Poor people can't afford healthy food

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just for some perspective, OP. When I was little, both my parents worked part-time and went to school part-time. We owned our house, and my mom cooked from scratch.

People simply cannot do that today. The cost of living is too high, so many parents have to work two jobs. Your mother was lucky that she was able to make-do, but many people today cannot do that anymore. It’s just a fact.

People absolutely can cook from scratch today. So many posts ignoring other posts from current single moms and other non rich people about cooking from scratch.

I am a single mom with full custody. I work about 50 hours a week. I cook almost all our food from scratch including bread and desserts. I do ok but I am not wealthy enough where I can pay for a cleaning service or meal kits or order instacart for all my groceries . I shop sales and lean a lot on batch cooking and freezing things. I try to multi task as much as possible, so for many meal I make part of it I make enough to freeze for another time.

Honestly I think the answer here is that some people find a way if this is something important to them and other throw their arms up and say “oh well, there is no way to do this, my only option is McDonald’s dollar menu”.

Have you ever met someone less organized and competent than you are?

Look, I am truly not more special or smarter or more competent than anyone else. If I can make this happen I think most other people could too.

Sorry DP. Looks like Excuse Lady is back. Now all poor people have ADD or ADHD or “anxiety”.

No, many of them are just not very smart or good at things. This is why many of them are poor. I think many of you simply don’t understand the level of dysfunction involved in generational poverty. You may think you’re not smarter or more competent, but you are. I say this not as an excuse but an explanation.

[Anonymous]

All the rich folks on here saying poor people don't have a microwave are idiots. A microwave is $50-100. Everyone except the homeless have a microwave.

[Anonymous]

To all who are bashing beans and rice. Chipotle is one of the most successful fast casuals, and 80% of a typical bowl (by weight) is beans and rice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the rich folks on here saying poor people don't have a microwave are idiots. A microwave is $50-100. Everyone except the homeless have a microwave.

i

Anyone who is absolutely certain about what “everyone” has and can afford probably shouldn’t be calling other people “idiots”.

[Anonymous]

To people interested in cooking from scratch, especially lentils, beans etc. Please invest in a pressure cooker, a small one can be bought for $60.00 and it will change your life.

I come from a beans, lentils culture and a pressure cooker is the foundation of cooking plant based food from scratch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To people interested in cooking from scratch, especially lentils, beans etc. Please invest in a pressure cooker, a small one can be bought for $60.00 and it will change your life.

I come from a beans, lentils culture and a pressure cooker is the foundation of cooking plant based food from scratch.

I don’t like using my pressure cooker bc it makes me nervous, but I do want to increase bean consumption though. Do you think a slow cooker would be a good idea?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To all who are bashing beans and rice. Chipotle is one of the most successful fast casuals, and 80% of a typical bowl (by weight) is beans and rice.

Well their CEO headed to Starbucks, this might change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To people interested in cooking from scratch, especially lentils, beans etc. Please invest in a pressure cooker, a small one can be bought for $60.00 and it will change your life.

I come from a beans, lentils culture and a pressure cooker is the foundation of cooking plant based food from scratch.

I don’t like using my pressure cooker bc it makes me nervous, but I do want to increase bean consumption though. Do you think a slow cooker would be a good idea?

Soaking is th time consuming part. You can use a pot on the stove, but again, time consuming. You might be able to use your slow cooker, but they often don’t get hot enough to boil and keep at a true simmer. It’s a debate.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s pretty funny that people are tossing around numbers like $60 and $100 for appliances as though these numbers are somehow insignificant to people that are living paycheque to paycheque. It’s insignificant to DCUM, but not to those where that may be a huge portion of their food budget for the entire month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up poor. My single mom made minimum wage her entire life as a personal support worker. She is from southern Africa and only has a 6th grade education. We ate very healthy food. What made it work was that she cooked from scratch and we ate the same food several days in a row.

She managed the cost of food by preparing simple healthy dishes (stews and cornmeal porridge, or stews and rice).

She managed the time it takes to shop and cook by cooking one or two big pots of stew per week, so there was not so much variety in what we ate. We didn't have a car, so we took the bus to the grocery store once a week.

She got paid every Thursday and on payday we would have a treat (maybe a pizza or burgers).

Anyway, she came from a different place and a different time, but that is how you can be poor and eat healthy.

If you shop at Aldi you can buy fresh foods—fruits, veggies etc.

