As I recall, when I fed two teenage boys, limiting them to one piece of chicken, a tablespoon of green vegetables, and a piece of bread would have been ludicrous. Teenage boys eat continually.
Take home two gallon jugs of milk. The minute they are in the refrigerator, one teenager would pop into the kitchen, open the fridge door, pop the top off the milk’s gallon jug, and, with the jug opening in his mouth, lean back … glug, glug, glug! With only a small splash left, he would then put the jug back into the refrigerator.
I used to make a cheap Depression-era chocolate cake — no milk, no eggs, just cocoa — not serious chocolate. One of the kids would spy it, and at the flick of an eyelash, half the pan would disappear. Kids are hungry creatures.
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins says we can cook healthy, “balanced” meals for $3 per person.
I challenge you: Do the math for a family of four: 4 people x $3 = $12 per meal ($36 per day). Assuming 21 meals a week, that’s $252 per week, or $13,104 annually. Can you do it?
Rollins’s sample menu:
- One piece of chicken
- One piece of broccoli
- One tortilla
- One “something else.”
Will your kids still be hungry if you do it?
Admittedly, the Administration’s own Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average American spends only about $10,000 annually.
CEO of “Hunger Free America,” Joel Berg, says it is possible, but to do so, a strategy that includes buying in bulk, finding a place to store everything, watching ads, and shopping at multiple stores is necessary.
I was a full-time working single parent while my boys were teenagers. Just thinking about shopping at several stores, keeping plenty of food on hand, and limiting it to three very simple meals a day sounds impossible to me. I did have a pantry, but I would have needed a lock on it to make the food last as long as this budget would have required. And this was back in the 1980s, when food cost a lot less.
Realistically, there has been no break in food inflation this year. A family’s average spending on beef and eggs has gone up 21.5%, while prices for fresh food and veggies have slipped only a little. The lines at food banks have gotten longer, and the denial at the White House regarding food inflation has gotten louder.