At 05:19  2004-01-27 EST, Beth wrote "Poverty..food etc" {at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LessIsMore/message/13870 }:

Ask someone if they think the average Amish family is poor based on annual income and most people might say "no". Yet the Amish friends we have live at or below the annual poverty income level here in the states.

Ask someone if they think the average family in public or government subsidized housing is poor and most people might say "yes".

The differences I see is this. The Amish family has two parents and the government funded family is one parent. The Amish family eats homemade and often simple meals, whereas the average government supported family often buys fast food, and doesn't know how to make simple inexpensive and healthier meals.

I speak from personal experience, since we have been trying to get families who get Food Bank help and Food Stamps to join with others from the community for FREE cooking classes. But the response is something along the lines of "boring food".  PBS had a show last year which showed that when a healthy food co-op wanted to open a store in a lower income neighborhood, and held a community meeting, the residents of the area wanted Wonder bread and not the whole grain healthier breads.

At the local food bank the healthier "gourmet" breads that are $4 + a loaf get ignored and the cheap white nothing but air bread is snapped up fast.

Question is: how do we change this?


~ Beth   
 ~: http://www.bethhartford.com/Enter.html in California :~