"Food Stamped" Filmmakers On Food and Film

more yuppies exploiting people so they can make & then sell (ah, yes make money) off of the people they are pretending to care about, nice

We've been a "food stamp family" for almost two years now, so this documentary looks very interesting to me. While I can obviously relate to the struggle of trying to create healthy meals on the relatively tight budget our benefits afford, I am still sooooo thankful for the program. Before food stamps, I was feeding our vegetarian family of 5 on $30 a week. (Not $30 per person. Just $30.) My shopping list usually went something like "lentils, rice, carrots, onions, oats." Summers were better, with the ability to supplement from our small container garden and the generosity of gardening friends and family.

Now on food stamps, with nearly 5 times my former budget--and plenty of practice with cooking on the cheap!--I feel so blessed to not have to worry about food. We no longer discuss sending our homsechooled children to public schools and daycares just so they could get "free" (substandard) breakfasts and lunches. Gone are the nights where I would portion leftovers for the kids while skipping dinner for myself, or the days where I would be slightly thankful that, even though I'd burnt dinner, the kids were too hungry to be picky.

Yes, I do know a number of families who struggle to get by on their food stamp budget, but we aren't one of them. Not eating meat is a biggie though--anyway you cut it, beans and grains are gonna be cheaper than meats.

So, what alarms me about the food stamp program far more than the low budget is the low enrollment. Nearly half of families who qualify for food assistance do not use it. We need to do a better job reaching out to the underserved populations of our communities.

I was laid off in November '09. My sister had her hours cut back severely shortly thereafter. I thought I was fairly frugal with my food budget beforehand, and I was compared to most people, but nowhere near where I am now. I'm trying to keep my weekly food budget for myself to $25, so comparatively $50 seems like a luxury. I'm sure my sister isn't able to spend $50/wk per person either. We're both lucky enough that we have room to garden to provide us with vegetables to supplement our diets.

The two of us were recently discussing how our respective changes in fortune really changed our shopping habits, most likely permanently. Fast food and prepackaged food is out, as is beef, since I won't spend more than $2 a pound. You get those grocery store circulars Tuesday morning and start scouring them for the loss leaders, which you buy in bulk. You become aware of the price of every item in your diet at every store in the area, and if it isn't on sale, a good sale, you don't buy it. Those are the weeks you eat out of your cupboard, your freezer, and your canned goods. My sister has found a bulk supplies store that caters to the Mormon community and now buys wheat that she grinds herself to make her own baked goods, she's mastered the pressure cooker and canning, she's also completely changed her food purchasing and preparation habits.

And we've both begun vegetable gardens since we can't afford to waste the gas for repeated trips to the store, much less fresh veggies, never mind the organic type we both prefer. I've bought used books on intensive French gardening and raised bed gardening to get as high a yield out of my little beds as possible. I've also learned which vegetables have the best yield per square foot, and adjusted my planting accordingly. Napa cabbage takes a long time to yield one head, so I plant the quick growing and high yielding bok choy instead. We eat whatever is in season, plant whatever will thrive in our respective climate zones, and eat whatever is ready. The garden dictates what we'll eat and when, but thank goodness we have it.

And most of all, nothing goes to waste. Nothing gets thrown out, nothing goes bad in the fridge, its all eaten. If I get some whole chickens on sale, I cut them up into pieces, and the carcasses get browned and then boiled for stock for soup. I made carnitas the other day, and after I simmered the pork, I reduced the boiling liquid and used it to make split pea soup. Nothing gets wasted, and we're horrified to see all the food waste around us. It really changes your perspective.

It's a very valuable experiment for everybody to realise what challenges poor people have to go through, but you also have to realise that this doesn't get close to the reality poor people have to go through for years.

When I was on food stamps, my budget was a little under $6/day, but now that I'm on disability instead, I have to aim for under $5. As I'm diabetic, gluten intolerant and have a few food allergies, it's darn near impossible to eat healthy, and when I do, I have to eat crap to make up for the expenditure.