Hello, Dear. How much would you say you spend on fresh produce (on average) a week?
Usually we spend about $45-$55 dollars a week, per person (2 people)
If you think this is expensive: I’m a minimalist in every other aspect of my life. Aside from bills and utilities, any “extra” money I have goes to paying my debts, buying quality food and occasionally art/craft supplies. I don’t buy clothes or shoes, I don’t go out to eat or to movies or shows.. I choose to keep my cost of living extremely low, allowing me afford the foods that are important to me. There was a financially lean period that lasted several months wherein we got down to about $25-30 per week/person which was much harder to manage, but we got through just fine. Lots of dried beans, rice, lentils, and inexpensive fruits like apples and bananas..
If you think this is a great deal: seriously, I can’t stress this enough! If it’s availible to you, get out of the grocery stores and in to the co-ops and farm stands! Whole Foods (aka “Whole Paycheck” in my house) is crazy overpriced, so if you’re super broke this is not the place to hang out. Learn to cook from scratch, even bread and treats. Stay away from overpriced, pre-packaged “healthy snacks” and vegan junk food. Eat vegetables, broccoli is always cheap. Shop with a list.. There’s so much you can do to cut food costs.
**Just as a heads up, I realize that a good majority of you have access to a Trader Joe’s so I’m working on a TJ’s specific shopping list, including most of my favorite vegan basics for about $50 a week. Good for new vegans! I might include some meal ideas too but I haven’t decided yet.
Oxfam: World food prices will continue to rise
World food prices have more than doubled since 1990, and that trend is set to continue. According to Oxfam, the cost of key crops could increase by 120 to 180 percent.
Oxfam predicts that half of the rise is caused by climate change.
Read more over at the BBC. (Thanks to skullllduggery for sending this link my way.)
More on the high cost of healthy food
Blockquotes are excerpts. Here’s my original take on the subject.
1. On obesity, individual choice, and government intervention
[John] Stossel is apparently unfamiliar with the prevailing opinion of dietitians and weight loss experts — I’m not talking about people with popular books on weight loss, but actual weight loss clinicians — that the reason for rapidly escalating obesity rates is a “perfect storm” of environmental factors: the widespread availability of processed foods, the artificial cheapness of those foods, the time crunch confronting families (especially working families) that prevents home cooking, a lack of knowledge about home cooking, and widespread misinformation about unhealthy food and proper nutrition. (Sedentary behavior plays a very minor role.)
2. Study finds abiding by new U.S. nutritional guidelines means spending more at the grocery store
Living below the poverty line myself I don’t buy the excuses cited in this article. Granted, my mother’s associate’s degree in dietary nutrition probably puts me at an advantage over most kids that lived/are living below the poverty line, but I really think blame for the problems lie most with our government. Instead of respectfully treating food like the life-sustaining necessity that it is, food has become an industry that is driven by money.
3. Don’t blame the fried chicken!
4. Does it really cost more to buy healthy food?
5. Healthy eating is hard but not impossible for low-income Americans
But even the study authors admit that there’s a wrinkle here worth noting: They didn’t search out the cheapest source of potassium (bananas, for the record) to come up with that figure. They performed statistical analysis to model a diet higher in those nutrients based on what the study participants were already buying. That’s very different from trying to shop on a budget!
HELP?
I’m trying to find a post.
The original post consisted of pictures of healthy food and junk food, saying that healthy food is cheaper than fast food.
There was a whole commentary underneath about how healthy food is cheaper per serving, but you have to buy all of the ingredients in bulk and they go bad and it’s just really not cheaper. Not to mention that middle class families are often busy with working (sometimes multiple jobs) that it’s just easier to buy McDonalds for dinner occasionally.
If anyone knows where this post is, I’d be super appreciative.
Group speech is coming up, and I’d love to use this as a topic.
Edit: I am specifically looking for the aforementioned commentary.
The 3 C's
I saw this on the Vegan Outreach blog:
“There are two practical consequences to this. The first is to recognize that angry, obsessive vegans are prominent in society. Therefore, those of us focused on the animals must be the opposite of the stereotype that the angry and obsessive people create.”
While I’m not sure that it is in any sense accurate to say that “angry, obsessive vegans are prominent in society”, unless I have been misunderstanding the meaning of ‘prominent’ and ‘society’ all this time, the discussion I grabbed this from is about how to talk to people about being a vegan, and that is interesting to me. Mostly because I am interested in how we understand our relationship to food. This is a big subject and one that I will touch on here as I go along. But it encompasses some of the most primary aspects of how we, as a species, or a people, relate to our world. It’s about how we shape and create that world, exercise domination over it, yield power to others in it and how we either thrive and flourish or wither and die, and about how much damage we do and how much fun we have along the way.
A preliminary hypothesis: we make choices about food based on three primary considerations. These are, in no particular order:
1.Convenience
2. Cost
3. Comfort
I’ll address these in separate subsequent posts.
Week of February 6, 2012
Hey Now,
Attached is this weeks schedule, while it is almost the same as last week just a few notes. If we could have everyone run shift changes by Carissa this week till everyone is up to speed. The only shift change that wasn’t approved in advance, ended in complete destruction ..with a no show- a wasted shift and some scrambling-thanks Izzi.
It is picking up at both locations now and its only going to get busier so lets use this time to really get ourselves prepared, both in food knowledge and service. I am going to repeat it again, the key to unlimited wealth and happiness(or at least success at El Pelon) is to give more than you get. It never goes unnoticed- here or in the rest of the world. If you just do a little more, stay organized and try to connect with customers, the job is so much more fun and time goes by quicker. I am working on a few new staff benefits and fun things coming up and I will give you more details in the coming weeks. I wanted to include everyone in some recent numbers because we are all in this together.
Restaurants are guided by certain ratios, the two most important are Food cost and Labor cost. The industry standard is a 25% Food Cost and 25% Labor Cost. These numbers are the cost of food purchased adjusted by inventory and divided by the sales. The labor cost is the total cost of wages divided by sales This past month we had a combined Food Cost of 28.7% and a Labor Cost of 32.1% including employer paid worker comp and employer taxes. We also gave away $2,188 in comps aside from donations. The numbers may seem a little high but because we serve quality produce and meats and the prices we charge are very low, the food cost number is actually really good. Its because of the hard work of Pollo and all the kitchen staff that its as good as it is. The labor cost number is high because we are trying to give everyone enough hours to get by even if its not that busy. Its a worthwhile trade off because we got each others backs and we both look out for each other. The lower sales in January and February further hurt because their is a small piece of the pie to be divided. For example, even if the food and labor are under 25% at a low enough sales number we would still might not break even with the other costs.Thankfully that’s not the case. I know it might not feel that way when you get sent home early on a cold slow weeknight. I appreciated those who took one for the team this week and left early. That will happen less and less as the weather warms. Our restaurant is more than just numbers and ratios, you all know that the money is usually the last thing I think about when making decisions for our business. Which reminds me, I put delivery on hold till we can make sure we can do it right every time(who does that on super bowl weekend…crazy) but I would rather forgo the income than risk screwing up a customers order. Its really your hard work that has led to our continued success. I know everybody says that shit but I really think its true. Is anyone still reading at this point-Gabby I know you got to the 5th paragraph right? See I don’t always write these emails about picky things-Though we could do a better job on frying Chips this week so keep your eye on that for me and have a great week.
