Both this video and the crazy woman from USDA drive me a bit crazy. First of all, the olive oil, condiments, spices....all those "staples" last for way more than 3 days. So Jared could easily have purchased those items, then allocated the cost of those items into his meal to derive the actual applied costs. The example from USDA of one piece of chicken...etc. was stupid and insulting. So Jared and Sam did not actually attempt to apply any kind of serious thought to this experiment, outside of just make something sort of funny I guess. The greater problem of food insecurity is the cost of everything else. The nutritionist did talk about this, and was the best part of the video.
Fair points. And, people have to have the upfront money to buy those condiments and staples. Many don’t have that money so Jared’s experience was legitimate with respect to the actual statement the USDA made. The USDA, rather than Jared, should be providing realistic, specific, guidance for people so that they can eat better at all budget levels. Throwing out meaningless pyramids and meal budget numbers helps no one. They deserve the scorn, especially Rollins. Remember that she told us all to save money by raising our own chickens?
What we need to do is to bring back the marginal tax rates of 1960 to prevent the rich from taking unearned wealth that they do now under the Republican tax cuts for the wealthy because wealth does NOT trickle down, it aggregates at the top. This new food pyramid is a GOP distraction from their pro-wealthy policies.
That said, I'm a vegetarian and buy Aldi's tofu at $1.55/lbs. I eat half per meal to get the protein I want, I lift so I want a bit more than those who don't. We don't need meat, we need protein and this does it. To get a firmer consistency, I press the water out of it. My meals are less than $3 but it takes a while to build up the sides, such as seasonings, and buying certain things in bulk, such as 25 pounds of brown rice, that take more money at that point but are lower cost per meal. I get the variety that I like, but it does take a bit more money at times and a bit more planning.
Jared, ignore the comments that criticize your food choices. You literally were testing what the Ag Sec recommended. And you were making a point. I appreciate your commitment.
I grew up in a family that had to mix powdered milk with our milkman delivery to make it last the week.
The fact that Trump stopped even measuring food insecurity (along with many other essential statistics) shows their contempt for the American people. Because knowing 18% of my local high school students go to school hungry due to food insecurity matters to me. Not knowing helps Republicans. But it sure as hell doesn’t help those kids.
Love Jared. Also, one thing nobody, except Jared, mentions much are the costs of time and transit involved in meal preparation! Time is money for some of us, especially for a person who is struggling with multiple shift jobs or has insecure housing. The difference between the frozen and fresh broccoli is quantifiable in the time it takes to get to a place where cooking is possible, also often quantifiable in terms of transit time/costs. Everything has a cost in terms of time and mobility as well as money. A diet with a lot of meal preparation involves logistics as well as money.
a whole roasted Costco chicken is $4.99. Lasts for days and when ur sick of it, make chicken salad (made with apples and nuts) sandwiches or make chicken tacos.....
Not to defend the Trump administration, trust me, but you bought deboned and skin free chicken breast and frozen broccoli. That’s like having $15 and buying a $15 steak. I’m a school bus driver and I live on about 30,000 a year. Not only does chicken cooked without the bones and skin taste like crap, it’s horrendously expensive. Buy a full chicken. You can roast it, remove the chicken, and then make broth with the carcass. From the broth you can make gravy and soups. You can freeze part of the cooked chicken, most food banks have beans and chilies. Why are you going to buy processed cut up broccoli when you only have $27? Buy a head of broccoli and cut it up yourself!
Just saying, if you’re going to have a thought experiment, be reasonable. This is why our arguments don’t hold water with people on the right. Many of them are low income, and they know better.
Fair points. I’d offer that most people don’t know that what you’re saying is even an option. I’m 62 and well educated. Until my finances were affected by a random health event 10 years ago, I knew very little about food besides how to find restaurants and order well. It took me a few years of dedicated learning, trial and error to get to the point where I could roast a chicken, make stocks, etc.
