The Kyle Phoenix Blog: Kyle Phoenix Answers: What do poor people in the United States of America eat?

I'm an only child so I didn't experience the same poverty my cousins with 2-7 brothers and sisters did. My parents were both college educated, having met in school and my mother continued in four out of five marriages to marry employed, middle class men. The last one, she was not rich but comfortable and foolish but I digress.

One of my stepfathers was a chef at s country club do hr would bring home loads of food, high quality food. Bags of shrimp, lobster, two inch steaks, platters and he could cook anything from scratch. He blew my mind one day by making fried rice from scratch. I was 8. I would come home from school, put on a porterhouse and have lunch. The odd part was mu parents liked to eat out so for years I begged for home cooking and finally....they taught me how to cook and put me in charge of the grocery shopping.

$40 - $100 for a weeks food with a few special requests. This seemed like an adventure!

I learned 10lb bag of rice a month, par broiled, you can make in ten minutes in microwave.

Chicken, steak, hamburger, roasts---if I had to budget in meat two meats a week can stretch.

I started baking cakes and pies from scratch. Mix, eggs, milk, frosting cheap and eggs and milk can go for omelet and French toast.

Bags of frozen vegetables.

Fruits and then the next week a bag of potatoes, the following more frozen vegetables or extra meats. I learned to see it as one long, rolling budget so $200 would fill up the house because I was planning forward. Odd, yes, I was the designated shopper from about 9 years old til 21, and the cook at least 4 days a week.

This translated to as an adult being able to once live on $25 a week for food.
Chicken or a large pork roast, a soda or two, rice, veggies. Chopped meat, pasta sauce, lots of veggies, pasta packs.

I use Fresh Direct sometimes, I hurt my knee in a walk up building, it was more efficient to have delivery than half a dozen trips a week, a bag at a time.

Fresh Direct was about a $400 order every six weeks. About $60-75 a week for 1 adult, and I'd take lunch half the time to work.

Lunch during my corporate days was $20 a day for breakfast lunch then another $75 a week at home.

Recently I noticed because I was buying specialty salads that I was spending about $400 a month on just food----my debit card online screen does a pie graph.

I'm back to my childhood mentality of about $60 a week. Welfare food stamps are about $150 per adult, it used to be $200. I think our 15 times bigger than all other military should get its budget slashed. $150 US card allotted to Americans, $75 per child.

At $200 to $250 a month I eat pretty well. Steak every week, fresh fruits and vegetables. What makes that budget modest is i live in Manhattan. I circulate between three supermarkets...Westside market is upper end class. About $30-40 per shopping bag, lots of prepared foods, specialty items, every thing super fresh. Its not Dean and Deluca but $200 there is worth maybe $390 at CTown. CTown has more sales but is crowded more often, less specialty variety, less prepared and gourmet foods. I get more for the money but I also count in travel and wait time. Morton Williams is similar to Westside but a notch cheaper, they too require travel but never crowded. But they're smaller in choices though still healthier than the candy and carbs offered by CTown. 200 worth about $225 there.

In the south, Charlotte I enjoyed a combination of Food Lion and WalMart. $200 worth about $350 there because its slightly cheaper in the South.

I'm used to budgeting on food , low $100 a month to $500 when I'm just being exorbitant but I can easily see a family being crushed or making unhealthy choices by the store choices above. I've thought it would be nice to be supplemented that $150 in food stamps but I make too much. One year in college, I got ill and to come back I couldn't work so I got a year of welfare while in school, I'd been working five jobs to support myself prior to that. That $200 a month was massive back then to me at Tops and Wegmans! A small aid now, even just to encourage nutrition might be nice and helpful.

I went to a food pantry once with a student and they loaded us up with basics----rice, beans, juices, fruits---if I could work it into my schedule I could save maybe $50 a month but for me its about convenience. Though I have noticed that the budget for three twenty years ago is no my single budget. I can afford pretty much whatever I like to have but its just me. I'd love to garden but not feasible in NYC and I'd even do chickens and pigs and slaughter then as needed. Growing up managing the pantry I'm very conscious of consumption, storing and food saving for the future. I can imagine preserving and having a giant pantry and just buying fresh stuff.

I think my universal food card would let Americans do that, its also like Wic, give a limit on sugary foods and such, maybe only1/3, $50 a month. The rest is free fruit, vegetables, meats, rice, canned food, frozen. Not perfect but if you want ten Pepsis you have to pay for.two out of pocket. You might still receive a supplement from food stamps for larger families but wed all have a pantry. Mathematically, its only $2 trillion a year we just have to cut that 5 trillion war budget.

Then free college to Associates degree, 64 credits, and universal healthcare. Can you imagine the impact on poverty if pall peoples were healthily fed, educated and physically healthy as a basic American right like being able to vote----we could even tie it to voting. Adults are required to vote in county, state, national elections every year for your credits, allotment.

Kyle Phoenix

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