QUOTE=Organic]I think accessibility (cost of healthier foods) and education should be promoted more heavily as opposed to putting restrictions on the types of food available for purchase. At the non-profit where I volunteer, most of the clients receive food stamps and many have young children as well. We teach healthy eating classes on what healthy foods go a long way, how to prepare food to last longer (stewing down the meat and preparing leftovers to stretch)
and how to stretch their funds (surely, a $2 gallon of Hawaiian Punch goes further than $3.98 quart of organic cranberry juice- why wouldn't someone strapped for cash select the most for the least?).
It is a lifestyle change that has to be broken out of, especially those who are in the cycle of generational poverty (those who grew up on food stamps and have only known how to purchase food on a limited budget), as opposed to those who are in a more 'situational poverty' situation (someone laid off a higher paying job now using food stamps). The most common reaction we get is the lack of available and affordable healthier foods. Publix is much more expensive than WalMart.
...I paid $7 for a bag of grapes this week. 7 friggin dollars. I totally understand why those on restricted incomes shop in the ways that they do, and I also understand why I see buggies full of cereal and capri suns on the 1st of the month.
...but who really wants to take a hardcore national approach aimed at healthier eating and overhaul the SNAP program? Who really wants to see diabetes and obesity and tooth decay and high blood pressure reduced?
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yup. we've had this convo before. it is cheaper to eat bad not to mention it is heavily promoted in poorer communities. I've sometimes heard that to eat healthy is some white people sh*t. Because it is so expensive. I've paid $10 for a bag of cherries. It's a good thing I don't have kids.
No one really wants to see anything overhauled because it's not the poor that is gettin paid or gettin' over in the long run. Nothing will be done really because there is too much money tied into not only people eating bad but everything. The FDA is promotin' whatever is going to get them paid, insurance... Mandatory insurance...from car to health ain't for us. It's for the insurance companies. A storm can blow the roof off your house and they can tell you that the rain did it so u ain't gettin' sh*t and there ain't nuffin' you can do....I digress.
There is too much money in people being sick so they make it easy. If they wanted a healthy people country...fruits and veggies would be cheap and "treats" like soda, chips and ice cream would cost more. I mean...didn't it used to be that way?
Now...that said...to keep it real...yes it does piss me off when I see folks on generational welfare eating better than me. Why? because it seems that if u try to do the right thing for yourself you can't get no help. There is no incentive except pride that keeps folks tryna do right. I hear alot of students damn near starving because they can barely get help and they are trying to do better but folks who ain't tryna do nuffin' can seem to get it so easy. My boy says that it didn't make any sense to get his papers. He was living better as an "illegal". SMH. In my mind I recognize that the whole thing is game....deep game played on all of us but i'm sometimes blinded by my anger at the unfairness of it all.
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Junior Jr wrote:
