Food Stamp Budget experimenters

Thanks for the link, Maki. That should be $74/week, not day - about about $5.30 per day, per person. I'm doing quite well so far - I even have leftovers in the freezer - but the contrast between my experience and the experience of those politicians buying ramen is important.

The budget I'm on is the one the US government has determined will feed two people "thriftily". Since the government assumes that 1/3 of everyone's food costs will be paid by the person themselves, everyone's actual benefits vary. But the Thrifty Budget amount is important, because it's the what the government has determined is adequate to feed a person or family. For 2 people, $74/week is $3 a week more than the maximum food stamp benefit we could ever collect.

One big assumption of the Thrifty Food Plan is that individuals will cook their own food, eat at home, not out, and so forth. And it seems quite reasonable to expect people to use their allotment in the most frugal manner possible.

But what about the homeless person without access to a kitchen? What about the person without any cooking skills (and there are lots of people like that). What about the person whose cooking skills depend on putting together prepared foods (which is the way many people cook)? What about the person working full-time (or more)? Can they realistically cook all of their meals from scratch?

I believe they could - but based on many of the comments I've gotten so far from people who have plenty of money but are anxious to reduce their food bills, there are lots of people out there who don't have the first idea how to start.

My experience raises a lot of questions. Is the Thrifty Food Plan adequate to feed a typical working family that doesn't have a stay-at-home member to do the cooking and shopping? Should governments be doing something to give people the skills they need to survive on such an austere budget? Should the US government raise the food stamp allotment to account for the realities of modern family life?

Smaller communities, those surrounded by organic farms/producers, are likely to have the food pantry/bank stocked regularly with healthy items.
Otherwise relying solely on gov't entitlements vis-à-vis the food stamp program and cash benefits, is not possible.
Despite these so-called 'luxuries', humane necessities, I left the area, to go to a different place; Where starving residents out, on items with less-than-zero nutrition - white-bread, not considered 'bread' - is handing out non-food items. Where not providing housing and general medical, is outside the conciousness. It needs to be explained, because locals don't get this reality of north american life. The propaganda churned out by all the television and other networks in the states works well to hide the realities.

Consider the backdrop of Iraq, where every neo-con greedy idea is in place, ideas too far out for even the drugged U.S. people: People have no food, no housing, no electricity, no running water, no basic medical and no safety - clearly a success! Far from off-topic, this is the same syndicate dropping provisions for those who have the least.
Without the whole picture, there is no picture.

That Washington Post article you link to is from 2005. What does that have to do with the current farm bill?

I can't believe that is the USDA alloted amount for food stamps. That's MORE than what my family of three spends and that's splurging for two cartons of ice cream every shopping trip. I think it's more of what people buy and where that becomes problematic. The best place to buy inexpensive and good produce is at farmer's markets or local groceries... but most probably don't take food stamps. Also, I think a lot of people buy "junk" food - canned, boxed, etc... which actually is more expenisve than buying and making it at home. Not to mention it's not as healthy. And people also seem to abhor "stocking up" for sales (for staple foods, like pasta) or buying "in season" foods... but if you buy almost everything on sale (as we do) and in season, you can have some very tasty and healthy meals... for closer to $50 a week. (this is in California, where food is NOT cheap, but varieties of seasonal vegetables and fruit are readily available).

Yes.

Precisely, I am talking about -moving-.

Re. "that’s not really a practical option for many people." (Example given of inner-city folks).
With respect to the great intelligence I know you have - Wrong, or at least I disagree.
Poor pilgrims managed to cross the Atlantic Ocean in wooden boats hundreds of years ago, with a lot less resources than what someone living in an inner-city, run-down, rat-infested sewage pit has today. Many of the immigrants to north america since the time of the earlier 'settlers' have had similarly scant resources - coming from countries they were literally starved out of.

I see no difference [no greater barrier] between the examples above, and moving within the U.S. to another community which has ample fresh and healthy foods. As the poster in California points out, the food she needs for her family is available at less cost then 74$ a week.

Was it not the 'Great Depression' which saw huge internal migrations of people? People who were >willing< to make the move? Is it not the biggest obstacle in those who live in a neglected community the willingness to move out? It takes a lot of courage: it can be done. It may mean living in a cardboard box. However, it is my experience, there are those communities in north america, who find this unacceptable, even to a stranger, providing them with clothes, a tent or some lodging, and ample fresh and other foods.

Is it okay to stay within the idea of 'I am a west-sider', and remain on my side of the tracks, forever stuck in my own local community? My own health be damned? Or is it better to allow myself to be a member of the world community. And so long as I am physically and legally able to move somewhere better, do so with haste. I have heard misery loves company. [And Entropy takes all with it.]