[Anonymous]

For anyone who is wondering about the cookbook referenced up thread, it’s a free pdf, and here’s the link. I’m not the PP, but I’ve made a few of these and they’re great recipes. The author does state that this is not a challenge, and that users should add extras where they can afford to do so. The book is also 10 years old, so the $4 a day is out of touch, but it’s still a helpful tool.

http://ongov.net/dss/documents/good-and-cheap.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just for some perspective, OP. When I was little, both my parents worked part-time and went to school part-time. We owned our house, and my mom cooked from scratch.

People simply cannot do that today. The cost of living is too high, so many parents have to work two jobs. Your mother was lucky that she was able to make-do, but many people today cannot do that anymore. It’s just a fact.

People absolutely can cook from scratch today. So many posts ignoring other posts from current single moms and other non rich people about cooking from scratch.

I am a single mom with full custody. I work about 50 hours a week. I cook almost all our food from scratch including bread and desserts. I do ok but I am not wealthy enough where I can pay for a cleaning service or meal kits or order instacart for all my groceries . I shop sales and lean a lot on batch cooking and freezing things. I try to multi task as much as possible, so for many meal I make part of it I make enough to freeze for another time.

Honestly I think the answer here is that some people find a way if this is something important to them and other throw their arms up and say “oh well, there is no way to do this, my only option is McDonald’s dollar menu”.

What’s your job? Is it minimum wage? Regular office hours or swing shifts, evenings, weekends? Do you have a car? What’s your level of education? Where do you live in relation to a full grocery store? How many children do you have? Do you get child support? What is your neighborhood like in general? Did you grow up with a parent that made meals from scratch?

I mean, you have a freezer big enough to store things so you’re already ahead of many people.

These things matter in this context. Can it be done? Sure can, but here’s your trophy and your home made, low sugar, organic spelt cookie. For other people, it is a struggle. They don’t have the job, time, tools, resources, skills, whatever to be as awesome as you are.

I say this as someone who cooks from scratch more of less every day. I’m fortunate - I WAH and although I grew up poor, I also had a mother who cooked from scratch and showed me how. I’ve been precariously housed and was thankful I knew that to do. But I also had the skills, resources, education, and a whole bunch of things that afforded me that ability. I don’t judge. I’m grateful and I try to pay it forward.

This is the OP. My mom was a minimum wage earning personal support worker and single mother. She worked as many shifts as she could get because she only earned minimum wage and had to support two children. We lived in substandard housing in the inner city. We did not have a car. We did not have extra freezers or a large fridge. We lived in one-bedroom apartments because that was what she could afford. My mom had a grade 6 education and she was educated in apartheid South Africa (which means almost no education at all). Still she cooked from scratch.

Once again, I am not saying that poor people who don't cook from scratch are lazy, deficient, or any other insult you would like to attribute to me.

I think some of the previous posters put it more eloquently that I did. People who know how to cook can make it work. And they know how to cook for cultural reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just for some perspective, OP. When I was little, both my parents worked part-time and went to school part-time. We owned our house, and my mom cooked from scratch.

People simply cannot do that today. The cost of living is too high, so many parents have to work two jobs. Your mother was lucky that she was able to make-do, but many people today cannot do that anymore. It’s just a fact.

People absolutely can cook from scratch today. So many posts ignoring other posts from current single moms and other non rich people about cooking from scratch.

I am a single mom with full custody. I work about 50 hours a week. I cook almost all our food from scratch including bread and desserts. I do ok but I am not wealthy enough where I can pay for a cleaning service or meal kits or order instacart for all my groceries . I shop sales and lean a lot on batch cooking and freezing things. I try to multi task as much as possible, so for many meal I make part of it I make enough to freeze for another time.

Honestly I think the answer here is that some people find a way if this is something important to them and other throw their arms up and say “oh well, there is no way to do this, my only option is McDonald’s dollar menu”.

What’s your job? Is it minimum wage? Regular office hours or swing shifts, evenings, weekends? Do you have a car? What’s your level of education? Where do you live in relation to a full grocery store? How many children do you have? Do you get child support? What is your neighborhood like in general? Did you grow up with a parent that made meals from scratch?

I mean, you have a freezer big enough to store things so you’re already ahead of many people.

These things matter in this context. Can it be done? Sure can, but here’s your trophy and your home made, low sugar, organic spelt cookie. For other people, it is a struggle. They don’t have the job, time, tools, resources, skills, whatever to be as awesome as you are.

I say this as someone who cooks from scratch more of less every day. I’m fortunate - I WAH and although I grew up poor, I also had a mother who cooked from scratch and showed me how. I’ve been precariously housed and was thankful I knew that to do. But I also had the skills, resources, education, and a whole bunch of things that afforded me that ability. I don’t judge. I’m grateful and I try to pay it forward.

