A Plentiful Portion of Poor People Food

A new theme has overtaken me. Why the rally cry, “No more Mac and Cheese” and references to Poor People Food? I’ve had a flashback, a sense of déjà vu. I remember calling my sister, Jen, a few years ago and asking, “Can you give me your best menu ideas of poor people food? We are really scraping bottom and I need to know what you guys ate when you had no money?” We were sailing through rough seas and I was sinking in my murky musings of being consigned to a fate of mac and cheese meals sided with tater-tots and catsup. I needed crucial, creative help in the one area of our financial plan I had most control over; our food budget. Maybe it’s today’s economic climate, maybe it’s the close calls we’ve had financially in the last several months, maybe it’s the fact that I have a lot of friends, neighbors and family members out of work right now, but these days, I am inclined to recall hard times and hold them forward as talismans of faith for a brighter future. I’ve had a need for nourishment in lean times, in my childhood, in my early marriage, and in my recent past, and have seen that need arise again and again in others around me, so, I want to see if I can’t pull some resources together to fill it, at least in theory.

As I write this, and you read, I want you to know I am aware that there is profusion of true poverty and suffering in the world, deeper and wider than anything I have ever experienced personally. I don’t mean to make light of that grief in my reference to “poor people food”. Even as we get and gain, there is a glut of hunger and despair in our society. Maybe you have felt these sensations in your own life; I know I have. Maybe you are struggling through them right now. If you are engulfed in the tumult and trial of your own oceans, there is not much comfort in the fact that a lot of people are treading water along with you. When you are in over your head, it doesn’t matter who else is swimming, unless they have a life vest to throw around your neck to replace the weight that pull you down. I don’t have a life vest, but I do know how to make my clothes into a flotation device (just for fun, see here) and this might help you keep your head above water until real help arrives.

Jen and I making some our favorite frugal food; corn tortillas for tacos.

My sister had some great solutions for me when I called her all those years ago. I’d like to pass along some of what she and others have shared with me over the years. Again, great aspirations from me. The best laid plans that have so many occasions to go awry. Look for the next post to see how you could benefit from helping the rest of us.