"Members of Congress, faith-based organizations and other groups this month participated in observances such as the National Food Stamp Challenge and National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week to draw attention to the daily struggles of the unemployed and poor. A specialist in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences said these special-attention events also illustrate the complexities of modern food insecurity.
The Food Stamp Challenge dared religious and political leaders and others to try feeding themselves for a week on $4.50 a day — the average amount received by anyone on the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps. Elise Gurgevich, state coordinator of Penn State Extension’s Nutrition Links program, said such demonstrations serve a good purpose but miss the harder part of life on food stamps.
“It is an eye-opening experience for legislators to figure out how they are going to make that money stretch, and how they’re going to get enough calories into their diet while eating nutritiously,” she said. “It’s doable, but it takes planning and work.”
So people on food stamps are automatically incapable of planning and work, or is the whole program designed to take the planning and work out of it? I say the lack of planning and work is what got them ON the program to begin with, so by all means, why change now?
Gurgevich said during these special events, people can rise to the challenge and do it for a short period because they know they soon will resume their normal routines and diets. “But people who rely on SNAP benefits to feed their families don’t do it for just a week,” she pointed out. “When those sacrifices become your lifestyle, it’s much more of a burden.”
I got news for ya honey--millions of people already do it voluntarily in something called "frugal living,"and they don't do it short-term. Sacrifice isn't a burden when you know you're doing it for a reason.
Mary Lou Kiel, training specialist for Penn State Nutrition Links, explained that the average person needs to be educated or trained to be a better shopper.
“If you really want to eat a nutritious diet on such a limited budget, you need to put in the time looking at store advertising circulars, finding out what’s on sale, planning your meals in advance and figuring out how what you buy for one meal can be used for a second meal on day two or three,” Kiel said. “You have to stick to your plan and not be swayed by what you see in the store.”
No--you need to examine those shelf labels closely to find PRICE PER UNIT, then compare it to other like items in the store. Then you need to be able to do coupon math, then you also need to determine if this food item is actually FOOD and NUTRITIOUS, or just junk in fancy packaging.
You don't even need a calculator in the store any more.
Knowing where satiety actually comes from (and it isn't just more food) is what helps you plan, prepare, and stretch meals.
Kiel noted that Penn State Extension provides training across Pennsylvania on shopping smarter, determining if generic brands are as nutritious as higher-priced options and using unit pricing to get more ounces for less money. “The classes we offer are very helpful to people, and they learn a lot. All of us can benefit from being better shoppers, but people living on SNAP benefits need to learn all the tips about what are the better choices.”
Just try to get people's attention on that one---the classes and websites ARE beneficial (if you eat grains, beans, and dairy), but few people actually use these resources. The classes should be required.
The Nutrition Links program offers free nutrition-education programs to participants eligible for public assistance to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve a healthful diet on a limited budget. Participants are taught in small or large groups or individually. Programs are tailored to be appropriate for the age, culture, reading ability and physical or developmental limitations of a particular audience.
With a national unemployment rate hovering near 9 percent and 45 million people receiving SNAP benefits nationwide, people who don’t have as much experience with economizing really have to focus on it, Gurgevich said. The tips offered by Extension nutrition advisers present both practical advice and a new way of thinking for people unaccustomed to living on a limited income.
“There are a lot more people who now need Nutrition Links services because they haven’t grown up being as aware of economizing options,” she explained. “So we’ve had to focus our program more on shopping and how to stretch your food dollars and supplies, in addition to food preparation and nutrition.
Experts point out that sometimes it’s a tradeoff between spending time and spending money. “For instance, you can buy prepared salad in a bag, but it’s much cheaper if you buy lettuce, wash it yourself and put it in your own plastic bag,” Keil said “Buying meat in the economy package and breaking it into sizes that work for your family usually is less expensive.”
So is ditching the microwave-ready food!
But she cautions that buying in larger quantities may not be cheaper if you are not able to use it all before it spoils. “Also, you can use coupons, but don’t buy things that you don’t really need just because you have a coupon,” she said. “Sometimes even when you have coupons for purchases on brand-name products, the store brand is still more economical.”
Gurgevich advises people who are new to watching their budgets that canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are also very nutritious, and those products may be more cost-effective than fresh produce, depending on the season. “Fresh foods are still the best, but you shouldn’t limit yourself only to fresh.”
Learn how to buy cold, get home, and subdivide for the freezer, getting smaller portions to use at a time, lessening the risk of spoilage. Learn how to buy fresh and freeze yourself, extending the harvest into the off-season.
A useful tool in trimming the family food budget is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new Choose My Plate campaign. Developed to encourage consumers to build healthy eating habits based on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the system uses a colorful plate diagram to encourage consumers to make healthy choices. Kiel said planning meals around it also can save money.
Not really--it invites you to consume foods you don't really need.
“Make sure that you’re getting your fruits and vegetables to fill half of your plate,” she said. “The protein, which is the most expensive part, should fill only a quarter of your plate. Make 50 percent of your grains whole, and pick low-fat dairy choices for either milk or cheese. You’ll combine good nutrition with low cost.”
Penn State Extension’s Nutrition Links program provides low-income Pennsylvanians with information and training to make limited food dollars go farther. In the 2010-2011 programming year, the program reached almost 7,000 Pennsylvania families, benefiting more than 21,000 people. And the number of new families enrolled increased by almost 70 percent during the reporting period.
The one big key to economic salvation in the kitchen is to SHORTEN THE SHOPPING LIST. Do we really need 40 different kinds of pasta shapes, or 6 different kinds of cheese all going at once?
Taken further: do we really need grains, beans, and dairy at all? Nope. In fact, we really don't need much food at all to get our nutrition requirements--it just depends on whether or not you're willing to eat them, or willing to sacrifice to spend the money on them.
At one time, I used to have a Food Stamp Cheat Sheet permanently posted at the top of the blog, but I got tired of giving handouts...of information that should be obvious. I even demonstrated how I could buy and eat ORGANICALLY (with no coupons) using an allotment for 2 adults in my state. Right now, there's a lady with 9 kids living on HALF her food stamp allotment equivalent--if she can feed 10 people on half the food stamp ration for a family that size, nobody's got anything to complain about!
For about the last decade (before I went Paleo), I've been posting in one site or another about frugal living and how to do it. I finally pulled up my rope ladder and shut the door behind me when I switched to a health format--it's much more positive this way. Flailing frugal wannabes are depressing with all their money woes, and they get even worse with their perceived work-arounds, like hyper-couponing. The most money is saved, and the most health is gained, by buying less to begin with, and avoiding all those supposed "savings" tools which are of no use if you're making the right buying decisions to begin with.
Can we say M-A-R-K-E-T-I-N-G? The want creation machine still churns...
This is why the Food Stamp Cheat Sheet only comes out when I get invited to take the Food Stamp Challenge, and it may even cease to come out at all in the future--there are such better ways with food now, thanks to the Paleo crowd--not only are they shortening the shopping list even more than I was myself, but showing good economic alternatives to what we're all taught as nutritional gospel. They're also exposing the truth about that myth-laden nutritional and health gospel, in that mainly the choir who sings it is really a bunch of naked emperors--picture THAT in church!
Yes, Virginia, there are many, MANY adults left behind in this food/money game, and the government health/nutrition standards "choir" will make sure they stay that way...right where Big Pharma can get their mitts on them! At this rate, they may as well take a place around the giant economic cog that needs turning (a la Conan the Barbarian) and walk their own circular trench beneath it.
No muscles will be built, unfortunately.
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