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.
Sorry, don’t mean to do 3 posts so quickly, but I keep thinking of things:
At my farmer’s market, some of the farmers sell seconds OR bulk at a discount. The seconds are mostly just oddly shaped — nothing wrong with them. The bulk items can be split among a few families.
I think it really helps to get to know the farmers, also see if they will negotiate with you (if you are a regular customer and really appreciate them, very often they are willing to work out some deals). It never hurts to ask!
Yes, this is true… It is possible to eat healthy on a budget. My son and I don’t qualify for food stamps, lol but that doesn’t mean I didn’t try to apply. We have a very strict budget of $50 to $75 a week. Most times, $50. Meal planning is my best friend. I buy my gallon of raw milk and qrt of cream and eggs each week. (That’s half my weekly budget). The qrt of cream is half used for food and the other half is used for butter. The rest is on grassfed beef or pastured chicken (Wholefoods, Abbys, Nutrition Smart) and veggies (Wholefoods, Bearss Groves or Sweetwater Sunday market). We don’t do a lot of carbs but I do make hot breakfast cereal for my son with lots of cream in the mornings before school. We do okay. The area I skimp on is organic veggies. I buy from local farmer’s markets that are not organic if I’m in a pinch. Either way, food stamps or not… meal planning and setting a budget can help anyone save time and money with food prep. Good luck!
I have to add this disclaimer, though. I am fortunate to have a full kitchen and refrigeration and storage. These “luxuries” are not available to every person who is struggling financially. I do have less fortunate friends who rent cheap, basement rooms from people, and they do not have access to the kitchen, so they struggle to eat well. They have a toaster oven, microwave, and that is it. Some of them use a cooler or have a refrigerator. I’m just saying, unless you have reliable cooking/food storage capability, it is much more work.
This can become a downward spiral as we all know. Health is very important. If you do not eat well, your health will go downhill. You have less energy. Some of these friends rely on “energy drinks” to get them through feeling sleepy because of poor nutrition. Or they eat crackers and cereal. Or buy the cheapest loaf of spongy white bread or cheap, conventional milk because that seems to be all they can afford. Or don’t buy vegetables at all because they have no way to store or prepare them. Yes, I cook for these friends whenever I can and try to make extra portions (soups, casseroles) when I cook for my family, and deliver it to them.
Oh my goodness, they should buy crock pots! And a mini fridge doesn’t cost too much, especially used. We have an ancient one we let guests use and it works great and it is the tiniest ting. Crock pots save my life and I have a full kitchen.
We’re a family of 5 on a very tight Military budget. We eat organic whenever possible and are in a raw milk/egg co-op. We have one car, we do not eat out, I make a lot of clothing/toys, we do not have extravagant things or go on trips. We do however, eat well. We live in an area with an insanely high cost of living, but we make it work.
This is what I did as well! I bought used clothing from the thrift store. We also did a lot of beach days because gas was the only expense for a beach trip. I also loved that I was able to use coupons with my snap money. $10 off $50 was very popular.
Excellent post Sarah! I am passing this on to our WAPF chapter leader who also works at our local independent natural foods store; not sure if they take food stamps, nor or local farmer’s market, but a new Whole Foods store is opening in our area this spring. How about Trader Joe’s? Do they take food stamps?
YES!!! Trader Joe’s takes food stamps! We, too, are on food stamps due to my husband’s 3 yr long unemployment. He shops at Trader Joe’s a lot! We don’t eat great, but are thrilled with the healthier options at TJ’s. I really need to get better about checking local farmer’s markets and the like to see if they accept them as well. We have got to make our diet more of a priority in this house!
How wonderful! I hear so many people say they can’t afford to eat healthfully but Irene proves it can be done. Thank you for sharing this inspiring story and especially Irene’s plan so that I can share it with others who need a little help figuring out how to eat well on a budget.
WHAT an INSPIRATION! Thanks for sharing this! I am weary of the argument that it is too expensive to eat well. Just a little aside; after watching all the craziness in the mainstream media these last 2 weeks, it is SO nice to come to a website where most of the folks have good common sense and “test everything” to see if it is true or not. Refreshing! Happy Holidays Ya’ll!
I am a single mom of 3 kids. Not on food stamps, but on a tight budget. We do a CSA. What was tough on this initially was that I needed to pay upfront for the season, so I had to save for a year before I could amass the $700 required to sign up. But the beauty of it is, once paid for, it’s paid. Then, I just set aside the money I would have spent on food to have enough to sign up the next year.
My CSA is all organic and very generous. I always have enough or more than I need for an entire week, and the cost works out to about $25 a week. To feed me and 3 hungry teenagers, that is very helpful. It runs from May to the end of December, so in the other months I am very careful to buy only what I need, but I shop at an organic grocery store and get the grass fed meat and bones at Whole Foods, too.
If you don’t buy processed, prepackaged foods or junk, and work hard to buy what is in season and local (plan meals around what is available, rather than planning meals and then going shopping for specific items which may not be lower cost or local or in season), it is definitely possible to be poor and eat very healthy and organic.
Yes, getting rid of all the boxes in the pantry is key. Packaged and prepared foods seem cheaper at first but they are actually very expensive in the long run as this food is just calories and calories only fill you up for a short period of time before you are hungry again … eating nutrient dense food stays with you and you aren’t hungry and snacking all the time like folks who eat processed foods. Not to mention eating these foods make you sick more often and that requires time off work, doctor’s visits, prescriptions etc etc.
Bravo, Irene! You are an inspiration.
But according to the Time Magazine article by the famous Mehmet Oz, buying organic and local food makes her “elitist”, and a member of the “one percent”. Absolute nonsense.
Exactly! Take THAT Dr. Oz. People who eat organic are elitist? What an insulting and out of touch thing for that man to say.
Clearly, he did not find evidence to refute his claim. In addition to the approach this lady used with the food stamps, you can search for bargains in many creative ways. You can make group orders, ask for wholesale or bulk prices in the farmer’s market or preorder and in many cases get a nice price break and find the best prices for grass fed meats online through resources like eatwild.com or localharvest.com. Hint: The organic foods market has wild variations in prices. This does not take a rocket scientist to figure out. I find things as much as 4 -5 times less the cost of retail store or online pricing.
God bless the woman!Someone suggested to me that families who buy organic on a single income (like our family) just max out their credit cards. I was very offended to say the least – especially since we don’t even own a credit card. I’ll have to share this article for all the naysayers!