Teachers! Stop the cupcakes!!

Poverty often dictates that parents often have to purchase cheaper, more filling food to work within their budget and their limited hours in the day. There are some excellent programs that help parents plan their shopping lists so that they purchase more nutritious food for their children. Unfortunately, for parents who are taking the bus to jobs or are working more than one job, they don't often have the time to take the time to prepare food in the way that this new shopping list dictates.

I have been known to be critical of parents who feed their children junk food or provide the kids with money to buy chips and a soda from the corner store. Unfortunately, it's sometimes the parents who are at home, but have other concerns, that are the least educated...and possibly the least concerned...about what develops their children's brains long-term.

At our After-School Academy, though, we are not just struggling with educating the parents, we fight the influence of the schools and other community organizations. Schools, these days, justify nachos as providing a milk product and a grain...as well as other absurd justifications of the four food groups. But beyond that, teachers dismiss kids with cookies, cupcakes, chips, and other high fat, high sugar junk food.

The latest issue of Edutopia quotes Jan Pruitt, from the North Texas Food Bank that provides much of our food at Central Dallas. Pruitt says teachers are often surprised to learn that a "problem" student is really just hungry: "They will say, 'Oh, my gosh. I never thought of him being hungry.'"

I'm guessing the teachers in our area recognize that kids are hungry. However, maybe we need to start educating people that just because a child's "hunger" has subsided, doesn't necessarily mean he/she will be equipped to learn. In fact, that much sugar creates an adverse affect. When the children come home eating their cookies and cupcakes, they are not in the right mindset to sit down and do homework...and then attend enrichment classes. Their after-school sugar high creates hyper-activity, irritability, and other behaviors.

I'm a very big sweet tooth. However, I've learned that eating sweets leads to wanting more sweets. I've always been a pretty healthy eater, thanks to my mom. But until I got into my late 20's, I was perfectly satisfied having a brownie sundae fill me up...or cookie dough...or any homemade dessert. I justified the 5 cookies I might eat because they filled me up and I figured they were about the same amount of calories as a larger meal. What I didn't realize was that my body and brain functioned much better on a bigger, healthier meal. When I finally started leaving out the sweets, the craving wasn't so strong.

I'm convinced that our charitable acts of giving poor kids cookies and junk is the reason when they do get a free meal, they throw out the sandwich and soup and eat the cookie and chips. Let's educate those providing lunches and snacks for our children. They need fruit and vegetables. As my mom did us, they need to be encouraged to taste two bites of everything so that they can develop new taste buds.

We have got to do better by our children.

Think people in poverty are scamming the system? Think again!

Who's really scamming the system?

Each summer we operate a summer program called Urban Experience. The program is designed to educate people outside of the inner cities about issues that impact our friends and neighbors in the inner city.

This year we are working with the USDA to provide a session called Buck and a Half lunch, the amount per person, per meal that families receive through food stamps. The USDA's goal is to teach people how to make healthy meals with only $1.50 per person.

Our goal at the Urban Experience is to educate people on the time, effort, and obstacles associated with attempting to provide that healthy, buck and a half lunch.

Although I am very aware of the research and commentary that talks about the injustices and inequities in the inner city, it always strikes me harder when I actually see it laid out on paper. I had asked two of the people helping with the Urban Experience to price the menu ingredients at the local Walmart and the community corner store. Despite my awareness, I was still shocked by what I saw.

Before I show you the numbers, keep in mind that...

1. The prices only compare foods that are similar in brand; we did not try to make this look worse than it is by comparing name brand to off-brand.
2. The community corner stores lack the majority of foods needed in order to create this healthy lunch; therefore, without adequate transportation, these healthy meals would not even be an option.
3. The community corner stores offer primarily chips, soda, and snack foods. These high in sugar and fat foods offer the ability for a filling food, though not healthy.
4. When comparing prices, corner stores often offered small sizes (like 8 oz) while grocery stores offered larger sizes (like 16 oz). When comparing prices, we had to purchase two 8 oz sizes in order to equal the 16 oz we needed for the recipe.
5. The corner stores did not offer a cheaper, store brand. All items were name brand.

In the price list below, the first price is Walmart, the second is the community corner store, and the third number is the difference between the two.

Chili powder $3.18 $2.36 +.82

Flour tortillas $1.50 $1.79 +.29

Black pepper $2.50 $1.99 +.50

Green beans $.50 $1.19 +.69

Vegetable oil $3.88 $3.99 +.11

Vinegar $.62 $.99 +.37

Pineapple $1.12 $1.69 +.57

Ramen noodles $.14 $.50 +.36

Salsa $2.50 $2.99 +.49

Miracle Whip $2.12 $2.99 +.87

Paper plates $1.28 $1.59 +.31

napkins $1.64 $1.39 +$1.14

The total amount spent for one meal at the corner store versus the grocery store is $5.93 more. Of course, most of these are condiments and sides. Most corner stores don't stock up on healthy foods for neighbors to purchase.

When you take into account that if someone has no transportation or bus fare and would need to purchase their items from the corner store, $5-$6 extra per day to make a meal ends up being about $150-$180 per month.

Is it really the poor who are taking advantage of the system??

Living on Food Stamps

Are you up for a challenge?

The Austin Food Bank has provided one: Live for a week on Food Stamps.

Think it's easy?

Ok...here you go. You have $21 for the entire week.

Yep. $1 per meal.

Though I'm sure the Austin Food Bank has done their research, I didn't want to post anything that I didn't know for sure. So, I called a friend of mine who receives food stamps and, sure enough, she and 3 of her kids receive $432/month. That's $3.48 per day per person...or $1.16 per meal (so Austin was a little off).

I thought about accepting Austin's challenge. I know I probably should. But, as I looked at their sample menus for eating a healthy diet on $1/meal, several things went through my mind. 1) It's going to take a lot of time to plan my meals in order to make sure I'm within budget, 2) The food they suggest isn't exactly creative and flavorful (there's not much room for flavor and creativity when you're on a tight budget), 3) There aren't enough calories and sustenance to provide me with enough energy to exercise, and 4) It's never going to fill me up!

Congressman Lloyd Doggett and U.S. Representatives James McGovern and Jo Ann Emerson have posed this challenge to all U.S. House members and citizens across the country. The Food Stamp Challenge is part of a push to increase the value of the Food Stamp benefit as part of the 2007 Farm Bill, which Congress will begin debating at the end of this month.

If you try it, let me know how you fare.