Posted on 05/18/2012 2:31:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Winding down his media blitz from the Food Stamp Challenge, Mario Batali appeared on last night’s The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell to defend his decision to feed his family of four on a food stamp budget, which is to say: $31 dollars per person per week, which breaks down to $1.48 per meal.
His biggest lesson? “Shopping at more than one store was the key to understanding it,” Batali said to his disciple O’Donnell, live from the kitchen of Babbo (which I am surprised can handle a live media feed, unless there’s also a secret green screen room at Babbo). “Often these restaurants have to manipulate their own supply and demand, and have sales when they’re trying to move something quickly. So we were lucky enough, living in New York, to go to four different stores. But I know that there are food deserts, places where it’s more difficult to find food, that would make this a lot more difficult to achieve.
“So at that point you have to allow the store to dictate what your menu is by buying what’s on special this week. Which may not be chicken breasts, but chicken legs…so it’s understanding it in a different way.”
Batali’s grand experiment, designed to raise awareness to a proposal in Congress to cut food stamp budgets, was greeted by jeers from Fox earlier this week. Was this a rabid publicity stunt, readers, or a celebrity chef using his star power in a good way for a greater purpose? Let’s comment it up.
We just moved to this little town on the Ohio River last year, and kept receiving generous gifts of produce from neighbors on all sides of us (one of them owns a greenhouse, even). Tomatoes do splendidly in this area, which is great, because the four-year-old eats them like apples ;) We also have blueberries that were left by the owners of the property (we rent, with the option to buy).
In the town square, between May and October, there is a farmers’ market twice a week. I’m excited about the garden. The tomato plants got hit by a bad hailstorm the day after we put them in the ground, and out of 36, we only lost 7 or 8. I forgot that we also put in broccoli (my kids eat it, believe it or not). The corn and beans are coming up, as well as the onions. I’m seeing some sprouts where we planted the melons and cucumbers. We still have room for more stuff, and we’ll probably do another planting later in the season. I’m making tomato sauce, ketchup, and salsa, canning the beans, and making pickles. I’ve got some herbs to grow too. I’m ambitious, but I’ve got free slave labor (aka the four kids).
Iirc you recently moved to the Steubenville area? We have a great farmers market starting in mid June in the EGCC lower parking lot. It’s all locally grown, mostly organic. We get Our meat and eggs from a local farmer that sells there.
No, we’re in Gallipolis, out on S.R. 7 (I can see W. Virginia from my house, lol). We moved into our house a year ago next month.
Our neighbor has chickens, and we’ve been considering getting some from them to raise our own. We have right under 2 acres, so we have the room for them.
We used to raise cattle when I was growing up in Indiana. There is nothing like beef you raised yourself, especially when you had to chase it through the mud in mid-July because they broke through the electric fence again ;)
$31 per week per person, hmmm I have a family of four not on food stamps and we budget slightly over that each month but not much, I can easily feed my family of four for this amount and good food at that.
Good for you.
CA grocery stores fruit and veggies are the bottom of the barrel. The stands are fresh.
You sound like me..well, I do ground chuck, not ground beef. I bought 70 lbs of ground chuck in October when it was $9.98 for a 5 lb chub. I saw those same chubs are now $13.58 which means I would pay $50 more now for what I bought in October.
I bought boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.97 a lb. I beat them into cutlets, and also did some as chicken fingers..soaked in buttermilk, breaded, it made 3 8 inch round "chicken fried chicken" steaks, and 16 chicken fingers. I am getting sick of chicken. Not sick of the cream gravy, yet.
Why doesn’t he charge food stamp prices in his schmancy restaurant?
bump
BTW, according to the government, that not quite five bucks worth of chicken I bought this week should be about thirteen portions. No wonder I am sick of chicken.
And WIC for pregnant women and children under 5, food bank pickups and often food sent home in backpacks.
THAT'S A LOT! For my family of 5 that is $155 per week. We do not spend even close to that much. Most of our meals cost between $7 and $20 TOTAL for the 5 of us. They make it sound so tough, because if you go to McDonalds you can easily spend $5-10 feeding yourself. But if you buy a cut-up chicken, pasta, veggies and use sales and coupons, it doesn't even cost half of that per person. Meanwhile the black hoes I see at the grocery using EBT or SNAP always have iPhones, designer shoes, jewelry, etc. It is a joke program - cut it to ribbons!
I used to teach AFDC (as it was known at the time, now it’s TANF) recipients and food stampers how to look for work. Many had been sent to college, free of charge, on the taxpayer’s dime while still receiving welfare. Now they were going through the class again and ... surprise, still couldn’t find work! I, at the time, only had a high school diploma, yet I was teaching the class! BTW, the unemployment rate there was about 2.4% at the time. You could quit your job at lunch break and have another by mid-afternoon!!
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