Posted on 08/07/2007 11:00:37 AM PDT by NEMDF
Slice: Mother strives for healthful meals on a budget
Sandra Shepard has to make the $500 food stamp allotment she receives reach to the end of the month. She plans carefully so that she will be able to feed her family of five, including, daughter Macole Shepard, 13, and son Dominic Shepard, 10.At half past noon, the No. 30 rolls up. And the family's monthly marketing ritual is on.
Shepard's next three hours will be filled with comparison pricing and child pleas. It will wrap up with 33 plastic grocery bags and a crowded cab ride.
Not a suburban soccer mom's ideal afternoon, but Shepard doesn't mind.
The 44-year-old mother has no job, no car and no husband to share the bills. In her world wracked by financial instability, the monthly shopping trip offers a welcome bit of control.
The tricky part is stretching her food stamp allotment to feed her family of five.
Providing nutritious fare for a little more than $1 per meal per family member is challenging - and it's getting more so every month.
* * *
Grocery prices are soaring at the highest rate in years.
Not since 1980 has the annual growth rate of food bills been as high, said Steve Reed, an economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Fresh vegetables and fruit helped drive up grocery costs 4.6 percent in June compared with a year ago. That's faster than the 2.7 percent inflation rate during that period.
Combine the squeeze at the supermarket with increasing demands on time, and
we're all in danger of falling short of hitting the U.S. Department of Agriculture measures for fit and healthy Americans.
Consider: Only one in five people eats the recommended daily amount of fruit; kids eat less than half the fruits and veggies our federal government advises; and obesity in youngsters is on the rise.
Failure to pull it all off could mean low performance at school or work and raise a number of health problems.
Nationwide, roughly 26 million people receive food stamps on debit-type plastic cards. Shepard is among the 120,000 or so in Nebraska. Half the recipients are children.
For them, the challenge is magnified with every trip to the grocery store.
* * *
When the No. 30 reaches the No Frills intersection, several passengers quickly jaywalk toward the store.
Shepard pauses, her bad foot still smarting from a slip on the ice while walking home from a party in December.
The broken bones have temporarily exempted her from food stamp work requirements.
When she gets a job, she wants day hours. Her past night shifts, Shepard says, have left her kids vulnerable to the streets. Her 15-year-old son has been in the youth detention center for truancy.
Thirteen-year-old daughter Macole, however, is on the honor roll, a distinction mom boasts on a bumper sticker plastered on her front door. Son Dominic, 10, also is on track, and Shepard wants to keep it that way.
She instructs Macole to run into the Dollar Tree for deodorant.
"Ain't nothin' but a dollar, and just as good."
Dominic and his mom saunter into the cool market. It's bursting with brilliant colors and orderly shelves, a contrast to their public housing apartment.
Shepard mounts a motorized scooter. Dominic grabs a shopping cart, and the mom-son caravan heads to the produce aisle.
Mom bypasses bananas, examines strawberries and settles on a pineapple. "Dang," she exclaims. "Apples went up."
She bags 10 nectarines and, after a third thought, gives in to the pricey Bing cherries. "It's summer," she reasons.
Shepard draws the line at the Asian cocktail shrimp that caught her daughter's eye. Nix on the beef Twister Dogs her son saw on TV.
She chooses calorie-dense, generic fish sticks over the trans-fat-free kind. Sodium-plenty salami and smoked liver are in; two-for-$1 corn on the cob out.
"That's just ridiculous. I'll buy the frozen corn."
Key to staying within budget, says Shepard, is buying in bulk. Economy-sized ketchup and pickles. Pork chops by the carton.
"I don't really care for pork chops, but they're cheap."
The 10-pound pack of ground beef will make four meals: spaghetti, sloppy Joes, tacos and hamburgers.
Breakfast? Her kids like the taste of plain-label cocoa puffs.
Snacks? She buys four $1 boxes of gummy candies.
Shepard calls the eight frozen pizzas and two dozen $1 TV dinners "fast food" - they're the closest her children get to Pizza Hut or KFC.
More often, she carves her own nuggets out of chicken breasts.
"Anything a restaurant can make, I can make better," says the former waitress.
She learned the craft from her ex, who was a better cook than a husband.
Just when it seems nothing more will fit in the two carts, Dominic stuffs in 30 Kool-Aid packets. They have sugar at home.
Finally, mom lets the kids splurge on the spicy deli wings they've been eyeing. They're cold and must be microwaved at home. Warm munchies, just like paper products and alcohol, aren't allowed under food stamp rules.
On to the register, where a cashier honors the outside ads tucked under Shepard's arm.
* * *
Total price tag: $346.
Shepard calls a cab, then pores over the draping receipt.
Her food stamp allotment for the month is $500. She has yet to buy food items she saw for less at Walgreens. That will barely leave the $100 food stamp reserve she tries to save for midmonth incidentals.
"Those Bing cherries did me in," she concludes.
The family's separate $500 state welfare check pays for rent, clothes, toiletries and other nonfood supplies.
Fifteen minutes later, Happy Cab arrives and Shepard packs the trunk with bags. Jumbo egg and Ramen noodle cartons ride on kids' laps.
Shepard calls ahead on her cell phone to round up carriers.
Keith, her 18-year-old, meets the cab at the 29th and Parker Streets housing project. A recent South High graduate, he baby-sits his girlfriend's child while she attends school.
