Eating Well on a Food Stamp Budget

In this week’s Lean Plate Club column, Washington Post health and nutrition writer Sally Squires proves that it’s possible to eat healthily on a $21/week food stamp grocery budget, even though Congress couldn’t quite pull it off. Here are the highlights from “How Far Can Your Dollar Stretch?“:

Food stamp benefits, which go to 26 million low-income Americans annually, are given out monthly, not weekly, allowing recipients to buy in bulk. That average $21 per person per week becomes about $90 for the full month. A family of four can receive a maximum of $518 per month — or about $120 per week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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Rick Hindle, executive chef for the Skadden, Arps law firm in Washington, showed recently that you don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen to prepare healthful food for $1 or less per meal — although you do need some basic culinary skills. As part of the launch of a new USDA Web site for food stamp recipients, Hindle cooked colorful quesadillas (60 cents per serving), spinach and meat cakes with brown rice (92 cents) and orange banana frosty (52 cents). All 400 recipes in the database adhere to the latest U.S. Dietary Guidelines. The recipes are available in English and Spanish.

“They were easy to make, with only three to four ingredients,” Hindle said. “They’re good for you, and they tasted great.” So great, in fact, that Hindle, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America, plans to add the quesadillas and some of the other recipes to his regular repertoire. (Find photos, recipes and links to menus at http://www.leanplateclub.com.)

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In short, eating on a food stamp budget was challenging, but not as difficult as some members of Congress might think.

After doing some research, Squires headed to the grocery store and loaded her cart with dried beans, canned salmon, a giant watermelon, eggs, tofu, whole grain bread, olive oil, and frozen veggies. See an image of the spread and the meal breakdown.

Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King