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    Poverty's Dining Table

    By trkingmomoe on Sun, 10/20/2013 - 4:24am |

    According to USDA, one in six people in the USA are food insecure. That comes out to forty-nine million people which includes children. One child out of five lives in a home that is food insecure which means that child does not know where his next meal will come from. Food insecurity is spread over all communities not just in urban ghettos but in rural and suburban communities also. The fastest growing group of families falling into poverty is hidden in suburbia. Families that are struggling to hang on to their homes, keep the utilities on and maintain a car. These families are least likely to qualify for SNAP or commonly known as food stamps. To put it simply they have too many assets that disqualify them for help. In 2011 4.8 million people over the age of 60 was food insecure and that is only going to grow as the baby boomers retire.

    Hunger in America has a test you can take. You maybe surprised that you don't know as much about hunger as you think you do?

    http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/quiz.aspx

    Hunger in America also has a interactive map that you can look at and see how much hunger is in your area. Florida has 18.7% and 32% of that is above 200% of poverty level for SNAP and 28.4% of children is food insecure. Where does your state fall?

    http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-studies/map-the-meal-gap.aspx

    Last month, Reuters reported:

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/12/us-usa-poverty-hunger-idUSBRE98B10N20130912

    (Reuters) - Four years after the recession ended, one in five American adults are still struggling to buy enough food, according to a survey released on Thursday that underscored the unevenness of the U.S. economic recovery

    The report also included a link to this graph and map. Not much has changed since 2008.

    http://pdf.reuters.com/pdfnews/pdfnews.asp?i=43059c3bf0e37541&u=2013_09_12_04_53_43bac347429a4530b6e9073736e52b33_PRIMARY.gif

    How do these families cope with putting meals on the table? Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program falls short in many states to even cover the need. Some visit food banks in their communities as often as they are allowed. As embarrassing as it may be they line up for what ever might be offered to add to their meals. Sequester has cut funding to these programs that are usually run from regional warehouses and the food banks are not able to keep up with the need in many areas. To find out where there is food banks and help with food, there is a universal hot line. Just dial 211 and it will connect to a social services in the community where the call originate from.

    Careful shopping at discount retail grocery stretching food dollars. Feeding a family for a few dollars a day take some real skill. These skills come from experience and work. Here is what a weeks worth of food might look like trying to feed a family with out much money or limited SNAP. Meet Rhoda she has been sharing her food finds and advice on you tube for the past year. She also post her recipes on twitter to her followers.

    https://twitter.com/rstone6192008

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Growing up and living in middle class doesn't really prepare you for poverty. There is always shame that creeps in and sometimes a feeling of isolation. Your pride and what is left of your dignity won't let you talk about it with friends. The things that you took for granite in everyday life can now be out of reach. It is overwhelming even small stuff can be a large challenge. Now you find yourself planning carefully your shopping list and keeping a price list of what you paid for grocery items. There is no running in the store for milk and coming out with cup cakes from the deli and soda on sale. You learn to bake cup cakes in between everything else no matter how thin you are spread. You find yourself in stores that offer imported discounted groceries and learning to stock a pantry with basics to cook with. Organic food is a luxury and even most produce becomes a holiday special. The library becomes your friend with wifi hook up, DVD's and cook books. You quickly learn to survive on less.

    Next week: Shopping and Stocking a Pantry

    Comments

    Thank you, Momoe, for keeping the truths about poverty alive.  Too many people would like to pretend this doesn't happen to people who really matter.  Too many are conditioned to blame the victim in order not to have to feel any kind of responsibility for the causes. 

    We don't spend nearly enough time looking at the very real misery poverty brings, and the only way to get the picture is to hear from those who either live inside or very near it.  You do it in a way that brings a kind of bravery and dignity to the lives of the people you know who live without knowing what tomorrow will bring.

    I hope you'll keep doing what you're doing here and anywhere else you can.  Your voice is such a necessary force.  You make the poor real and when you do you make them impossible to ignore.

    I'll check out the links.  Can't thank you enough for this.


    by Ramona on Sun, 10/20/2013 - 9:24am

    They are real people who have been thrown in a bad situation.  We are wasting and throwing away so much talent and human resources by not investing in them.  I think we as a country has reached a turning point were we will measure the well being of people with as much importance as the GDP.  

