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.
Dave Nicks I totally agree. I think he was told to get in line with the party line or he was going to lose sponsorships for his show or worse, nonrenewal of his contract.
Couldn’t agree more. He’s way off base here.
Dr Oz, just a couple of months ago, rallied passionately FOR organic foods. Then, mysteriously, all show clips and links in favor of organics were blotted out. Methinks the tail is wagging the dog here, and his sponsors are dictating his content. America’s doctor, my arse.
AGREE! Throw Dr. Andrew Weil in there also. They need to stay pretty mainstream or they’ll get no sponsors, no shows and no guest appearances either.
He’ll say whatever they pay him to.
We’re on a very tight budget and the majority of our food is organic and local–from our yard! We have several (organic) gardens spread around our yard, planted with various veggies and fruits. We get (sweet) corn from a nearby farmer. My husband hunts venison and turkey. We raise rabbits. And this year we bought a goat for the first time. Our yard is pretty small but we keep squeezing more things on to it. When it’s all in bloom it looks awesome. It’s a wonderful feeling too when I see my 1 year old run out every morning to check ‘his’ strawberries.
our family of 4 is also on food stamps. there are lots of farmer’s markets around who take SNAP, but during winter months they are all closed. so we use local grocery stores and try and buy organic whenever possible. the best thing is making whatever you can at home, like nut butters and milks, grinding grains and baking bread, broths and so on..it’s way cheaper- if you have the time to do it. This year i started shopping for gifts and toys at the flee market, where i found some really nice hand made items much much cheaper than the “made in china” from the regular stores.
More and more farmers’ markets are having winter hours such as once a month or every other week through the winter, even in cold places like Minnesota. You might be surprised to find one in your area — check their websites or call.
This is one of the best posts I have read in a long time. This is a message that desperately needs to be shared. I have a friend who is a single mom of two boys and while she is not on food stamps she has a very limited food budget. When her husband left, she was taking anti-depressants, the oldest boy had sensory integration problems and was also basically ADHD, and the youngest boy had asthma. Using her limited budget wisely, she turned her family around to normal, healthy, full-functioning, and vibrant without any medications. All she did was purchase whole foods, organic when possible, always pastured, etc., from farmers markets and local farms. She was able to invest in a deep-freeze so all summer long she buys fresh, local vegies and fruits in bulk and freezes them for use the rest of the year. They take lunch to school, eat at home every night, etc. She is totally off her anti-depressants, and neither boy has any health problems whatsoever. In fact, they are extremely healthy. They went from a very unstable, scary situation and now enjoy vibrant health. Did I mention she works full time? She uses her crock pot and bread machine regularly. It definitely can be done!!
What an inspiration, your friend is! Thank you for sharing this story of a strong smart mother.
That’s a very good point about the high expense for farmers to get organic certification. You can ask for Certified Naturally Grown, a lesser known system that is just as good or better than organic and more affordable for the farmer (and consumer). Getting to know your farmers is key.
You can also ask farmers if they use organic methods without being certified. But be careful to ask about non-petroleum, non-chemical fertilizers because some people say “chemical free” meaning no pesticide or herbicide applications but they still use chemical fertilizers that are taken up by the food.
Okay, if you are on food stamps you should pretty much have NO excuse for not eating real food! We were on food stamps when my husband was in college and that was the most “money” we have ever had in our food budget. EVER. He makes a good living now. I have several friends who are/were on food stamps while their husbands went/are going to college as well and they have over twice as much “money” for food than I do – for the same size family. One friend even said that she can now get her daughter all of her allergen-free foods that she could never afford before. So I really see no excuse.
The amount of food stamps a family gets is dependent on family size and income. I have gotten over $500 a month on food stamps, when I had absolutely NO income, to as low as $60 when I was working for minimum wage, 30 hours a week. Try to feed your family on $60 for the month. Every family gets a different amount, so don’t judge food stamp payments by your own experience or that of just a few people.
I totally agree with last reply. My family (I have two teen sons) receives food stamps. The amount we have receives changes. Right now we are getting $39.00 worth. I have in the past received $440.00. Believe me when I say, it does not begin to cover food expenses. I believe it is intended to “supplement”. I can also tell you that we have spent most years living at the poverty level. I am one of those 47% that Romney referred to. Do I feel bad about it? NO! It happens to be my youngest son is severely autistic. I have not been able to go back to work since I had children. To give you an idea as to why, almost everyday I have to go to school to feed him this year because he refuses to eat there. He developed an association between food and getting sick because he threw up once ( when he was four) while eating. He did not eat for 6/12 years and had to be tube fed. He also was on the Keto-diet for a seizure disorder. If he gets sick it usually takes a good week, sometimes longer to get him well. I am divorced and have no help. Unfortunately, not all fathers feel as if they are responsible for taking care of the children they fathered! With that said, my biggest expense outside of rent, is food. I buy organic, and have for years now. Our farmers market also excepts food stamps, and in fact they double the amount. So if I put $10.00 on my card, I get $20.00 in coins to spend. I recognize that eating good foods is the best way to keep us healthy, and I could not make any better investment with the money I do have.
It is also a very good idea to talk to the farmers at your farmers markets. I live in a very small town but have access to 3 or 4 farmers markets during the bulk of the year. Some of the farmers take food stamps and some do not. Some even have payment plans for their CSA so you do not have to have a lot of cash upfront to get in on their deals.
Another very important point is that the process to get certified for organic is not practical to some farmers so ask about their practices; go visit their farms. One of the farms I buy from every week is not certified organic but they practice organic methods. They do not use pesticides and do not use chemical fertilizers. They raise their animals and their produce exactly how I would raise my own, including composting as well as paddock rotation/grass grazing for the livestock. I visit the farm once a week to buy my stuff and am very happy to buy from them even though they are not “certified organic”. Remember the government puts tight control on those words, folks. Just because a farm is not able to be “allowed” by the government to use the word organic does not mean they are practicing non- organic methhods. Some even have programs where if you volunteer to work on the farm a vew hours a week, you get paid with a bag of produce. Winwin!