This woman, Leanne Brown, wrote her Master’s Capstone project on eating on $4/day with recipes. It became a cookbook with a free, downloadable pdf for anyone who is interested at leannebrown.com and is getting A LOT of hits every day. It was featured in our newspaper this morning and has a lot of basic tips as well as fun recipes. The person who wrote the article says the peanut sauce recipe is one of the best sauces she’s had. I haven’t tried it, but am planing to print it and try out some of the recipes. It was specifically designed for folks who get government assistance for food and she now has a 2nd edition! She sells the book in bulk for about $5.19/book if you want a case of 36 books. She also partners with an organization that gives away free books for folks who need it.
The government should buy bucket loads of her book and offer it free to anyone on government assistance. I often think people don’t know how to eat - and cook - on a budget. I know many low income people are strapped for time, as well.
I also wish people on food assistance were offered cooking/nutritional lessons and free basic cooking gear.
In the long run, I think it would save the government money.
I’d love to leaf through this book - wonder if my library has it…
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Cheap-Eat-Well-Day/dp/0761184996
Assuming that $4 a day is per individual, that still means $20 a day for a family of 5 or $140 week - which should be pretty do-able.
That’s what I’m assuming anyway!
@doschicos: “Free basic cooking gear”…what the heck is that? Do you think “people on food assistance,” means homeless, or in a shelter?
The Amazon write up:
"A perfect and irresistible idea: A cookbook filled with delicious, healthful recipes created for everyone on a tight budget—and a cookbook with a strong charitable component: With every copy of Good and Cheap purchased, a second copy will be given to a person or family in need.
While studying food policy as a master’s candidate at NYU, Leanne Brown asked a simple yet critical question: How well can a person eat on the $4 a day given by SNAP, the U.S. government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program informally known as food stamps? The answer is surprisingly well: Broiled Tilapia with Lime, Spicy Pulled Pork, Green Chile and Cheddar Quesadillas, Vegetable Jambalaya, Beet and Chickpea Salad—even desserts like Coconut Chocolate Cookies and Peach Coffee Cake. In addition to creating nutritious recipes that maximize every ingredient and use economical cooking methods, Ms. Brown gives tips on shopping; on creating pantry basics; on mastering certain staples—pizza dough, flour tortillas—and saucy extras that make everything taste better, like spice oil and tzatziki; and how to make fundamentally smart, healthful food choices.
The idea for Good and Cheap is already proving itself. The author launched a Kickstarter campaign to self-publish and fund the buy one/give one model. Hundreds of thousands of viewers watched her video and donated $145,000, and national media are paying attention. Even high-profile chefs and food writers have taken note—like Mark Bittman, who retweeted the link to the campaign; Francis Lam, who called it “Terrific!”; and Michael Pollan, who cited it as a “cool kickstarter.” In the same way that TOMS turned inexpensive, stylish shoes into a larger do-good movement, Good and Cheap is poised to become a cookbook that every food lover with a conscience will embrace."
Doschicos, I can’t agree with you enough.
When I was on SNAP, I had very few cooking things. I think I had like two pots and a strainer.
@waitingtoexhale - No, I am not as naive as your post implies. Setting up a decent kitchen takes some $$. Basic pots and pans, a grater, a peeler, basic can opener, cutting boards, decent knives, food storage items, baking pans and sheets, and other cooking utensils. It does add up and many lower income folks don’t have a lot of the basics needed to help prepare a nutritious home cooked meal. See @romanigypsyeyes’ post above as an example.
I’d set up cooking and nutrition classes and give away a kitchen item for those that attended. Nothing wrong with some positive reinforcement. 
Food security issues in the US are as much about quality as quantity IMHO.
I’ve been giving advice to my son’s girlfriend about how to set up a kitchen. She’s not poor, but she’s got a limited budget and like my son is quite thrifty. But she doesn’t know whether she needs a big pot or a small one. They were asking about a cast iron grill pan vs just a regular one. How many knives do you really need? How many mixing bowls or can you make do with other stuff?
Fwiw, I used to work with a woman who did something exactly like this through Americorps. This was at a shelter but it was open to all of our outreach (non-residential) cases, too. The Americorps worker would give weekly lessons on how to cook food (and grow some easy, basic plants). All participants (not just those on SNAP but given our population, that was all the participants) who came were given vouchers to go get kitchen supplies at the local resale shop (the same place where they were given vouchers for food, furniture, etc).