Riddle me this, anonymous. How can someone move if they cannot afford to buy their own food and need help from the government? In other words, how does a family of three or four pack up and move when they cannot even afford gas to get out of their city?
Your examples do not work on the basic tenet that land costs money these days. If someone is having to go through the government just to feed themselves, they certainly cannot afford to rent an apartment or house, nor could they even afford a down payment on such a place. When America was settled, land was mostly free and work was constantly available. These days, even college educated people have trouble finding a job that pays more than minimum wage. Using simple logic and mathematics, tell me how someone can support a family on $6.75/hour and still have enough to save for this grand exodus you think they can all make.

Maki, as for food stamp totals, the woman using $74/week is a far cry from the average of $72/MONTH. Foodstamps and healthy eating mix as well as oil and water.

Growing up in a make from scratch household with 2 working parents (including a mom who went college & grad school while raising 3 kids), there was an incredible amount of planning ahead -- weekly menus, grocery shopping every 2 weeks, training the kids & husband to cook along, etc.

One of the first purchases after a home, was getting a freezer for the garage, ahead of any wall to wall carpets for the house, We made do with area rugs on the wood floors, which had to be cleaned, shined & buffed every week!
Weekday menus were simpler & quicker -- eg, casseroles, assembled while doing breakfast, then ready to cook when the kids got home from school.

We all learned the "time-bake" (pre-set delayed cooking) at a young age, but I remember teaching many adult women neighbors how to use that feature on their ovens, cause they waited until midafternoon to start thinking about what to eat for dinner, otherwise.

Since the oven would be going for meatloaf, we also prepared 7-10 baked potatoes, as many as would fit in the remaining space & voila! Enough for diced potato salad the next day!

Having older parents who were adults during the Great Depression, our family was naturally frugal.

food stamps should be only should be used for food.I have seen too many people fill their shopping cart with pop and chip's candy.This should be used for food.I am sure their kids are eating well. Fruit should be the only junk food they should.

While it IS possible to eat healthy on that kind of a budget, it's also difficult. Especially for people that often don't have adequate transportation to get to the healthy food. I live in a suburb of major city, and getting anywhere by bus is easily a four hour excursion once you take into account walking to the stop, travelling to the store, doing the actual shopping and getting back home.

Add in the fact my lack of cooking skill usually doubles estimated prep time and one can see how the desire for convenience creeps in. Why pay more to get the ingredients to make homemade lasagna when I can just get a frozen one for less than the price of the stuff that goes into it?

And I'm just one person, toss in screaming kids and twice the chores and I can easily see how a flustered mom trying to get everywhere via public transit would fall back on convenience as well as price.

Hi All,
I like all the back and forth. Maybe this isn't news but we also should realize that people today eat far more than they need. Eating has become a "pleasure, a sport (if you will) almost a way to assuage our sadness and depression. If you are simply looking for good wholesome meals and , as one smart blooger pointed out, planning ahead there is so much you can make for soooo little.
Take , for instance, a whole chicken for supper on Sunday night. Monday morning pick off any meat which might still remain and make a salad with chick peas, chicken, and any other thing you like plus a loaf of bread or crusty roles, Tuesday morning, put the chicken carcass in a pot of boiling water with onions, garlic carrots and potatoes and boil slowly all day. Remove the bones add a little rice or pasta and voila, dinner Tuesday night for pennies.
Start on Wednesday the same way with maybe an inexpensive roast or ham.
Most people though buy the processed foods and the easy convenient foods, sodas, etc...
I see so many people shop the wrong way and look at food the wrong way. Let's be intelligent people!!

I'm currently using food stamps and though I'm grateful for the supplement to my income I receive $50 a month, so I'm a little unsure of the accuracy of $74 a week. A persons allotment is usually determined by their income, expenses and family size; $74 may be a national amount or maybe average but its inaccurate. Regardless if the concern is being able to purchase healthy foods on a food stamp budget it is definitely difficult leaning towards impossible. First off having easy access to markets that offer healthier choices and organics is a challenge especially to those in the city and inner city. Secondly the cost of healthier choices are far greater than the less healthy. Eg; 100% whole wheat/whole grain bread is at the least $3.59 a pack, white bread $1.59 - $2.19 a pack. I have $20 left in food stamps and still have vegetables and proteins to purchase, which one do you think I'll more than likely purchase, especially for a household of more than 1 person. So I'm stuck with first having to get to a fully stocked supermarket then deciding where and what products are going to be sacrificed so that I can get something organic, healthy etc... in my monthly meal planning. I've lived in the inner city all my life even when I was making $45,000.00 a year and still had problems creating a monthly budget and meal plan that incorporated enough healthy foods to get real, evident benefits. Its difficult on food stamps and unless you live within or experienced those restraints, whether food stamp based or cash based, its difficult to fathom