pound ground chicken + 1 egg + + 1/2 a grated onion + 1 lemon + 1 can chickpeas + tahini + garlic + cumin + 1 bunch broccoli sauteed in olive oil with garlic

Sweet potatoes with sausage and broccolini

• 2 sweet potatoes (baked) with 1/2 a pound Italian sausage + 1 bunch broccolini + cumin + chili powder

Frittata with red potatoes, veggies and parmesan cheese

• 4 eggs + 3 thinly sliced red potatoes + leftover frozen Italian blend veggies + 1 bag fresh spinach + parmesan cheese

Snacks

Carrot sticks with hummus

• Carrot sticks with 1 can chickpeas + tahini + lemon juice + garlic + cumin

The Grocery List

Whole wheat pasta – 5 for $5.00 (4 1/2 boxes left)

Frozen Italian blend mixed vegetables – $2.49 for a 16 ounce bag

Fresh spinach – $3.98 x 2 bags

Olive oil – $3.29 for an 8.5 ounce bottle (used about half)

Garlic – $1.99 for 5 heads (used 1 head)

Lentils – $1.19 for a 16 ounce bag (used half)

Fresh kale – $2.50 a bag

Bacon – $2.49 for 16 ounces

Eggs – $2.19 a dozen

Brown rice – $1.59 for 32 ounces (used a cup)

Frozen peas + carrots – $1.00 for 10 ounces

Pork stew meat – $1.09 for a pound

Ground beef – $3.99 for a pound

Canned diced tomatoes – $0.99 for a 14.5 ounce can

Kidney Beans – $1.59 for a 16 ounce bag dried beans

Mixed frozen soup vegetables – $1.99 for a 16 ounce bag (used half)

Onion – $2.97 for 3

Ground chicken – $3.59 a pound

Low sodium chickpeas – $1.19 per 15.5 ounce can – bought 2

Fresh lemons (2) – $1.00

Fresh broccoli – $1.50

Tahini – $3.89 for a 10 ounce jar

Sweet potatoes (4) – $2.97

Fresh broccolini – $1.99

Italian sausage – $1.99 a pound

Fresh carrot sticks – $1.49 for 16 ounces

Enriched Oatmeal (plain) – $2.99 for 18 ounces

Organic milk – $4.99 for 64 ounces

Fresh pears – $0.93 for 3

Chili powder – $1.69 for 4.37 ounces

Cumin – $1.50 for 3 ounces

Red skinned potatoes – $1.11 for 3

Fresh parmesan cheese – $4.49 for 8 ounces

Soy sauce – $1.19

No salt added vegetable stock – $1.09 for 8 ounces

Total: $82.31

The takeaway lesson: It is possible to eat healthful foods on a limited budget. It’s possible, but most people that need that information don’t really realize what foods make up a healthy diet.

In my view, the government solely providing funding or private charity solely providing groceries isn’t the answer – straight funding gets people eating processed, nutrient poor food and exacerbates the obesity problem (in turn hurting all of us); groceries are great, but they are often shelf-stable staples and don’t get at the heart of the problem. We need educational programs, advertising about the dangers of processed foods, and readily available resources SNAP recipients can use to learn about healthy eating and exercise.

If you’re interested in helping through governmental processes, click here to send a letter to your congressional representative urging protection for the federal funding that supports nutrition programs like SNAP, WIC and school meals.

If you’d like more information on the issue of hunger in America, check out the documentary A Place at the Table from Tom Colicchio and the people that brought you Food, Inc. either locally or on demand through iTunes and Amazon. You can check out the trailer for A Place at the Table here.

Pet charity plug: if you live in the NYC area, please consider donating to City Harvest. City Harvest is a great charity that works on rescuing trash-destined food from supermarkets and restaurants for New York’s hungry. Every dollar donated helps rescue four pounds of good food. Check them out.

The great people at The Giving Table have also been kind enough to sponsor a giveaway. I have two A Place At The Table companion books and two fork pins to give away to two lucky winners. Just comment below to enter.

The winners will be selected by random number generator. Comments will close on Friday, April 12 at Noon and the winners will be announced later that day.