I cooked Saturday’s dinner on the grill, in part to keep the kitchen cooler, and, well I like to grill.
Nothing elaborate, just boneless chicken, sourdough bread buttered and garlicked, broccoli, and, cut-up fruit.
Still, the base meal cost around $8.50 for two people – about double the “meal rate” for even today’s enhanced food stamp benefit.
Now, add the extras – charcoal and lighter fluid for the grilling, spices, BBQ sauces (I mix two to get the flavor we like), and half a beer (the cook consumed the half serving that didn’t go into the sauce). Those extras made the meal much tastier, yet, added around $3.15 to the cost. Simply, I spent an additional third on the little things.
Why bring this up?
Tomorrow a line of cars filled with struggling families will snake past Circle Of Concern in Valley Park. Volunteers will share a couple of bags with each family. They’ll get nutritious food (including items Circle purchased) for healthy meals. Alas, they won’t get smoked Hungarian paprika, California garlic or two types of BBQ sauce – and they certainly won’t get beer for the sauce or the cook.
Despite the best of intentions, charity is bland.
And, at this time of the summer many charities are hurting, lacking even the most stuff families need. Donations slow down every year in hot weather. This year seems to be worse than average.
How bad? Food pantries usually joke about the abundance of canned green beans in their reserves. My parish’s pantry has been begging for green beans for more than a month. A friend in the deep Ozarks has it worse: what they’ll give out Thursday is what they get in donations on Wednesday, their reserves long gone.
Yes, those getting SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, aka food stamps] now receive more per person per meal than they did before the pandemic. Still, that benefit lags way behind what the typical family ought to spend on food per the USDA. [https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/media/file/CostofFoodMay2021.pdf ] Oh yes, USDA assumes that a family spends between 25% and 33% more than their benefit putting meals on the table.
So we can’t be surprised that most food stamp families also need food pantry help. What they get is what we give. What we give tends to not be species or sauces.
Plus, many, many struggling families need more than food. A little birdie told me that many local households needed their entire pandemic stimulus checks to pay past due gas and electric bills. That didn’t stimulate the economy as much as make utility executives happy.
Remember, requests for utility assistance spike in hot weather, again, as incoming money drops. Despite a not horrible summer, those bills keep coming.
Despite the heart, please be generous to the charities helping our neighbors. Money works great, so does stuff. And, remember the little things. Maybe throw in some ketchup or BBQ sauce or a cake mix or garlic powder along with those green beans. Those extras will be appreciated
Glenn