I am against hunger. No, this isn't me making a joke about how much I just love to eat food. Today, I and hundreds of food bloggers in America take a stand against one of the biggest epidemics that isn't discussed - poverty-stricken hunger.
Local food writer Jennifer Justus was inspired by the documentary, A Place At The Table, and reached out to the food bloggers here in Nashville about joining the good fight. Today,
we are asking you, our friends, families and readers, to join us in
fighting hunger in America. Right here in Nashville, in our own
backyard, there are families who have to survive on food stamps and who are at risk of having that program taken away from them.
A few facts:
- 16 Million CHILDREN in America aren't getting the food they need.
- Food stamp participants are only allocated $4 a day to survive. Let's see Rachel Ray do a show on $4 a day.
- 1 in 4 children in America don't know where their next meal will come from.
- SNAP—the nation’s food stamp program—is at risk for severe cuts that would impact millions of families, especially children, that rely on school meals and food stamps to survive.
(source)
I'm not talking about a third-world country, I'm talking about the United States of America. This is our backyard, and it's shocking how this is happening yet most people choose to ignore it.
Oh, by the way, it is HARD to buy groceries for just $4. However, it's not impossible and it takes some strategy. One of our challenges was to either come up with or adapt a recipe that someone who has a very limited budget could make instead of eating microwave pizza or junk food all the time. It's hard, but not totally impossible.
Ground Beef & Green Bean stir fry: (original recipe here).
I used fresh green beans but frozen ones are just as nutritious. I went to Kroger and looked at what I could find for $4.
- Ground beef that's pretty lean from Kroger is $2.96/lb. The recipe only calls for half that.
- Brown rice is $1.66 for a 2lb bag and that will last several meals.
- Eggs are 99 cents for half a dozen.
- You can get frozen veggies for $1.09**
**Applying for one of those Kroger Plus cards will get you all sorts of discounts. There was pasta that was going for $1 for $10, same for canned vegetables and frozen vegetables.
The More You Know
Here are some other facts I found:
- In March alone, more than 66,000 households in Davidson county applied for SNAP. (source)
- North Nashville, East Nashville (by Cayce Place), Edgehill are a few of the food deserts in Davidson Co. (source)
The
local food bloggers and food writers and I would like to invite you to
join us on Monday, April 29th at the Downtown Presbyterian Church for a free screening of A Place At The Table.
The screening will be followed by a food advocacy fair and I've been
told that some local chefs will be there to provide us with their take
on how to make healthy, low-cost meals so, free food!
The event starts at 6pm, and the screening begins at 6:30pm.
If you'd rather just get started on fighting hunger, here are some ways you can help:
- It takes less than 1 minute to write a letter to congress asking them to support anti-hunger legislation.
This is especially vital here in Tennessee where we have state
legislators looking to punish families by stripping them of their food
if their children don't perform well in school.
- Volunteer
locally: One of the non-profits in town trying to educate families on
how they can eat better and provide their families with nutritious food
is the Martha O'Bryan Center which can always use more volunteers and donations.
- Another way to work with a local organization is to volunteer or donate to Second Harvest Food Bank or organize a food drive, collect some decent quality canned goods and donate them to your local food bank or to Second Harvest (which also sends food to the Martha O'Bryan Center's families).
It's a challenge to shop on $4 a day but it can be done. We should count our blessings, and we should appreciate the food we're able to eat because there are many many more people who aren't even half as fortunate.
To find out more about how you can help, visit The Giving Table. There you'll also find a list of other food bloggers and their recipes so do check the list out.
Do you have a recipe that's easy to make? Please share it with us as well and if you have a blog, it's not too late to add a post there and share it with your friends.