The London Food Bank issues a challenge every year, focusing attention on the difficulties faced by those living on assistance when it comes to feeding themselves and their families.
A columnist with the Londoner took the challenge this year and a reporter with The London Free Press rose to the bait last year. I gather from the Free Press article that a couple living on assistance have a food budget of only $240 for a month. They can, I believe, augment their purchases with food from the London Food Bank.
If you’ve been following my blogs, you know that this past month taught me this can be done. But, it would be harder for a needy person to feed themselves and another for $240 than someone like me or like those involved in the Food Bank challenge.
First: one must buy all their food on sale in order to stick to such a tight budget. My menu for each week was built around the best bargains found in the weekly food flyers. And it helps to be a creative cook. There are plenty of food stuffs on sale every week but it takes creativity in the kitchen to blend those into a week’s worth of meals.
Second: one needs access to a car and must live close to most grocery stores. If one has to drive too far to find the bargains, then the cost of driving will negate the savings. Taking the bus in order to shop at a number of stores is out of the question.
At this point many people on assistance are no longer able to take my advice. For one thing, they may not have access to a car. Or they may not be terribly good in the kitchen – lots of people aren’t good in the kitchen. I’m not but I found the Internet an excellent source of recipes. If you’re poor, you may not have the Internet or even a good collection of cookbooks, or, for that matter, all the kitchen stuff that takes the hassel out of cooking for an experienced chef like my wife.
No car, unable to buy the food bargains, possibly no flyers – it depends upon where one lives – and no well equipped kitchen, all these no’s mean it is going to be very hard to put food on the table for only $240 a month.
Third: no waste is allowed. For instance: Broccoli, often on sale, has stems with woody ends, as does asparagus. Save all appropriate vegetable trimmings and make vegetable broth. This will serve as a base for soup.
A slow cooker is an great way to take an inexpensive cut of meat and make it tender. If there is a bone, the slow cooker method makes the meat easily fall free. The bone, with any remaining meat, can be simmered in the vegetable soup base. Again, no waste. Of course, if you are poor, a slow cooker may be another out-of-reach expense.
My wife and I could not have gotten through the month without our slow cooker.
Fourth: When a well known London, Ontario, couple took the challenge in 2008, they complained about the sameness, the repetitiveness, of their meals because of the tight food budget.
Creativity pops up as an answer here, too. For instance, potatoes are amazingly healthy and cheap. Colcannon, made from potatoes and cabbage, is an Irish peasant concoction that is a great addition to the menu. Easy to make, inexpensive, healthy, delicious.
I learned about Colcannon from a young person, with a keen interest in Ireland, who made the dish. In other words, people living on a minimum budget often already know about creativity and are stretching their creativity to its breaking point.
Fifth: If it’s on sale and it’s something you like to eat, stock up. When pasta went on sale for 99-cents for two pounds, I stocked up. I bought the limit. This is another option not open to those most needing to slash their food budget. They are doing well getting through a month, let alone preparing for the next one.
In the late ’60s I lived for a time in three different communities, each with a food cooperative. To keep the costs down, the members of the co-ops each donated a shift or two of their time each month. The food co-ops were smaller than their chain store counterparts with not as wide a selection of goods – but, the quality was excellent and the members kept the prices in check without resorting to weekly loss leaders.
The London Food Bank is a positive force in the city. It has helped a lot of people, nurtured generosity in the community at large and even encouraged good deeds from big business. If you’ve ever been to the food bank and watched the hardworking volunteers sorting donated goods, you’ve looked through a window into what I recall as the ’60s.
For me, the ’60s were not simply ten years but the ’60s were a moment when the best thinking of some of the best people fell in sync with the best in the world. It didn’t last. It was a fad. I ask you, “Where are those ’60s co-ops today?” Gone.
But the spirit of those co-ops still can be found today. People like Jane Roy and her husband Glen Pearson of the London Food Bank remind me of the amazing activists I knew in the ’60s. These two are two of the best and in keeping with tradition, they coax the best out of the world.
I salute Jane and Glen and their small army of volunteers. They make our world a better place.
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