Ms Cheap Is Ms Wrong

I originally wanted to applaud "Ms. Cheap" for trying to show the impossibility of surviving on $21 a week worth of food stamps, but after reading the article, I discovered that most folks don't have a clue as to the difficulty encountered by many people when trying to stretch this amount through a week. I know the article was meant to enlighten but what it really does is provide spurious ammunition to folks like James Shacklett, who doesn't really believe that there are homeless folks out there, or others who claim we give too much money to the poor already. I would hope that folks who read this are able to recognize that the ability to live on $21 a week worth of food is not going to be a reality for about 99.9 percent of the folks out there. Cheap recognizes that most folks don't have her resources, mind you, which completely negates any worth of her effort here, while Marvin Koch has our poor family running through $30 worth of gas and three hours of their time store-hopping to stay under $21 bucks (this doesn't factor in vehicle maintenance and insurance costs if they're driving, either) - if they've got to take a bus, it'll most likely cost them close to the same amount, what with the transfers and on-offs they'll have to endure to go from store to store. Did I mention they'd have to time it perfectly in order to make it home before the last bus runs for the day, leaving them stranded in a Kroger parking lot somewhere in the burbs? If that happens, you can add a $50 hotel bill or a long walk home carrying groceries. Worst case scenario - a loitering or trespassing ticket, confiscated groceries that get tossed to the side of the road on the way to a night in the hoosegow and a fat fine to pay a month or two down the road. Theresa Flamer and Mark Leners take it for granted that our poor family has access to a computer and knows how to operate it well enough to be able to type in urls. I don't know if they've ever been around poor folks, but many of the ones I know have absolutely no computer skills whatsoever and those that do usually have to find some public access site to use one. These are typically limited to one hour at our downtown library, if there's a spot available when you get there. Anne Taylor takes for granted that most poor folks have walking distance access to a Kroger. Most of the folks I know do the majority of their shopping at the dollar store over on 5th street. Some of the luckier ones can hit the Walmart neighborhood market out on Gallatin road. The ignorance is breathtaking and that is a huge problem for those of us who must work with people who are suffering in poverty. Articles like this one simply help perpetuate myths and falsehoods, which makes our job that much more difficult in the longrun...

Saturday, 10/20/07

Ms. Cheap: Readers step up to $3-a-day test with recipes, ideas

By MS. CHEAP Staff Writer

Thanks to you resourceful readers, the Food Stamp Challenge of trying to eat on $21 a week per person is looking easier — and tastier — than I first imagined.

I don't mean to diminish the challenge, but honestly, if you are willing to be super disciplined, cook from scratch, shop smart and be a vegetarian at least part of the time, the $21 cap is not impossibly burdensome. Granted, many of the people who really NEED to shop on this small budget don't have the advantages that I have, such as access to coupons, access to the Internet for comparison shopping, easy transportation to several groceries, and experience and education on smart shopping strategies.

But still, I think that where there is a will, there is a way.

As reader Marvin Koch of Nashville pointed out, "many people could find enough sale items in the various supermarket and drug store ads in The Tennessean to possibly eat on $3 a day. (Walgreens last Sunday had eggs for $1 a dozen and sausage links for $1 for a package of eight links, while Kroger's advertises bread for $1 per loaf)."

Koch suggested that our local groceries could publish a weekly "value menu'' showing how their various products could be used in a $21 weekly budget. A good idea for sure.

Emergency food plan fits bill

If you're not familiar with the challenge, a group of local leaders interested in highlighting hunger and poverty in our community are going to try to live on $21 a person for a week starting Wednesday. The $21 is the average allotment that food stamp recipients receive for groceries each week, per person.

Beans and rice, soup and oatmeal are the staples of such an experiment, with some good recipes and menu plans pouring in from my cheapo readers.

Phyllis Ekdall pointed me to the October issue of Cooking Light, which features some good-looking budget-conscious recipes including a red beans and rice dish that her husband made at 90 cents per serving.

Also, thanks to Theresa Flamer and Mark Leners, who suggested www.hillbillyhousewife.com, which is truly a wonderful site for anyone wanting to shrink their food budget. Its mainstay is a $45 emergency food plan for a family of four. The idea of "hot dog and veggie stir fry over rice'' was a little alarming to me personally, but most of the selections of lentil soup, peanut butter sandwiches, orange juice, carrot sticks, cinnamon toast, hot tea, pancakes, macaroni and cheese, etc., looked pretty good.

Anne Taylor of Murfreesboro actually made a two-week mock menu for her husband and herself and priced it out at her Kroger to show that if you shop smart and have a specific plan, the numbers can work, and even include a meal or two out at places like Taco Bell or the $1 menu at Wendy's.

Statistics are frightening

When I wrote my earlier column soliciting your ideas of good recipes and menus for people on this kind of budget, I expected to get a little bit of negative feedback from people complaining of alleged abuse in the food stamp program and from people who feel strongly that it's not the government's job to provide total care of our each and every need.

But I was a bit surprised (and saddened) to hear from reader James Shacklett of Nashville, who said I was "trying to gather sympathy for those on food stamps'' and challenged me "to find 10 people in Nashville who are going hungry because they have to, not counting the so-called homeless.''

Honestly, Mr. Shacklett, I'm sorry to tell you that the poverty in our midst is staggering if we are to believe the statistics from Second Harvest Food Bank (which I would certainly think would be credible).

"There are 258,456 people who live in poverty in the 46 counties we serve in Middle and West Tennessee. One out of every five children in Tennessee under the age of 12 is hungry, ranking Tennessee 12th-worst in the United States,'' Second Harvest reported.

Even if it were half that number, (or even a 10th of that number), it is an appalling commentary on our society. I'm not saying food stamps are the perfect solution, but we clearly have a problem with people going hungry, and anything we can do to help these people learn to shop smart, plan better and stretch their food dollars is worthwhile, in my book.

And BTW, if you wonder what the definition of "poverty'' is, the Census Bureau classifies poverty as an annual household income of $10,294 or less for an individual, $13,167 or less for a couple and $20,614 or less for a family of four.

Everyone wants to save

Those "poor'' folks are often families with at least one person working or maybe elderly people with very little income, NOT just a bunch of freeloaders sucking up government handouts.

But even so, it is not just the needy who can benefit from smarter shopping and menu planning. It really is all of us who want to get the most for our money. And who doesn't?

Sharay Woods is trying to cut corners and recently decided that instead of spending money eating out at lunch, she buys pot pies at Wal-Mart for about 50 cents each.

She's also started buying a whole chicken on sale or a bag of lower priced leg quarters and bakes them for the first meal.

"The next day I pull all the chicken off the bones and either make chicken tacos or pulled BBQ sandwiches (using day-old bread.) There are several things that can be done if you are on a budget," Sharay said. "I think that we have gotten so used to eating out and eating microwave items that we don't bother to bargain shop.''

Yes, the challenge is a start no matter how you do with it, I think it is a wakeup call to help us see how much we overspend, and to learn some new ways to feed ourselves on a tiny tab, whether we NEED to or not.

Stay cheap!