How the cost of food can make children less healthy
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- April
- 15
A few weeks ago, my husband came home from our local bagel store with horrible news: the price of bagels was going up.
The cost of flour, the nice lady at the store had told him and Rafael, was going up from $25 to $50 in one leap and she expected it to go up another $10 any day.
The unfortunate side effect of her huge cost increase, naturally, was that our bagels now cost more.
They’re really good bagels and we only buy about a dozen a week, so we’re not feeling an extreme pinch.
But I had that in mind when I read an article by Associated Press business writer Ellen Simon (coincidentally, a college classmate of mine), about how increasing food costs are severely squeezing the poor.
It was this sentence, however, that really got my attention. It’s in reference to how the working poor may have to resort to methods to save even $5 a week that are not best for their children’s health. Of course, it’s still healthier for their children to actually eat rather than go hungry:
For the U.S. poor, any increase in food costs sets up an either-or equation: Give something up to pay for food.
“I was talking to people who make $9 an hour, talking about how they might save $5 a week,” said Kathleen DiChiara, president and CEO of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. “They really felt they couldn’t. That was before. Now, they have to.”
For some, that means adding an extra cup of water to their soup, watering down their milk, or giving their children soda because it’s cheaper than milk, DiChiara said.
Of course, it’s very easy to sit where I do and reflect on how horrible it is that people would give their children soda instead of milk, but I’m fortunate enough not to know such financial pressures. To be sure, we’re not sitting on easy street by any means. But things aren’t so tough that we have to choose cheap soda over ever-more-expensive milk.
Still, Simon’s article points out, households in the United States still spend proportionately less than anywhere else: “7.2 percent in 2006, according to the USDA. By contrast, the figure was 22 percent in Poland and more than 40 percent in Egypt and Vietnam.” Never mind the fifth of Bangladesh’s population that’s estimated to be going hungry and the food riots in Haiti.
Still, the higher U.S. prices seem eye-popping after years of low inflation. Eggs cost 25 percent more in February than they did a year ago, according to the USDA. Milk and other dairy products jumped 13 percent, chicken and other poultry nearly 7 percent.
Whoever you are, costs increasing that much takes a bite out of your wallet. And those items are staples.
It got me thinking, though, how I religiously scour the supermarket circulars and pair up the sales with coupons from the weekend papers. The joy I get from a supermarket trip where I save $20 with coupons — just with coupons. The times I come back from a shopping trip and display the toiletries I got, basically, for free after the sale and the double coupons. And the occasions once or twice a year when the supermarkets do triple coupons? Hold me back.
It takes time, but it’s worth it. And I’m lucky enough that my mom, who subscribes to three newspapers, saves all her coupon flyers for me. And I also work for a newspaper, where there’s always some extra inserts left over from the Sunday papers.
If you want to read Simon’s entire article, you can download it here; it explains many of the international factors affecting food prices.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 10:02 am by Amy Vernon.
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That is definitely a tough situation. Even when I lived alone, I can remember how tempting an unhealthy McDonald’s was because it cost so much less than cooking for myself.
Wonderful post, Amy. May I say I have been going through a severe financial crisis for the past year and this article hits home. I can’t afford salad fixings, for example, when the same amount of money will buy cheap, unhealthy food. I cannot imagine having to deal with a family. I’m okay now but I will still be cheap and use coupons. My heart goes out to poor families and I get really angry when I hear about obese children because I know people whose children are obese because they can’t afford healthy food for them.
Thanks for participating in this week’s Carnival of Family Life hosted at Vanilla Joy. The Carnival will be live tomorrow, Monday, April 21, 2008, so stop by and check out all of the other wonderful submissions!
This article really hits home. My family has been struggling financially, to the point that some nights we only have stuff to fix pancakes. Meals made from Top Ramen are cheap—but definitely not healthy. But when your kids are hungry and that’s basically all you have in the house, it’s what you eat. Coupon-clipping is out of the question—I can’t ever afford the stuff the coupons are for, since they’re usually name-brand items, even with the coupons, so I don’t bother. Some weeks my grocery budget is $20-$25 dollars. That used to cover the basics, like milk, eggs, flour, cheese, etc. but now with prices of even the basics going completely over the top, it’s impossible to feed healthy food to your children, and I can’t imagine how the really poor families are surviving. Thanks for the link to the eye-opening article.
Thanks, all for your comments. I realize every day that we’re so fortunate to live with my mother-in-law, which keeps costs way down. I mean, we pay most of the household bills, but no mortgage or rent, which is the big one…
One of the benefits of living where I do is that the supermarket competition is so fierce that they always do double coupons and sometimes even do triple coupon savings. So I watch the circulars and pair up coupons with sales and sometimes get food items for 50 cents to $1 that normally cost a lot more. With toiletries, I rarely pay more than 50 cents or a dollar for most items, including toothbrushes, once I use coupons and buy them on sale. I’m a little embarrassed to say, but we have 15 tubes of toothpaste at home right now, and I probably paid less than $10 total for them over the course of a few shopping trips. I’ve been threatened that I have to stop buying toothpaste for a little while, at least…
Came across your blog via the Carnival and have enjoyed what I have seen so far. I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I am trying to find away to articulate this to my older kids, without being to preachy about appreciating what we have.
I am a single mother (receiving no child support) of one child, and my income barely covers my rent; thankfully, I am in college, and I get financial aid which covers the other half of the bills. We have no money to spare for anything which isn’t a utility or food, but my child never drinks soda.
Drinking soda should never be an option. What about water? for the price of a 2-Liter of soda, you can get a pound of millet, which containts not only carbohydrates, but protein, which becomes complete when combined with also-inexpensive lentils or beans, iron, b-vitamins and other nutrients.
My son is allergic to milk, so he drinks almond milk, about a cup a day, and he takes a calcium/magnesium/vit D supplement – I just bought a bottle to last him 3 months for under ten dollars. Taking such a supplement (at night is best for calcium) along with drinking plenty of water is a much better idea than giving your child soda, which actually leeches minerals from the body and dehydrates them, besides being empty calories.
We also buy only organic, pasture raised local meat(for him, I am vegetarian), and we stick to organic produce whenever possible(especially for important foods to eat organic, like carrots, celery, strawberries, etc). Our food bill is pretty high, so we don’t go out to movies, and we shop for clothing at yard sales and thrift stores. We make healthy food a priority.
Other tips: don’t buy premade sweets, ever, and avoid packaged bread, cereal and crackers, bottled salad dressings, etc. Learn to make your own bread; it is easier than you think, healthier, and cuts costs dramatically. Make your own granola for breakfast cereal, or get up a couple minutes earlier and whip up two organic eggs or some other yummy breakfast at a fraction of the cost of packaged breakfast goods. Make homemade cookies if your child must have sweets to be happy with life. Buy items in bulk like grains, legumes, dried fruit (I stick with raisins, which are the least expensive, but I buy them organic), and cheap, nutritious seeds like sunflower and flaxseeds. Check out local growers at farmer’s markets, and bargain shop. Go online to find the best prices if need be. Keep meat to a minimum, remembering three or four ounces is sufficient. Learn to love frugal yet nutrionally superior veggies like kale and collards. Carrots are cheap, even organic, when bought in a five pound bag, they are a dollar per pound or less: I like to mince them and add them to anything with tomato sauce (spaghetti, beans, chilli, homemade pizza sauce) for added nutrition – I spice them up while mincing by adding some herbs and garlic (my son refers to them as ‘fluffy pockets of flavor’).
All one has to do is be determined to eat healthy and learn to be resourceful.