My friend Irene, a hardworking single mother who also cuts my hair, is an absolute inspiration to me and I’m sure many others fortunate enough to cross her path.
Moms like Irene silence all the naysayers like Dr. Oz who claim that it isn’t possible to eat healthy on a very tight budget or that those who eat organic are elitist.
You see, Irene is on food stamps.
Irene’s situation is not at all rare anymore. Â The number of Americans on food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as it is now called, has increased by 260% since 2000. Â In a more sobering statistic, the actual number of people relying on food stamps to eat has increased from 17.1 million in 2000 to over 44 million in 2011.
Despite Irene’s challenging budget which includes food stamps, she manages to buy nearly everything local and/or organic to prepare the healthy, homemade meals she prepares.
How?
By refusing to settle for anything less than the best for herself and her son and by using creativity and street smarts to carefully plan and implement her food stamps budget strategy.
When you demand the best and refuse to settle, as Irene does, the world frequently seems to open up to you with opportunities and people necessary to fulfill your goal suddenly coming across your path.
Irene also gets competent alternative medical care by shrewdly trading hairdresser services for routine chiropractic care which has prevented her family from requiring any conventional medical treatment or antibiotics or other drugs for quite some time.
How does Irene do it? Â How does she manage to source only the most nutrient-dense foods for her family including more expensive, gourmet items like grass-fed raw milk and butter while on food stamps?
The brilliance of Irene’s food stamps budget plan is in its incredible simplicity.
- Irene has learned which farmer’s markets around town accept food stamps and so she buys much of her produce at these venues. Â She also buys fresh, locally made, artisanal bread at the farmer’s market. Â Yes, it’s true! Â You can use food stamps at many farmer’s markets if you just ask around!
- Irene buys her grass-fed meats and bones to make stock at Whole Foods. Â Did you know Whole Foods takes food stamps? Â Another option would be for Irene to split a cow sourced at a local grass-based farm with one or two friends. Â This may present itself as an option for Irene in the future, but for now, Whole Foods is the best stand-in source for her meats given her limited time and storage space.
- Irene has figured out which health food stores carry what organic brands at the best prices. Â She uses her food stamps to buy foods like freshly ground almond butter, raw honey, cheese, and other staple items this way.
- Irene uses the food funds she is able to contribute herself for raw dairy which is not covered by food stamps (although I do know of one other friend in town who is able to buy raw goat milk with food stamps because she is allergic to cow milk).
- If Irene finds that she must buy something at the supermarket, she makes sure that it is a low spray item like asparagus or a GMO-free item based on an analysis of the ingredients label.
Hat’s off to Irene for showing us all how to eat healthy during hard economic times. Â Her refusal to accept anything less than the best, nutrient dense fare for herself and her family is the line in the sand that opens the door to solutions.
Well done Irene!
Are you on a food stamps budget too? Â What are your tricks for eating healthy, local, and/or organic despite this challenge? Â Please share to inspire those who may be facing a similar situation.
One thing many don’t understand about food stamps is that, for example, if you’re a family of four you don’t get a set amount if you qualify. You can qualify at varying levels and recieve more or less. When I lost my job (I’m a single mom with two children) my family of 3 recieved over $130/week in food stamps. When I got a part time job that amount went down to about $85/week. Then when I went full-time it went down to about $55/week. Just because we were a family of 3 didn’t mean we recieved a certain amount. It depends on what you’re making. Now child support has started again and thank God I don’t qualify at all. When I did have food stamps it thrilled me that I could use them at the farmer’s mkt., the health food store, Costco etc. I hope I never have to use food stamps again but if I do, I’m thankful they are available and I know how to get the most out of them.
I’m very happy for this lady and her child. I’m proud of her for finding a way to make it work but I have tried and it doesn’t work for my family. My husband eats a lot more than a child and there just isn’t enough money in our budget to buy organic. I wish I could make it work because I would love to not put this poison in our bodies but we just don’t have the money, I have tried. I’d love it if I had someone like Sara near me who could help me try. It would be wonderful to not have to eat and put all that poison in our bodies.
That’s the problem with the so called doctors such as this “media personality” (what a notion!). They are foolish and wrong.
The government currently spends about $30.60 per hour on welfare compared to the median income of $25.03 per American worker according to a study by Congressional Research Service. The story is not about individuals. It is a story of “sustainability” and truly keeping it “local.” This isn’t about individual cases like Irene and so many others who cannot make ends meet. This is about an incredibly wasteful government that discourages people like Irene from ever having the opportunity to escape the welfare. We are bankrupt and hyper-inflation is coming; and if I were on assistance, I’d be totally freaking out for my future. My grocery comparisons from last year to this year are showing 26% overall increase per ounce of food–and this includes my livestock feed. We must take care of each other–the government cannot do this for us.
Great post Tami. The best one yet.
The government pays for wars and bailouts, they can throw us a dime now and then.
NOT relevant to the conversation.
Sure is: We the PEOPLE used to mean something in government – but we’ve been co-opted by corporate interests. If this hadn’t happened, we might be able to buy SOMETHING good for us at the supermarkets instead of having to proactively source out nutritional food.. Organic should be the norm.
“I were on assistance, I’d be totally freaking out for my future”
WE ARE.
But I fail to see how more worry is going to help us.
Even without inflation, there is no safety net, so homelessness for our family is a constant worry. It shouldn’t be this way.
We, as Americans, can, and must, do better.
We are not on food stamps, but we have a limited food budget. The majority of our grocery money goes to raw milk, farm eggs, cheeses, and grass-fed meats and butter. We eat a vegetarian meal 2-3 times a week because we couldn’t afford to buy meat for those meals, but we honestly don’t even miss it. We a lot of farm eggs and natural peanut butter on sourdough bread. My daughter and I usually have rice, risotto, soup cooked with homemade stock, or leftovers for lunches, and my husband has leftovers as well. I don’t necessarily seek out only organic produce, but I buy it if it’s available. I make my own kefir and sometimes yogurt as well. Whenever I buy a chicken, I cut it up myself and save the carcass for stock. We save our farm egg shells for stock also. We don’t have a ton of variety in our diet, but we get what we need! When we were a two-income family, we ate a lot less healthy: weekly processed meals and packaged side dishes, and store-bought baked goods, etc. Now we can’t afford to buy that, and even if we could, I wouldn’t bring it into my house anymore! There’s a whole lot of info I have learned about healthy eating! PS. Three foods we do not skimp on are fermented cod liver oil, fish eggs, and grass-fed butter! My 2-year-old eats fish eggs every morning on her peanut butter and jelly toast. I don’t think she even noticed yet. 🙂
Fish eggs + peanut butter and jelly toast? Wow, that’s one incredible taste sensation.
SOMEDAY I might work up the courage to try it!
Why/how do you use the eggshells in making stock? We also make our own yummy stock. Sometimes we use a non-organic chicken, but usually they are organic. I managed to get almost 50 cups of lovely, gelatinous stock from a 25 lbs Tgiving turkey.
And what kind of fish eggs and where do you get them?
It’s amazing how when a family eats all organic and non processed foods they eat less. You dont need a pound of meat for each person at the dinner table nor a entire box of mac n cheese. Eat healthy and your body rewards you in soooo many ways. And I find it to be cheaper in the long run. I rather put the money in our grocery budget rather than our medical budget 😉
So disappointed with Oprah for making him famous.
It is a poor choice of articles to rebuttal Dr. Oz.
Denise – this article does not prove that- at all.
I have a family of 5 and a weekly budget of $100 (excluding raw milk) and we eat organic or local. He’s such a joke.