Monte, the 15-year-old, is a no-show. The two oldest live in Missouri.
Once inside, Macole and Dominic snap into action.
They remove all frozen items from boxes so more fits in the refrigerator-freezer.
They store meat and cheese in the deep freezer, which Shepard bought for $80 with her Earned Income Tax Credit. She calls it her salvation because it lets her stock up on sale items.
"We always had a deep freeze growing up."
Shepard fondly recalls her "spoiled" childhood on a Missouri farm with fruit trees.
She became pregnant with her first child at age 20, had another child but never married their father.
She wound up in an Omaha shelter seven years ago after escaping the abusive man she did wed. Here, she received higher public assistance benefits and was absorbed into public housing.
Despite being in a high-crime pocket, she is pleased with her four-bedroom apartment. It's on the outer ring of the housing development, and she says violence is worse near the core.
Nonetheless, summer requires extra vigilance. The same watchful eye goes for the family budget, since the kids during this break don't get free school breakfasts and lunches.
* * *
For now, anyway, the refrigerator is full. Everyone's happy.
Shepard is frustrated by her limited mobility, but there's a bright side: She'd be throwing together a lot more "fast food" dinners if she were working.
Indeed, preparing healthful meals on a food stamp budget requires time and planning.
Dominic lobbies for his favorite: weenie and bean casserole topped with cornbread. Low in nutrients, but tasty and cheap.
Mom's doughnuts - hot biscuits topped with powdered sugar glaze - will be dessert.
"We manage," said Shepard. "You just deal with it the best you can."
Fresh cherries are my husband’s favorite fruit. In Oct we will celebrate our 30th anniversary and after all those years I can count the times on one hand that I have bought him his favoriote fruit. They are too expensive! He works and he works hard to provide for us and he doesn’t get fresh cherries, his favorite fruit, but he’s providing them for some welfare queen.
That’s how I am with raspberries and blueberries. On the rare occasion they’re on sale, I jump for those quarts and feel such elation! LOL
Some school systems provide food over the summer as well. (Kansas City for example.)
but to get to a church based food pantry, she would need a ride or a car.
Harvester's, Salvation Army and others purposely locate their food pantries in the areas the have the largest population of poor so that they can walk to the pantry. If she is not close to one, she can call them and they will often help her get there (or deliver the food to her).
That’s a neat story!
CC&E
I believe the article said $500 was for the whole month. She is budgeting to hold back about $100 for incedentals in the middle of the month.
Eggsactly! I've done it, saved loads of $ and my family is now spoiled.
CC&E-you always have time for things you put first.
I'm going to assume the oldest ones are doing something to make money (dealing drugs if nothing else), but their income will not show "officially"
Non-government money is reserved for partying and bling
We didn't go on welfare or receive food stamps.
CC&E
I do the same. Get most of my non-perishables at BJ's, then weekly see what meat's on sale in my local supermarkets. Generally, if it's not on sale, I don't buy, and if it's a really good price I buy a lot and freeze. For veggies and fruits we have this bulk produce place nearby that's a lot cheaper than the supermarket
Angel Food Ministries is another program that helps feed the needy. It accepts food stamps.
http://www.angelfoodministries.com/
They say on their site that one unit(one box) of food can feed 4 people for a week. Each box is $25.00-$30. depending on your state.They have what what they call “specials”, which for the month of September have chicken and beef and one special that has frozen dinners, milk, bread and margarine.
Sept. Menu:
(1) 4 lb. IQF Leg Quarters
(1) 24 oz. Beef Back Ribs
(1) 1 lb. 80/20 Lean Ground Beef
(1) 2 lb. Breaded Chicken Tenders
(4) 6 oz. Bone in Pork Chops
(1) 1 lb. Ground Turkey
(1) 18 oz. Stuffed Manicotti (Cheese)
(1) 12 oz. Smoked Sausage
(1) Betty Crocker Seasoned Potatoes
(1) 7 oz. Cheeseburger Dinner
(1) 16 oz. Green Beans
(1) 16 oz. Baby Carrots
(1) 2 lb. Onions
(1) 1 lb. Pinto Beans
(1) 1 lb. Rice
(1) 7 oz. Blueberry Muffin Mix
(1) 10 ct. Homestyle Waffles
(1) Dessert Item
NAYYY
My Depression-Era parents, God bless ‘em, taught me how to stretch a dollar at the table, and we eat like royalty ... minus the gout!
Sorry about your injury! Plenty of people with injuries and/or handicaps work.
I won a 10K race in June (40+ ladies’ division :-) with my toes taped and iced and enough Tylenol to shock an elephant. The downhills hurt the most.
Congrats, but be careful with tylenol, it’s incredibly bad for your liver.
This isn't about smugness or assistance, it's about immediate personal responsibility.
This woman continued to have children, much to her (and society's) detriment, and she never learned the lesson that "gee, maybe I should stop having sex because I'm not married and there's no father to support them."
This woman and others like her have bought into the lie that this is a lifestyle and she's entitled to the taxpayer's dollars. This isn't a case of an emergency, this is a pattern of behavior.
I use it very rarely, but it does kill the pain when I’m running with a foot injury. I wouldn’t have done it if the race weren’t paid for in advance!
But you won! That helps ease the pain!
It did help. My mother even sent me some money, which took my mind off my toes. (And nagged me to go to the doctor, but it got better without that.)
Your mom is like mine. LOL!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.