I’d argue that actual obtainment of healthful foods is the hardest part of being poor. Many live in food deserts and fruits and veggies are expensive (especially in food deserts). However, ANY removal of barriers is a win in my book. (Help with supplies, help with recipes, etc)
@doschicos: I find it specious, to be honest, that many/most “families” on food assistance suffer this problem . Such families have already mastered the art of the resale/thrift/community resource outlet, and have the types of items that they have traditionally cooked with on hand. Perhaps we are talking about people with limited skill in taking care of themselves in other areas as well; those who need whole-life assistance, in addition to food assistance.
In the earlyish 80’s I worked in a program where we taught low income moms and dads to cook, grocery shop and parent. We taught them in large kitchen in our program building and we also taught them at home - and that was the eye opener because as you say, you can teach to cook in a nicely equipped kitchen, but if the plain truth is that they don’t have a pot with a lid or a pan that isn’t rusted or potholders they can’t repeat the behavior at home. We also taught them to plan grocery shopping with a shopping flyer and accompanied them to the grocery store. Again, it’s one thing to line up the food items on a counter that WE bought for the program and said, “now COOK!” - it’s another thing to walk past the chips, convenience foods or even know how to pick out cheaper cuts of meat for good results when you have no clue.
I think a lot of people actually trying to live on $4 a day for food are eating a lot of ramen and eggs. Not a lot of variety and not a lot of vitamins. This book wouldn’t be as much of a necessity as a helpful resource. It can help people add some more variety within their budget.
I totally agree with learning new techniques for budgeting for food, and the best use of food items, trying new types of food, and making that stretch using strategies that might not have been in the arsenal of families on food assistance. I find it unbelievable that many of these families need help in learning to find and buy the utensils for preparation of their meals. These people eat 25 days out of the month with regularity, and prepare food with the items they have acquired at stores, at pantries, at Goodwill, from family, etc.
This is a demographic that must be looked at as existing across many aspects of need. The idea that “families” do not have cooking utensils must be explained further to incorporate the degree of need in their lives, as such families sound closer to indigent and itinerant to me.
Waiting, truly you can find x, y, and z as unbelievable as you want. However, as someone who has worked with and been part of “these families,” I can tell you that yes, kitchen utensils are often very much lacking.
Even if families had X products at some point, things wear out. They break. There isn’t extra money to replace them.
Been there, long term. Part of a community that has reared and raised generations there. Hard to believe as a general statement, romanigypsyeyes.
The statement that these families need that type of help must be qualified.
I have some experience working with some people in the same communities, waiting. It’s fortunate that your community not only knew what to buy to stock a kitchen well, but where to find it all affordably, even on a tight budget. You and yours were/are very fortunate. But 1)not all lower income people live near places like Goodwill, and some of those smaller thrift shops carry only a few good, usable used kitchen items. Dishes, yes. Unbent, sturdy pots and pans? Not so much. And if you don’t KNOW what a good vegetable peeler is like, or what kind of pot won’t scratch up the glass top in your rental, who would tell you? Where would you ask?
I read about a family taking just such a cooking class as mentioned above a few years ago. They came from a refugee camp and the mother had never seen a stove. It terrified her. It was a huge victory for her to learn to use one. And I’m guessing someone had to teach her to buy the right kitchen ware. She was neither itinerant nor indigent, nor ignorant.
There’s a huge need for these classes and it would really help to be given some basic kitchen ware for many immigrants, actually. One little girl in D’s kindergarten brought a jar of peanut butter in for lunch one day. That’s all. Somehow they had the impression peanut butter from a jar was an American lunch. Again, not indigent or itinerant.
sseamom: Your point makes my point. Your comment expands the conversation. Thank you.,
Just tonight I had a rather eye opening comment along the same line. Someone who helps me with cleaning and gardening has ended up staying here for a bit. She is bright, but not of the same cultural demographic, though the same age as me. She noted that I spend a lot of time cooking. Compared to kids being home, I think I’m in a lazy nirvana. I stated as much, and said that even though I live alone, I still need meals, even if just boiled corn and salad, which is what I do for myself at this time of year. She mentioned calling for take out.
Now this is someone with no money. I said that by the time you decide what to order, and wait for it to be delivered, a simple meal can be cooked, a little pasta or something in a tortilla. I’m a little shocked, but if you think about what is advertised, it tends to be toward convenience rather than the initiative of cooking for yourself. Maybe I’m wrong, as I rarely see television. But the cook it yourself message in this book for food stamp recipients can be counter to what people see around them in terms of effort put into food preservation.
National Geographic did some articles on hunger and food security last year. Worth a read if you have time. The attached article gives examples of both kinds of families we’ve talked about here - those who don’t know how to cook, rely on fast food and processed foods, and other families that go to the effort to prepare and eat more wholesome food. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/hunger/
Sorry, last word should be preparation.