More Mainers At Risk of Hunger (rent, house, salary)

[virginia farm girl]

With the cost of living on the rise, food banks report an increase in
the number of working people seeking help.

By ANNE GLEASON Staff Writer
November 22, 2007

When the costs of housing, gas, heating oil and health care rise,
the food money in a household budget is often the first thing to
be cut.

[cut]

[elston]

When I was a little kid, there were times when we didnt have enough food--but I never knew it. Mom had ways to make something out of nothing. My Dad was a minister and in those days they didnt earn a professional salary--dispite having advanced education. Once as an adult I was talking with my mom and remembering my childhood and foods that we had. I told her I used to love it when she made biscuits for supper, with maple syrip. Her eyes filled and she said, "those were the times I had nothing to feed you--I would make up some baking powder biscuits and make the syrip with water and sugar and a little maple flavoring so you wouldnt be hungry when you went to bed, sometimes I would have an apple to give you to go with it." I remember those meals fondly as "special treats"; now I know that what made them special was her love for us. (Life wasnt always that hard, Dad's garden kept us fed much of the year and as the years went by he got churches in cities instead of the little towns who didn't have much more than an old parsonage to offer the minister and his family.

[mainebrokerman]

i once read ,,that the lower tier of wage earners in maine make up well over 70% of maines' smokers,, and drinkers..
what is sad, is seeing a family on welfare,,,with bare cupboards, but yet, the single/or both parents have thier cigarettes everyday (a pack a day is 35/week or 140/month)
and worse,,,they may have beer in the fridge and no food,,
and worse than that,,they pay for dope/pot/weed/ with monies they dont have.

this isnt an attack on welfare,,,tho i wish we could wipe the fraud out of welfare, so that the ones, who really need it,,have it, and have more (as a helping hand)

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by elston

When I was a little kid, there were times when we didnt have enough food--but I never knew it. Mom had ways to make something out of nothing.

I think that was the way of moms then... My dad taught, but in those days HE paid the bills too.. and early on in their marriage he wasn't too reliable about it. They had an account with the grocer, and though I don't remember anything ever being amiss, Mom said there were times when she would go to the store and they would apologize and tell her that Dad hadn't paid so she couldn't get anything. But I do remember (and still make) dishes she said were traditions -- some of which I did eat at Grandmothers -- but yet took not much for ingredients.... Potatoes and dumplings (SO not on my diet at present! LOL) were one such; just boiled taters and the dumplings on top, garnished with sauteed onions... and "spagetti and crumbs" which was plain boiled spagetti garnished with bread that had been torn into little pieces and sauteed in a bit of margarine.

But now, so many have no idea how to cook... and of those who can, so many have to follow a recipe to the letter and think that if they don't have basil (for example) that they cannot make spagetti sauce or can only make things from mixes. I once started to try to put together a cooking book based on the way I think about food... the sort of thing that can have me declare that we are having jambalaya for supper and by the time it hits the table, it has turned into spagetti and sauce! LOL substitutions feed the family...

I wrote an article for Backwood Home Magazine in the early 90s entitled "Feed Seven on Under $300 a Month" (write what you know... LOL) Admittedly this was for the back-to-the-land crowd and we did have a big garden and raised some meat-critters... but there is a lot more to eating than meat and 'taters and at least then, it WAS possible to feed the family JUST using food stamps (the government assumed this was only to supplement, not to replace, your food budget), 'cause I taught a friend, who had no garden, how to do it as well... and her kids did not grow up like mine and so had slightly different expectations!

I makes me sad when I hear folks are going hungry, because I know that it is possible to eat real food really cheaply. But you gotta be able and willing to cook it.

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

i once read ,,that the lower tier of wage earners in maine make up well over 70% of maines' smokers,, and drinkers..

That is where my friend K's kids (he's in the Army, she works fast food and they live on base) money goes... up in smoke. They are not heavy drinkers at least we can be thankful for that! But I often hear him say "there is no food in the house" ... But there is always $$ for smokes...

He is disabled and staying with them until his disability benefits come through... hopefully by Christmas. He won't get much, but he will make it to the end of the month, eat decently (GREEN stuff even... his kids never have a salad... and he loves 'em), have his meds and doctor care (GREEN stuff even... his kids never have a salad... and he loves 'em) and the cat will get fed.

Priorities...

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

... what is sad, is seeing a family on welfare,,,with bare cupboards, but yet, the single/or both parents have thier cigarettes everyday (a pack a day is 35/week or 140/month)
and worse,,,they may have beer in the fridge and no food,,
and worse than that,,they pay for dope/pot/weed/ with monies they dont have.

this isnt an attack on welfare,,,tho i wish we could wipe the fraud out of welfare, so that the ones, who really need it,,have it, and have more (as a helping hand)

I am amazed at the crowd of folks at the VFW who drink and gamble a lot.

Some of the regular customers do earn good livings, however there are others who are barely scraping by. And it is those folks who seem to do the most gambling. Gambling, smoking and hard drinking seem to go hand-in-hand with a high portion of folks who are barely able to pay their rent each month.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by starwalker

...
I makes me sad when I hear folks are going hungry, because I know that it is possible to eat real food really cheaply. But you gotta be able and willing to cook it.

Well said.

Both of my parents grew up on corn bread, beans and poke salad.

I had a lot of that too while growing up.

We still do a lot with potatoes, rice, beans, wheat, barley, oats, corn and onions.

But when folks do not cook, they are really stuck.

We have food enough here in our house for six months, but only if you can cook it.

[treeluvr]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

i once read ,,that the lower tier of wage earners in maine make up well over 70% of maines' smokers,, and drinkers..
what is sad, is seeing a family on welfare,,,with bare cupboards, but yet, the single/or both parents have thier cigarettes everyday (a pack a day is 35/week or 140/month)
and worse,,,they may have beer in the fridge and no food,,
and worse than that,,they pay for dope/pot/weed/ with monies they dont have.

this isnt an attack on welfare,,,tho i wish we could wipe the fraud out of welfare, so that the ones, who really need it,,have it, and have more (as a helping hand)

Yeah--Here in Philladelphia some of the panhandlers are smoking. I tell them that they're doing better than I am, if they can afford to smoke. Their problems are nothing my dollar is going to fix.

But, I suppose that when a person gets to a certain level of hopelessness? helplessness? drugs (cigarettes, alcohol, etc.) become too alluring to resist. Short term fixes for psychic pain can become very problematic.

[BacktoNE]

Since I stopped working a few years ago, and we now live on DH's salary, I've learned to cook A LOT more. I never was a fan of those so-called convenience foods anyway (Hamburger Helper, etc) so those never ate into my food budget.

Once DH's sister was diagnosed as a Type I diabetic, and the thought of DH maybe having to deal with that as well, I started making everything from scratch so I could control the ingredients. While the initial cash outlay may have been more, I make large batches of most things that can be easily frozen so in the long run, our grocery bill is smaller. But with the recent skyrocketing prices, it still costs between $100 and $125 per week for just the 2 of us. Yikes! I can't imagine trying to feed a family especially for those who can't/don't cook from scratch!

[mainebrokerman]

perhaps we should put our minds together, and write a book titled "how to cook in maine, for less than $1.00 per serving" even if it were two dollars per serving,,it would strike a needed nerve.
if we created that cookbook, it could be a standard hand-out for anyone on foodstamps/welfare