Poor People Food

There is this person on my friends' list who is always posting about poor people and welfare. I always find this funny because she's on disability and probably gets some marginal level of foodstamps because of it. Usually people who are on disability do get some.  Anyway, today she posted this thing about how one state wants to ban people on foodstamps from getting items that they consider snack food. She thought this was just a great idea. I don't.

For one thing, people who are poor have very little outlets when it comes to enjoyment and pleasure. They can't afford to go see movies. They can rarely buy books or take trips. Food is really about the only enjoyment they can get. A candy bar on one day or the other. A bad of chips. Some coffee. It's not much, but a small bit of pleasure can be the difference between having no hope and having lots of hope.

Second of all, usually poor people aren't buying the expensive junk food just to eat right then. Quite often, the recipes used by poor people involve such items as ingredients. For instance, you can take a couple of chicken thighs and.......have one meal off of them. Or you can take the meat off the bone, pull it, and cook that up with a bag of corn chips, some cream of chicken soup, and cheese. Now you have a casserole that will feed several people for at least a couple of meals.

Now, you could do that casserole with potatoes too, perhaps. But that takes more time. And time is always a factor when poor people are cooking.  Even though no one likes to think about this, many people who are poor and receive foodstamps are working. Often, they work more than one job. This doesn't leave a lot of time for major food prep. The quicker you can get something thrown together, the better an option it is.

It seems like when people think about the poor, they view them from the perspective of these being people who have the same resources that they do. They think the poor have access to lots of things they can enjoy, the education and resources to make great healthy meals, and the time to do so. This just simply isn't the case.

On a deeper level, I believe the poor have become a scapegoat for others. It's so much easier to look at someone else and blame them for your own misery.  'Oh if the poor people would just do this.' 'Oh, if the rich people would just do this.' 'Oh, if my spouse would just do this.' Stop it. The poor people have been dealt cards just like everyone else. Don't get angry when they play them well. It is your responsibility to play your own cards and take care of your own happiness. Stop paying so much attention to everyone else and just focus on what you can do to improve your own life. And yes, that goes for me too.