Eating like that, no, you can't live like this. At least, not for long.
That's not food.
If anyone is actually on the struggle bus don't get ramen. Get rice. Buy the biggest fucking bag of rice from the local Asian store you can find. You can make enough rice to last multiple days in one sitting and the bag will last you several months to a year depending on if you have family or not
If you can spring for it buy some high protein beans or lentils or some other legume and mix them, almost every society on the planet no matter the geography invented rice and beans because it's so damn easy to store for long periods of time and will get you the protein and calories you need to survive.
Is it fun? No. But it will get you fed and it's an excellent base to throw in other things to spice it up. Get a little extra money and can afford a bit of meat and veggies? Sauteed them up and you get a full blown meal with a side dish and a porkchop/fish filet/chicken breast with your rice.
Wait, rice and beans isn't fun? It requires some extra seasonings but Carrib style rice and peas are my jam. Though it does have a Lotta aromatics.
Well... personally I think rice and beans can be delicious but it's not most people's idea of comfort food I suppose. At least where I'm from.
The price of rice is pretty high right now. It's still a good value, especially in bulk, but it's not as cheap as it used to be.
Make sure to put the rice in a freezer if you're going to store it for a long time. This is important to prevent bugs, especially in hot and damp weather. If that's not possible, sprinkle some dried chilis or peppers.
People make fun of this. But if you are on a poverty budget, you have to buy cheap calorically rich food as you would starve on expensive healthy options. Not to mention, most poor people live in grocery food deserts where the closest food market is a dollar general that doesn't carry fresh/healthy food.
Edit: Since people seem to think they've solved the food insecurity for 34 million Americans. I'll continue to go with organization international and domestic that actually studied this.
No, you wouldn't. The same amount of money going to dry beans and grains, some dairy and eggs, and some cheap protein goes much further. You'd even have enough left for fresh veggies and seasonings.
The intersection of poor and can't cook is just depressingly shitty and too common.
So I live in the US. I have 2 friends that got scurvy in 2017. How did they get scurvy you might ask? Let me tell you. They live about 30 mins from the grocery store in a car. Which they don’t have. The closest person that can take them grocery shopping lives about 2 hours away. Plus they’re poor as shit.
To save money they spent 3 months eating nothing but homemade biscuits (scones for non Americans). The lack of vitamin c gave them scurvy.
They live on a fixed income. My state tightened requirements for food stamps. They were fucked.
I will say that the UN came to my state several years ago. They literally called it the 3rd world and said it was the most impoverished place in the developed world. So, there’s that.
Also cooking takes time. I make dinner every night and even with previously prepped things it's usually 20-30min every evening. If I worked 2 jobs (12-16hr) I wouldn't have the time nor energy, either.
Now throw in a being a single parent!
I honestly don't know how people do it. When my wife's out of town for a week, nothing gets done beyond basic survival. I don't have time to do any other chores, and I only work 1 job.
This person has blown money not getting the store brand. Driving farther to get real food cannot be that much more expensive, but let’s say it’s even $4 more. You’d get your money back buying a pound of apples. As someone who didn’t grow up with means, I know a lot of people with carts like this and it’s mostly just a history of bad choices.
Food deserts are places more than 20 minutes away from a grocery store. So at least that's a 40 minute round trip if you have a car. And spoiler alert, most people living in poverty don't have reliable mods of travel. It's a proven fact that processed foods provides more calories for less than fresh produce. Two oreo cookies is more calories than a apple and they keep longer. Are there some people that make poor eating habits simply because they can, absolutely! But that's not what I'm talking about. Please don't demonize people for the failings of our society.
… rice, beans, and a $15 rice cooker?
I’m as lazy as they get in the kitchen. If I can’t throw it in a pot, walk away, and walk back to food then it’s too much effort.
Rice and beans is cheap, quick, and easy.
That's all part of the problem though, isn't it?
I live in central Europe and veggies and fruit are one of the first things, you see when you enter a store. They're also really affordable and you can get them in pretty much every corner store all over the town as well. There isn't a place where basic fruit and veggies are more than 15 minutes walking/public transit distance from you within the city. Never had to drive to a grocery store in my life. Some places are even open at night.
Let's not blame the people for eating like this, when that's exactly what the system is set up for.
All that produce fresh from the factory!
Have you tried buying food instead of whatever the fuck this garbage is?
Average moderator shopping cart.
If you're on a budget this is such a horrible cart... not to mention so unhealthy. I guess most of it doesn't go bad quickly at least... only positive.
My stomach hurts just looking at it.
You are weak and your bloodline is weak, instead of sugary sweet like God intended when he invented high fructose corn syrup
I don't see any food in that shopping trolley. Most of that is snacks and microwave meals.
Don’t be smug about it though. Cooking might seem like an innate ability if you were raised with it but intergenerational poverty is associated with a lack of education about things like this and also a lack of access to quality food.
If you’re time poor from working shifts or multiple jobs
If due to social class or race or intergenerational poverty you lacked an education about food
If contemporary race and social class segregation means you live in a “food desert” that simply doesn’t sell fresh produce
Have empathy. Obviously this person is suffering and needs help.
I used to cook every day. It was one of my favorite hobbies.
But then about two years ago my life started falling apart. Between divorce and a couple moves I'm barely making ends meet, in the cheapest apartment I could find (a one bedroom that I split with someone else.)
The kitchen is so tiny, the refrigerator doesn't even open all the way. I barely have any counter space, and with a longer commute (and lots of overtime) I barely have time/energy anymore to cook. Plus, I don't have a dishwasher anymore, so cleanup takes a lot longer.
I want to cook. But fuck, it's so much harder to do now. I never realized how much I took cooking for granted, back when I had money.
I know a lot of folks in this thread are taking the piss but imagine you are a single mother on a limited / min wage income working 2 jobs and a kid or two to feed. You need food that doesn’t spoil and that you are certain your kids will eat (can’t afford to waste it) and that doesn’t require much if any time to prepare (you don’t have time). This is how you get shopping carts like this.
People posting the Russian borscht or whatever don’t get it, there are people out there that simply can’t spend an hour or whatever cooking.
I mean I get it but when I was a kid it was "shut up and eat what's put in front of you"
Maybe you don’t want to spend the 20 mins you have with your kid that isn’t getting them ready for bed fighting about broccoli or whatever. My point is free/extremely cheap, easy access to healthy prepared foods is the solution to shopping carts like this not shaming people for their food selections. Hardly anybody over the age of 7 would intentionally choose to eat like this.
Letting your kid eat junk food because you don't want to be the bad guy and make them eat vegetables is really shitty parenting.
Just buy the corn syrup and iodized salt direct from the manufacturer and skip all these middle men.
I would bet most of the weight in that cart is sugar, salt and plastic.
Could be twice the amount when getting store brands instead of luxury brands.
Diabeetus be like: Don't worry, it won't be long to wait.
Over the last 10 years or so, some kinds of convenience foods have gone up a lot. Like some types of
"value meal" is over $10. That's a bad scene if you have several people to feed.
You can beat that by cooking your own, but if you have been working a 12 hour shift that is a harsh scenario.
It just seems like people, and I'm referring to the U.S., getting food should not be such a press.
Hey go fuck yourself for trying to straw man the legitimate issue of poverty and food insecurity in America with some bullshit
