Food poverty thread

Last night I made roast chicken with patatas bravas, baked feta and minted peas for 4.

Total time = 2hrs
Total cost of ingredients = £8.21

We have enough leftovers for dinner if I bulk it out with rice/veg for an additional 80p.

Total £9.01

1/?

£9 for two dinners. Sounds cheap, right?

Well for £9 I could buy enough beans, frozen chips, frozen veg, fish fingers/nuggets/sausages to feed 4 people dinner for 6 nights plus 2 packets of biscuits.

Nutritionally it wouldn’t be great but 4 people would be fed.

2/?

The cost of eating healthily isn’t as simple as privileged people logging on to Tesco and pointing out how “cheap” fruit and veg is.

Sure, I can get cheap apples in season but apples aren’t going to fill up 4 people.

3/?

Privilege isn’t just about family wealth. Privilege can be transport, time and knowledge.

Having the ability to shop around and the time and knowledge to cook from scratch will help bring food bills down and give you better balanced meals but not everyone has that.

4/?

I grew up in a poverty and this was most keenly felt around food.

My relationship with food was very much feast and famine depending on how close to pay day we were.

Buying fruit every week just wasn’t affordable.

5/?

My mum did her best and ensured we were fed. So it really rankles when the Rees-Moggs and their spumescent cheerleaders think tackling food poverty and obesity is sneering about how much Pepsi and Pringles people buy.

6/?

If you want to tackle food poverty and obesity then you need to consider convenience and skills.

Give people the time and knowledge to shop/cook from scratch and they’ll do it.

People aren’t eating chips and beans every day for the sake of it!

7/?

Until the government and their commentators are willing to focus on the real causes of food poverty and obesity instead of labelling people as lazy and feckless they need to stay in their fucking lanes.

8/8