“Here’s the thing,” she explained. “We can’t have anything perishable in the shelter. So, the girls never get enough fruits or vegetables. We don’t have a stove or a fridge. I don’t want you to think I’m buying bad things. I just don’t have a way to keep the good things.” I promised her there were no expectations. I just wanted her to have $50 without food-stamp restrictions. A spree without worry. But the thing is, I did have expectations. Low-income Americans are traditionally stuck in a deeply unfortunate food cycle. With meager funds, they rely on the cheapest food sources, which are those being subsidized by the government: soy, corn, and wheat. These inexpensive crops are turned into inexpensive foods, mixed with sugars and highly processed, leading to chronic health concerns like obesity, diabetes, and cancer. Going into this situation, I expected to see the cycle of poverty in action. I expected to see $50 stretched, each dollar poured into inexpensive packages of processed products. Because that would be the proper thing to do, wouldn’t it? When a woman hands you $50 and tells you to go grocery shopping, you take that cash and make it stretch. Except: That’s what this mom was always doing. So when I handed her that $50, I hadn’t handed her money for food. I handed her freedom. Fifty unbudgeted bills to spend on whatever she wanted. And what she wanted was an $11 bag of shining apples. A single plump bell pepper. A big carton of blueberries. And $6.38 for a bag of bright-red cherries.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 01:32:35 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015