MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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Hits of the Day
Food stamps put Rhode Island town on monthly boom-and-bust cycle
By trkingmomoe on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 3:39am |This article is worth the read. I know people who are on SNAP and this portrays how hard it can be to feed their families. The area I live in, the food stamps are awarded at different times a month. So I only see the elderly pack the grocery stores on the first of the month. The comments are not worth looking at because of all the right wing dribble.
Also Laura Clawson at the Daily Kos writes a good critique on this article. She makes the point that it isn't the people who receive the food stamps that are the blame but it is a structural problem. I live in a state that has seen food stamps recipients double since 2008. The comment section following her piece is a must to read because many that comment do receive assistance.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/18/1194982/-When-food-stamps-defin...
URL:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/food-stamps-put-rhode-island-town-on-monthly-boom-and-bust-cycle/2013/03/16/08ace07c-8ce1-11e2-b63f-f53fb9f2fcb4_story.html
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Comments
It is hard for the working poor to have the time or the transportation to take advantage of all the sales. Cooking from scratch can be difficult when you work two jobs and don't have all the equipment to do it with. I am lucky because I do have small appliances and a good stove to use. I am also not in a food desert and because of the climate can maintain a small urban garden year around in a 5 foot wide, 40 foot long scrap of ground. My neighbors have been watching my progress with this little food forest with interest. The First Lady wrote a great book on this but how many people that are poor can buy her book. You have to put yourself on a waiting list at the local library for it.
When the British faced food shortages during WWII, the government produced free pamphlets and cook books explaining how to balance and stretch meals. They made sure everyone got copies. I read and follow several food blogs from England that are using those old booklets from their grandmothers for ideas to get through the current austerity. There is a need for some kind of education and advice program to go along with SNAP. There is a long learning curve to being poor and managing small amounts of money. I guess it is easier to blame the poor.
by trkingmomoe on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 4:25am
You've really got your finger on a main rub, here, momoe:
....time....to take advantage of all the sales. Cooking from scratch can be difficult when you work two jobs.....
and I give you greater props than I do to Michelle Obama for saying it. She preaches like every home still has a stay-at-home mom. A lot of people who are fans or proponents of scratch cooking and pinching pennies, smart shopping and "stretching" and coupon clipping, don't admit how time intensive it is. (My stay-at-home mom was a champ at the most of thoseas part of her "job"--not the scratch cooking part-heh-she loathed that--especially the messes and the smells-thought the microwave was a better invention than the washing machine.) You do, and I really admire your integrity for that. You even make it very clear in your food columns, how it requires planning and work, you try to teach it.
The time thing is one of the main reasons for the epidemic of convenience food diet that Michelle works against, but she doesn't really address it, instead she advises things like having a garden and attending farmer's markets and "eat your fruits & vegetables." It may be taking one nail out of the shoe to make fruits & vegetables popular with kids, but there's still lots of nails left in that shoe. (And even then, if it's the day before the food stamp money is distributed (or in my olden daze, the day before Dad gets his paycheck) and your choice as a hungry kid looking for a snack is a mushy months-old apple or fresh potato chips (in my day, graham crackers), you'll chose the latter every time.
by artappraiser on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 4:51am
What gets me up on a soap box is the fact that almost half of our children in this country are now growing up in poverty.
Michelle Obama means well but she don't really have the knowledge or the practical experience to be effective. It is a real skill that you learn by doing. But she did start the conversation and shed light on the inner city poor that has no access to produce and groceries. I have seen a change because of it.
I haven't been food blogging the last few months but will get back to it late spring. It is very time consuming. I did get a very nice e-mail from the grandson of a cookbook author who wrote during the depression and WWII, yesterday. He told me that his grandmother would have been thrilled to know that her recipes are still being used and passed around. He must of found my blog by googling her. I am careful about copy right laws. I did two blogs on her and her recipes with lots of history. It made my day.
by trkingmomoe on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 7:38am
I have my mother's 1943 Good Housekeeping Cookbook (and others) from the same era. It also has useful stretching and substitution tips but what is really fun to read it how 'scratch' cooking has changed since then. For example, it tells how to draw a chicken by which they mean how to prepare a whole chicken for cooking beginning with plucking the feathers and removing the head and feet. Nothing about how to kill the chicken though. The reading implies that chickens were sold at market undrawn. Being rural, I do not remember that but I do remember raising our own laying hens that eventually ended up on the dinner table themselves ;D
I applaud your urban garden and hope your neighbors follow your lead. Did you know the USDA's County Extension Service is still active and often has useful pamphlets on gardening as well as nutrition. I do not find them to be as helpful as they once were to individual growers but they do have grant programs to help set up community gardens.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane and good luck with your projects. They are very worthy things to do.
by EmmaZahn on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 1:25pm
by trkingmomoe on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 7:59pm
Too bad about the theft. Anyone you trust have a big dog that could be enlisted to stand guard? Maybe you could make a bigger garden. The thieves around here are mostly the birds and other wild life. It helps to plant extra knowing you will lose some of it.
I know what you mean about all the pretty cookbooks. I accumulated a large collection over my working years dreaming of when I would have time to do the Martha Stewart homemaker thing. Now that I can it turns out I mostly just like looking at the pretty pictures. Plain food suits me best so any recipe that has more than five ingredients is now skipped.
Paula Deen's recipes remind me of what my mother made on special occasions. Way too rich for everyday.
by EmmaZahn on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 9:10pm
There is a 711 near where I live that is extremely expensive. It markets to a mixed demographic of low income people and fairly high income people.
I noticed that they seem to actually promote the Food Stamp program. There are posters saying they accept EBT, etc. That's fairly different from the approach most franchises had years ago.
I personally think it's a good program. It wouldn't have sustained as long as it has if business owners didn't find some stake/benefit in it.
by Orion on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 4:10pm