Poverty Eating

[siglinde99]

I'm not tracking as well as I should, but I know I am staying close to (or under) my $5 a day goal. It's relatively easy since I bought huge cuts of meat for Easter and then made soups and stews with leftovers (and still had a huge container of sliced meat). If I was really living on an Ontario Disability Allowance, or welfare, that would not be an option. Also, I'm really lucky that I like my own cooking and don't mind leftovers/casseroles/soups. mermaid_in_heels shared this link today, http://www.scarymommy.com/gwyneth-paltrow-food-bank-nyc-challenge-backlash/. It points up one of the big challenges of this kind of challenge: eating rice and beans for a week is easy. It's less fun when it's for a year - and even then the emergency costs (extra daycare, snacks for cranky overtired kids) would need to come out of that rice and beans budget. OTOH, rice, beans and eggs are exactly what I would choose for inexpensive balanced proteins, supplemented by fruits and vegetables (and Gwyneth doesn't have enough of those, in my view).

Comments

[litlebanana.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I feel like I could probably eat for five dollars a day for a week without a problem, but if I kept it up for a year, that would be really hard. You can do anything for a week.

[vesta-venus.livejournal.com]

She does have those 7 limes. So, she's not getting scurvy. :)

[one-raido.livejournal.com]

Did you ever watch Morgan Spurlock's 30 days? They lived on a welfare budget for 30 days and ran into health issues when his finace' was ill.

Really good series.

[siglinde99.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it, but I just did a quick search and it looks like I missed out on a really interesting show. I have been watching the current US debate about a $15 minimum wage with great interest. That would just about triple what he was living on.

[one-raido.livejournal.com]

The series stemmed from a documentary he did Supersize me where he ate McDonald's for 30 days. Really good. He has something now called Inside Man, but I haven't seen any of those.

[siglinde99.livejournal.com]

I remember all the buzz about Supersize Me. The kids watched it as school as part of their phys ed/health classes too.