Food security organizations

[Nessa7]

Have you ever read one of Mark Bittman's cookbooks? I briefly taught a cooking class for people that have never cooked, and I took a lot of influence from how he structured his recipes and books. It really helped me wrap my brain around how to explain something like what a carrot looks like fresh out of the ground instead of from a can for someone that has never seen one that wasn't in a cartoon. He starts each recipe explaining how to cook the bare bones version of it. Then he goes into how you can customize it based on what you like or have on hand. He also has sections that go over just about everything you can do with an ingredient and what they taste good with. I know that he has a really extensive one for vegetables in his vegetarian book, but I'm not sure about the other ones. The vegetarian one is the only one that I reference in my own cooking, so my memory of what it contains is a lot better.

I also went to a farmer's market once that sold menstrual products, and I thought it was genius. They did something where if you spent so much in food stamps that you got so much money back that you could spend on anything even if it wasn't eligible. I wish I remembered where it was, but I stumbled on them when I was on a road trip.

 

[Crow]

Brilliant! I'll check it out!

 

[anthony]

I just recently happened upon an amazing story out of Australia regarding folks who rescue the leftover foods from restaurants,caterers, etc. and distribute it.

Well... food prep and usage is actually defined by law here too, quite strict ones. Maybe the difference is that the politicians got so much pressure to make an exception for homelessness, to help curb the issue. A little recognition that by health standards, food can often have a far longer life to be safely eaten, than safe limits imposed when being sold -- then factoring people buy it to store.

Its commonsense, and it keeps crime down by giving those in need free food. They don't have to beat someone, rob them, or otherwise, to eat.

There are larger issues obviously... technically, nobody in Australia needs to be homeless, as we have full unemployment and social security system for every Australian, including teens who leave home for whatever reason it be. The issues are complex, obviously, but in simplicity, you could put people who choose homelessness into small groups to rent a low cost house, all of which they are then subsidised rent and utilities, thus nobody should technically be homeless in Australia. It is usually a choice due to drugs and other addictions.