    If you get a chance, watch a few more videos from Rhoda.  You can see her progress in her presentation of food tips.  She really put great deal of time and thought into it.  I would stop the tape to read her sketch pad notes and recipes.  The recipes are very much like the old depression recipes you find in old newspapers from that period on the internet. Getting all the servings in all the important food groups every day is a real challenge, especially for those who rely on public transportation.  Canned milk is far easier to get home then a gallon of milk. You and I are old enough to remember a milkman and a delivery bakery trucks. That option is not out there any more. There is so much misinformation on how people use their SNAP allowance.  The few snacks and sodas they buy are a treat not the norm.

    Thank you for the comment.  


    by trkingmomoe on Sun, 10/20/2013 - 1:51pm

    One of your very best Momoe!

    And it does take a lot of training in order to attack the food shelves at your supermarket(s) successfully.

    And that is what your blog site is about.

    And I do know this.

    There is nobody more hungry than a ten year old boy or any boy between ten and twenty.

    And if one is charged with feeding those children, a lot of planning is in order.

    Your dishes are wonderful and delicious when implemented!

    Providing proper nutrition to children is difficult but that difficulty grows exponentially when only a small budgetary amount is available.

    Oh that is enough from me.


    by Richard Day on Sun, 10/20/2013 - 5:07pm

    The media and politicians like to pretend that the depression ended four years ago but it really didn't.  We are still bumping along at the bottom and sitting at the bottom is not a end.  All you have to do is look around and see how shabby the country looks.  There are cities and towns dying because the wealthy don't see value or worth in them.  

    My garden is growing amazingly well. It is doing much better then my first year

    When I was going through the you tube library of videos, most of the how to videos for low cost meals are from preppers.  Preppers are the nuts who think society is going to fall apart and we must be prepared like the Mormons with a stock of food.  These preppers' you tube channels are loaded with gun videos and other survival stuff.  Rhoda's video was one that was a real honest look at reality.

    Oh and I can see you going shopping like a march to war.  LOL

    Thanks..   


    by trkingmomoe on Sun, 10/20/2013 - 10:51pm

    Momoe, I looked at a couple of Rhoda's videos and it's good that she takes the time to show people how they can save money on food.  I'm a little concerned about the meals she makes, though.  They're high on starches and fats and low on veggies and the kinds of foods that don't have a tendency to clog arteries. 

    I saw that she used a tuna-sized can of chicken that would also include preservatives and that gummy stuff, when it seems to me that with that $1.49 she could buy a boneless chicken breast or two and make it go further. 

    She did have a frozen roll of ground turkey, but she also had frozen rolls of sausage and chorizo.  She talked about making scalloped potatoes and macaroni and cheese and I understand that they are meals you can make on a budget but everything I saw on her table was either dangerously fattening or full of empty calories.  I would love to see something healthier using better ingredients that don't cost any more than the canned or frozen prepared foods she was using.  (I hate to even say this because I know she's providing a service to people who need to be able to stretch their budgets, but on the other hand I really do think it can be done with much healthier ingredients.)

     


    by Ramona on Sun, 10/20/2013 - 11:16pm

    It is really a poor diet, but that is how many approach their situation.  It is a shock to see french fries with french toast.  I wanted to show this type of diet because it is common among those who don't have much left to eat on.  I have an advantage I have a car and plenty of small appliances and other equipment to cook with.  Another thing many rural and urban areas are food deserts.  Those canned meats and processed foods is all that they have access to.  It is foods that fill you up and keep you from getting hungry as fast. 

    Have you ever tried to get off and on a bus with a 2 wheeled shopping cart full of groceries?  It is easy to break eggs, crush produce and the thing is heavy.  The weather is another factor with really hot days and below freezing temperatures.  By the time you walk home dairy, frozen food and produce can be in very sad shape.  When I used to pick up my grandson every afternoon from school, on Fridays the bus would stop at the bus stop to let a young women with 2 small children off.  She would have groceries and a stroller.  The bus driver would help her get the kids and grocery trolly off the bus.  She would set the kids in the stroller pack bags of milk around them and push them down the street with dragging the 2 wheel cart behind her.  All I could think was how did she find the strength to do that. Me with two young grand kids sitting snug in their car seats waiting for school to be let out.  

    I wanted you to notice how some solve food insecurity.  Her videos do a better job then my writing about it.  Thanks for taking time to look at her videos.  


    by trkingmomoe on Mon, 10/21/2013 - 2:02am