Poor people can't afford healthy food

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were not poor but my low caste parents had no idea healthy eating was important so I grew up eating crap. It's complex and not just about income level.

It's also about the fact that when you can't afford to give your kids music lessons, or sports, or a SFH, or any of those things you see other families have, you might be able to get your kids happy meals on occasion. Or pick up a bag of Takis at the quick mart. Because yeah, rice and pasta are cheap, but it gets old after a while. And every parent wants to see their kids happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You seem to have little or no empathy OP. Why judge people so harshly? It sounds like your mom did what she could, but that food does not seem healthy. Have you been to a store lately? Fruits and vegetables are very expensive. The only thing that isn't is Trader Joes pasta and pasta sauce. It wouldn't be healthy to eat that for long. Also, since you're so judgey, why was your mom a single mom? Why no man in the picture? She could have afforded more for you with a man in the pic.

Canned and frozen fruit and veggies have been proven to retain the vast majority of its nutritional value. It’s good for you, cheap and shelf stable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

So why don't you go to a store today, armed only with $300 in food stamps for one month for 4 people and see how you do. Feel free to come back and show us how you did it.

+1. What OP experienced 30 years ago is not relevant today. You would like an old man screaming “back in my day, we walked uphill to school!”

[Anonymous]

How far did your mom live from her place of employment/how long was her commute? What was the childcare situation?

[Anonymous]

Why was this so offensive? Puzzled.
If DCUM are such food desert warriors why not volunteer in food banks and make weekly contributions from your shoe /jewelry/dress kitty?

[Anonymous]

Food Deserts are real problem.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/wha...ient%20deficiencies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None of this works when the stove in your crappy apartment breaks and you’re scared to tell the landlord because if he comes in he’ll know you have more than the allowed number of occupants in your place.

Or when you have a slumlord who won’t deal with the mouse and/or roach infestation so you can’t store any food in bulk.

Op here. I agree with this. We lived in our share of crappy apartments and we had no control over the situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How far did your mom live from her place of employment/how long was her commute? What was the childcare situation?

I'm curious about the answers to these questions as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How far did your mom live from her place of employment/how long was her commute? What was the childcare situation?

This is the OP. My mom was a personal support worker. She took several buses to get to her clients and back home. The commute was a nightmare. We were latch key children from the time my sister was 8 and I was 6. Not ideal at all. Of course I understand that if such young children were left alone today, someone would call the police.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were not poor but my low caste parents had no idea healthy eating was important so I grew up eating crap. It's complex and not just about income level.

It's also about the fact that when you can't afford to give your kids music lessons, or sports, or a SFH, or any of those things you see other families have, you might be able to get your kids happy meals on occasion. Or pick up a bag of Takis at the quick mart. Because yeah, rice and pasta are cheap, but it gets old after a while. And every parent wants to see their kids happy.

Op here. I agree totally.

[Anonymous]

You don’t sound poor. They can but it takes a lot more work.

[Anonymous]

My divorced single parents were poor too. We were on food stamps for a while. But, we lived in a small town in the midwest that wasn't a food desert. There were grocery stores in town and my parents always had cars.

I think the food desert issue is the thing. We always had access to meats, fruits, and vegetables. So, we ate simply but not too unhealthy - other than the many nights of tomato soup and grilled cheese when things got super tight.

[Anonymous]

Is cornmeal porridge considered "healthy"? It doesnt sound like it at all?

[Anonymous]

After separation I found myself in poverty and was on food stamps for a couple of years. I was easily able to buy milk, eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables etc for me and my kids.

Barriers to eating nutritiously tend to be a lack of transportation (for getting groceries), not owning or having access to proper kitchen tools and infrastructure (like ovens, stoves, refrigerators), and perhaps not knowing how to cook.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like your mom already knew how to cook all of these dishes for cultural reasons. That isn't the case for everybody. It would have been much harder for her to learn how to make healthy dishes if with kids while working and commuting if she hadn't already grown up like that.