This is the OP. My mom was a minimum wage earning personal support worker and single mother. She worked as many shifts as she could get because she only earned minimum wage and had to support two children. We lived in substandard housing in the inner city. We did not have a car. We did not have extra freezers or a large fridge. We lived in one-bedroom apartments because that was what she could afford. My mom had a grade 6 education and she was educated in apartheid South Africa (which means almost no education at all). Still she cooked from scratch.

Once again, I am not saying that poor people who don't cook from scratch are lazy, deficient, or any other insult you would like to attribute to me.

I think some of the previous posters put it more eloquently that I did. People who know how to cook can make it work. And they know how to cook for cultural reasons.

OP, I get it. But how old are you? What your mom did 20/30 years ago doesn’t necessarily apply to the landscape NOW. Heck, I find what we ate pre-COVID is very different than what we do now, and groceries are not a huge concern for us. That’s only a 4 year difference.

You’ve also said that your mom didn’t like typical American food. It’s fair to say that that can go both ways. Many Westerners too, have their own ideas about cultural foods. Your mother was able to easily cook and make delicious grains, legumes, stews, etc. and help teach you that food landscape. For you to eat that way doesn’t feel like sacrifice - it is comfort and happiness and not in any way a negative. This is YOUR FOOD. The food of your mother, your ansectors, your childhood, and hers. She rejected other food, by your own report. Why do you think that people can easily flip the other way, only based on budget?

My DH is from a European, but “western” country and upbringing. He will take when I make “his” food, preferentially, every time, than when I make food from my culture, or anything else. It’s not conscious. Food is so social, so important to being who we are.

Respecting that there is more than money and ignorance at play can go a long way to finding empathy. Sure, you can solely to exist, or you can enjoy life. Part of the issue is that there is no education through life on how to enjoy different foods, because so much of it is unattainable for some families. This is where the education system could help, but no one wants to think about “home ec” as equally valuable as STEM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just for some perspective, OP. When I was little, both my parents worked part-time and went to school part-time. We owned our house, and my mom cooked from scratch.

People simply cannot do that today. The cost of living is too high, so many parents have to work two jobs. Your mother was lucky that she was able to make-do, but many people today cannot do that anymore. It’s just a fact.

People absolutely can cook from scratch today. So many posts ignoring other posts from current single moms and other non rich people about cooking from scratch.

I am a single mom with full custody. I work about 50 hours a week. I cook almost all our food from scratch including bread and desserts. I do ok but I am not wealthy enough where I can pay for a cleaning service or meal kits or order instacart for all my groceries . I shop sales and lean a lot on batch cooking and freezing things. I try to multi task as much as possible, so for many meal I make part of it I make enough to freeze for another time.

Honestly I think the answer here is that some people find a way if this is something important to them and other throw their arms up and say “oh well, there is no way to do this, my only option is McDonald’s dollar menu”.

What’s your job? Is it minimum wage? Regular office hours or swing shifts, evenings, weekends? Do you have a car? What’s your level of education? Where do you live in relation to a full grocery store? How many children do you have? Do you get child support? What is your neighborhood like in general? Did you grow up with a parent that made meals from scratch?

I mean, you have a freezer big enough to store things so you’re already ahead of many people.

These things matter in this context. Can it be done? Sure can, but here’s your trophy and your home made, low sugar, organic spelt cookie. For other people, it is a struggle. They don’t have the job, time, tools, resources, skills, whatever to be as awesome as you are.

I say this as someone who cooks from scratch more of less every day. I’m fortunate - I WAH and although I grew up poor, I also had a mother who cooked from scratch and showed me how. I’ve been precariously housed and was thankful I knew that to do. But I also had the skills, resources, education, and a whole bunch of things that afforded me that ability. I don’t judge. I’m grateful and I try to pay it forward.

You are really, really missing my point. It’s not that I am so great and deserve a cookie. It’s that cooking from scratch is possible. Again, there are many many excuses you can make for not doing something, or you can make it a priority. Also, at this point in history we have access to more information than people have ever had before. If you don’t know how to prepare food, there is a whole internet out there to help you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To people interested in cooking from scratch, especially lentils, beans etc. Please invest in a pressure cooker, a small one can be bought for $60.00 and it will change your life.

I come from a beans, lentils culture and a pressure cooker is the foundation of cooking plant based food from scratch.

I don’t like using my pressure cooker bc it makes me nervous, but I do want to increase bean consumption though. Do you think a slow cooker would be a good idea?

Therapy is a better idea if you have anxiety over a kitchen appliance