America has been living on boneless, skinless, chicken breasts for 20+ years so it makes sense that Jared would pick up what’s familiar and typical of many buyers. I suspect many Americans are going to find themselves needing to know and do what you’ve described. That’s more of the kind of information that the USDA should be providing in order to educate the country.
Sadly, they’re more likely to say, “See. This is why women need to stay home, take care of men, and have babies. Women are born knowing how to cook and stretch food like this.” (BTW, I’m a woman. I know how to work and how to learn. I did not know how to do all this stuff.)
Great piece. One of the best so far. I lived on bread and peanut butter for a month because I had to and it was rough. I went to the grocery store once and saw all the food. It felt strange because I had no connection to it because I couldn't buy it. I've never forgotten that, nor will I.
When I got sick and went broke, I remember standing in the produce section wondering if I could buy individual carrots and celery stalks. I’m in even worse financial shape now due to ongoing disability and the disaster of the MAGA economy. I have been both trying to bring in more income and trying to figure out how to live in my car. I have infinitely more options and supports than so many people in this country and this is my reality.
Also, note: No mention of fluids in the reporter’s diet. No juice, coffee, milk. Like I said, this is an emergency plan for someone with short-term cash flow problems. It is not sustainable for the 44+ million who do not have, usually have never had, incomes above the FPL.
Side note: Many of these people at and below the FPL do NOT have functional freezers, much less refrigerators. Many do not have much in the way of basic tools for food preparation, much less storage containers. People like this are in every suburban, urban, and rural community, in the homes you pass by everyday. At the very least, I recommend people get out, deviate from your well-traveled paths, and really look at their communities. I do this, not as regularly as I should, and am shocked every time I do by the number who have basically nothing — those who live in tents, or without heat because they can’t afford utilities. They are everywhere.
Also… the numbers of food insecure are growing. The hollowing out of the middle class is contributing.
Thanks White House...This is so timely since, for the first time in 60 years, my Social Security check has now DECREASED by $100/month! (Not to mention my total bills have INCREASED well over $100/month!)
Not sure why you're social security check could be decreasing. Deductions increase? Since we're not having deflation, any adjustments should be increases.
Least-cost diet plans are short-term doable. Download the USDA plans— four tiers for varying income levels. They have changed very little over the past 20+ years. Some states publish recipes for these plans, supposedly based on these plans, usually designed by a university nutrition program. They are basically a joke, using ingredients that would be unavailable on the two bottom tier plans, including the least- cost plan. The least-cost plan is a basic survival plan, NOT designed for long-term health and growth, much less for labor.
In my experience, many recipes take for granted that you will have a kitchen stocked with basics that "go without saying." If you are really starting from scratch, there are many things you need to buy once or every few months that are still essential. Spices, oils, containers, aluminum foil, etc. Right?
This diet is ridiculous.
So with $9 I could feed my family including a four year old, and two adults.
Trump's America, STARVE the poor.
Very excited that Sam got a Bulwark staffer to eat a weird meal on assignment.
"I do wish I had some hot sauce or something."
Both this video and the crazy woman from USDA drive me a bit crazy. First of all, the olive oil, condiments, spices....all those "staples" last for way more than 3 days. So Jared could easily have purchased those items, then allocated the cost of those items into his meal to derive the actual applied costs. The example from USDA of one piece of chicken...etc. was stupid and insulting. So Jared and Sam did not actually attempt to apply any kind of serious thought to this experiment, outside of just make something sort of funny I guess. The greater problem of food insecurity is the cost of everything else. The nutritionist did talk about this, and was the best part of the video.
Fair points. And, people have to have the upfront money to buy those condiments and staples. Many don’t have that money so Jared’s experience was legitimate with respect to the actual statement the USDA made. The USDA, rather than Jared, should be providing realistic, specific, guidance for people so that they can eat better at all budget levels. Throwing out meaningless pyramids and meal budget numbers helps no one. They deserve the scorn, especially Rollins. Remember that she told us all to save money by raising our own chickens?
