DCentric

There are many sides to this issue. I and my girlfriend are on food-stamps. We eat very nutritiously, but by no means decadently: lots of organic and relatively local produce, rice-and-beans of many varieties, whole-grains, dairy, tofu-based products and very occasional luxuries (fish, more than just cheddar cheese, ice-cream). We get $300+ a month in food-stamps, which goes into the local economy (not stores based in other states) and frees up some money for further spending in the local economy.

I work part-time and volunteer nearly as much, while she’s a student with work-study and volunteer commitments. We are probably relative exceptions, but our case points out that the conclusion to draw is not “it’s impossible to shop nutritiously on food-stamps,” setting aside the issue of food-deserts, but that it’s impossible to eat nutritiously on $31 dollars a week – a fact about as illuminating as saying it’s impossible to stay dry in the rain without sufficient covering. This leaves room for questioning the reason food-prices are what they are, but it’s borderline reactionary to reduce this “impossibility” to the food-stamp program as such.

Thanks for sharing, Joe. Do you have any tips on how to stretch food stamp dollars while purchasing nutritious foods? Do you go to farmer’s markets, chain supermarkets?

Can you live off of food stamps? I would guess that this is a rhetorical question as my gut tells me that it not meant for anyone to truly “live” while on food stamps. Truly sad that this is even needed living here in America. Land of excess and reality tv.

We usually shop at a locally owned grocery-chain called New Seasons and a local food co-operative. Walkability is a factor with New Seasons, but in both cases we also have an eye to labor relations and the relatively democratic way they operate. A organization that doesn’t care about its workers, beyond getting them to do the work, can’t be expected to be that concerned with customers, beyond getting them to buy their stuff.  That said, it’s often but not always as cheap as going to an inter-state corporate department-store like Fred Meyers. You have many trade-offs you can make as your budget gets smaller, but I think the key is to keep to staples and vegetable protein from whole foods like nuts and beans. We occasionally go to Farmers markets. A lot of them deal in non-food products or prepared and even ready to eat food. No more than a quarter of most markets sell produce, cheese, straight-up bread and other grainy staples.

There is only so much stretching to be done, and a key part to eating nutritiously on a budget is not a matter of what you can buy in the store; it’s also about having TIME to cook things, even if in large batches ahead of time. It’s important to feel empowered to do something effective with what little resources one has, but the onus cannot be on the individual to make not enough somehow work. That kind of thinking in business is exactly what leads to the exploitation of workers and all efforts to make it seem normal and even necessary.

We usually shop at a locally owned grocery-chain called New Seasons and a local food co-operative. Walkability is a factor with New Seasons, but in both cases we also have an eye to labor relations and the relatively democratic way they operate. A organization that doesn’t care about its workers, beyond getting them to do the work, can’t be expected to be that concerned with customers, beyond getting them to buy their stuff.  That said, it’s often but not always as cheap as going to an inter-state corporate department-store like Fred Meyers. You have many trade-offs you can make as your budget gets smaller, but I think the key is to keep to staples and vegetable protein from whole foods like nuts and beans. We occasionally go to Farmers markets. A lot of them deal in non-food products or prepared and even ready to eat food. No more than a quarter of most markets sell produce, cheese, straight-up bread and other grainy staples.

There is only so much stretching to be done, and a key part to eating nutritiously on a budget is not a matter of what you can buy in the store; it’s also about having TIME to cook things, even if in large batches ahead of time. It’s important to feel empowered to do something effective with what little resources one has, but the onus cannot be on the individual to make not enough somehow work. That kind of thinking in business is exactly what leads to the exploitation of workers and all efforts to make it seem normal and even necessary.