I won't repeat the fisking of the dumbass who claimed that poor people can't possibly cook for themselves. Larry Correia did a more than adequate job.
No, this is reserved for those who are screeching about the suggestion that, instead of giving people easily defrauded ways to buy their own groceries (junk food???? Seriously??? You're buying soda and snack cakes on your ebt cards, and complaining that your children are going hungry???), we should bring back the non-perishable goods food pantries. Canned stuff. Y'know, the stuff I grew up eating. Because I was painfully poor.
I've heard people screeching that it takes away the individual's right to choose what they eat. Let's start with that.
So fucking what. I don't give half a shit about the individual's right to choose what they eat, not when money is being forcibly removed from my household to give to these people. I don't drink soda, nor do I eat a whole lot of processed crap. I cook. From scratch, for the most part. Because it's cheaper, and tastes a hell of a lot better (if you can get your hands on a '60s Betty Crocker cookbook, their black midnight chocolate cake tastes a hell of a lot better than a mix, and costs a lot less to make). I don't eat steak, much, either. I've never eaten lobster. Because I can't afford to. I do NOT want someone who chooses not to work to eat better than my family does. Hell, the threat of starvation's a hell of a motivation to get a fucking job.
I've also heard people screeching that the boxes of non-perishable foods lack any nutrition.
Uh, what?
Every can of vegetables has, just above its list of ingredients, a chart. That chart is the nutritional values of whatever's in the can. I use a LOT of canned food. Wanna know why? Because fresh or frozen green beans squeak when you eat them, and my children refuse to eat them. And because I can get a lot of canned food, and it can sit in the pantry until I need to use it. I put canned corn in taco soup, in my version of fajitas, and my daughter occasionally demands I open a can just for her, and eats it in about three days' worth of suppers. I use canned green beans--warmed up with garlic salt, and my son's actually willing to eat them, provided he has coctail sauce or barbecue sauce to dip them in. Canned tomato products are actually better for males than fresh. And boy howdy, do both of my guys like chili. And pasta bake.
I've heard "but people won't know how to cook the food in the boxes, so that they can eat it."
Actually, I can't dispute that. I had a friend in high school whose mother kicked her out. She got the food pantry boxes with macaroni, canned meat, canned veg, government cheese, and stuff like that. She lived on the peanut butter and bread handed out with the rest, because she didn't know what to do with any of it, until I showed her a couple things, then took her to the home-ec teacher. For the most part, it can be solved by adding a small cookbook to the first box collected, and maybe a few basic cooking lessons. Hell, maybe put a 6qt crock pot in the first box, with the cookbook, and a few pounds of dried beans, black eyed peas, and other legumes. A decent one is under $20, and will make cooking the beans a thing of simplicity that beats microwaved frozen meals.
I've heard "canned food is so gross!"
Yeah, some of it is. It'll keep you from starving. If you want to eat better than that, either get a job, or get a better job than what you have. If you literally cannot, well, Velveeta makes a lot of things taste a hell of a lot better, even if it's over-processed crap for cheese. Honestly, the worst things I remember from the food pantry canned foods with the white government labels growing up was the canned meat...and if you add it and a can of cream of mushroom soup to pretty much any pasta, maybe with some of that horrid government cheese, it makes a pretty tasty meal. But yes, straight out of the can, it's awful.
On the surface, the protests seem to be "for the good of those who can't afford to keep body and soul together." However, if you scratch that altruistic surface, what you find is a whole bunch of whining elitists that want to feel good about helping the "poor" without actually doing anything to help them out of poverty.
Considering some of the section 8 housing I've seen, the kitchens must be well equipped, which allows for cooking. Included in that cooking should be beans, which were a big part of our nutrition, when I was raised. They're inexpensive; and when eaten with rice (another inexpensive food), the meals is tasty.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, I stood in line behind a woman with huge behind that looked like a cloth covered golf ball. She had a basket filled with out -of -season fruits, expensive cuts of meat, soft drinks and other things I rarely buy because of cost. When it was time to pay, she whipped out her Lone Star Card, which is what's used instead of food stamps in Texas.
I had the feeling there was a good possibility some of that food might of been sold for cash to purchase the items not allowed by the program. I could see where it had a good value, and the purchaser could have definitely missed a substantial number of meals without harm.
You're likely right about resale. Nobody was willing to buy government canned commodities.
DeleteI don't care for beans by themselves (thank my family--the way they made beans was awful), but I do like lentils.
Every time I see this crap, I think of the overweight black woman in Lexington, MD who was screeching at the fish market owner because he wouldn't accept her EBT card for a dozen steamed crabs. It wasn't legal, but she 'thought' she could get away with it by playing the race and gender cards. When she pulled out her iPhone, the cops got called. Apparently, she had done this before... sigh...
ReplyDeleteGross. This is exactly the type of person that deserves the worst of the nastiest of the government canned goods.
DeletePowdered milk only then. For however long it takes to induce gratitude and manners— and some honesty, too.
DeleteAs a side note: Canned vegetables probably have more nutrition potential, since they are prepared from the vegetables too far in the ripening cycle. More ripening; more nutrition.
ReplyDeleteAh, but most idiots think that the salt/sugars added for canning renders it non-nutritive. And somehow, unsweetened apple sauce is worthless, nutritionally.
DeleteEverything was canned in my house growing up until I tasted frozen peas. Nothing else is as affected by the canning process as peas. Thankfully my mother could taste the difference, too, because my brother already had the job of unreasonably picky eater, and they weren’t going to hire another. ;)
DeleteI use frozen mixed veggies in my homemade stew, and use frozen corn on the cob done in the microwave; most of the rest of what I fix uses canned stuff.
Delete(I don't eat peas if they're not fresh or frozen)