Reflection Paper on Food Stamped
Reflection Paper on Food Stamped
The Food Stamp program, in addition to food assistance, provides nutrition education in low-income elementary schools. Shira Potash, a nutrition educator participating in this program, wonders if the parents of the children she teaches can possible afford to buy those healthy ingredients necessary to prepare the meals she is trying to introduce in schools.
Is it possible to buy healthy food on a tight budget? To answer this question, Shiva and her husband Yoav Potash engage in the following experiment: for one week, they will both attempt to eat a healthy, well balanced diet on roughly $1 per meal. The film “Food Stamped” documents their struggles during this time and their research on this program and other initiatives trying to promote healthier eating habits for low income Americans.
The first shocking situation in this documentary is watching the couple’s first trip to the supermarket, armed with a tentative shopping list, a calculator and $50 for the whole week. It is really tricky for them to stick to their rules and buy organic, fresh, non-processed products. They spend $48.82, and they are not able to get coffee or cheese, because those were too expensive. It is difficult to realize how those products, commonly available in most households, can be considered luxury items when you have to live in such a tight budget.
Food justice advocates believe that the Farm Bill is to blame for the high prices of healthy products. Under this set of laws, the government subsidizes the production of wheat, corn rice, soybeans and cotton. Therefore, products containing these ingredients are cheaper than fresh fruits or vegetables. It seems ironic, at least, how a measure that is supposed to ensure the wellbeing of American citizens is in fact contributing to life-threatening levels of obesity and related problems.
Another issue that people in low-income areas face is that they do not usually have access to fresh products or even a grocery store. There are organizations like People’s Grocery that try to address this problem, as well as a rising number of farmer’s market accepting food stamps. There are also some initiatives, like Cooking with Kids, Great Kids Farm or Project Eat, trying to help children eat healthier food at schools and at their homes. It is good seeing how there are individuals caring about improving the quality of life of their neighbors, their children or just their fellow Americans, but it seems just fair that they got more help from the government in doing so. Watching the principal in a low-income school state that “we know it is not healthy, but at least we give these children some food” is not close to enough.
At the end of the Potash’s week we see how they tried to save their best ingredients so they could have friends over for dinner on friday, which they struggle to but successfully do. This is an aspect of taking part in this scheme that might go unnoticed: how being forced to live in such a tight budget influences every aspect of the beneficiaries lives, and not just their diet; we should all be able of having family and friends over for lunch or diner from time to time, and that is almost impossible if you have to stretch a $1-a-meal budget.
Finally, the dietician told them they had done pretty well, within the range of a healthy diet. The problem is, if they stayed on that diet for a long period of time, they would loose weight because they were not having enough calories. They realize that, even with all their knowledge and planning and rationing, they fell short. It took them a lot of effort to prepare their healthy meals, so they perfectly understood why people go for easier but much less healthy meals.
In conclusion, it seems from this experiment that keeping a healthy diet on a budget of $1 per meal is not achievable in the long term. Even if the person has the knowledge, energy and time to buy and cook healthy, and the resources available nearby to do so, the caloric intake would not be enough to survive. Most experts agree that when healthy products are accessible and affordable, people buy them. But they need to have both the products and enough money to buy them.
References
Potash, S. & Potash, Y. (Producers & Directors). (2010). Food Stamped [Documentary]. United States.