Experiential journalism! Cool. Just don't try the Donald Trump diet! https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2159739/ate-like-trump-for-day-mcdonalds-diet
That guy did it years ago and made a documentary - Super Size Me. Spoiler Alert: It did not go well for him but did make him semi-famous
What we need to do is to bring back the marginal tax rates of 1960 to prevent the rich from taking unearned wealth that they do now under the Republican tax cuts for the wealthy because wealth does NOT trickle down, it aggregates at the top. This new food pyramid is a GOP distraction from their pro-wealthy policies.
That said, I'm a vegetarian and buy Aldi's tofu at $1.55/lbs. I eat half per meal to get the protein I want, I lift so I want a bit more than those who don't. We don't need meat, we need protein and this does it. To get a firmer consistency, I press the water out of it. My meals are less than $3 but it takes a while to build up the sides, such as seasonings, and buying certain things in bulk, such as 25 pounds of brown rice, that take more money at that point but are lower cost per meal. I get the variety that I like, but it does take a bit more money at times and a bit more planning.
Jared, ignore the comments that criticize your food choices. You literally were testing what the Ag Sec recommended. And you were making a point. I appreciate your commitment.
I grew up in a family that had to mix powdered milk with our milkman delivery to make it last the week.
The fact that Trump stopped even measuring food insecurity (along with many other essential statistics) shows their contempt for the American people. Because knowing 18% of my local high school students go to school hungry due to food insecurity matters to me. Not knowing helps Republicans. But it sure as hell doesn’t help those kids.
Love Jared. Also, one thing nobody, except Jared, mentions much are the costs of time and transit involved in meal preparation! Time is money for some of us, especially for a person who is struggling with multiple shift jobs or has insecure housing. The difference between the frozen and fresh broccoli is quantifiable in the time it takes to get to a place where cooking is possible, also often quantifiable in terms of transit time/costs. Everything has a cost in terms of time and mobility as well as money. A diet with a lot of meal preparation involves logistics as well as money.
a whole roasted Costco chicken is $4.99. Lasts for days and when ur sick of it, make chicken salad (made with apples and nuts) sandwiches or make chicken tacos.....
How much is that Costco membership? Need to factor that in and the fact that Costco does not exist in most urban places.
But that’s a digression anyway, because the question is not how to create budget meals, the question is how to keep people from going hungry.
Nor in a lot of rural places. Unless you drive 100 miles, as I would have to!
Bravo, Jared! And Sam, you monster!
If you need to be saved from Sam’s abuse blink twice during the video.
Not to defend the Trump administration, trust me, but you bought deboned and skin free chicken breast and frozen broccoli. That’s like having $15 and buying a $15 steak. I’m a school bus driver and I live on about 30,000 a year. Not only does chicken cooked without the bones and skin taste like crap, it’s horrendously expensive. Buy a full chicken. You can roast it, remove the chicken, and then make broth with the carcass. From the broth you can make gravy and soups. You can freeze part of the cooked chicken, most food banks have beans and chilies. Why are you going to buy processed cut up broccoli when you only have $27? Buy a head of broccoli and cut it up yourself!
Just saying, if you’re going to have a thought experiment, be reasonable. This is why our arguments don’t hold water with people on the right. Many of them are low income, and they know better.
Fair points. I’d offer that most people don’t know that what you’re saying is even an option. I’m 62 and well educated. Until my finances were affected by a random health event 10 years ago, I knew very little about food besides how to find restaurants and order well. It took me a few years of dedicated learning, trial and error to get to the point where I could roast a chicken, make stocks, etc.
America has been living on boneless, skinless, chicken breasts for 20+ years so it makes sense that Jared would pick up what’s familiar and typical of many buyers. I suspect many Americans are going to find themselves needing to know and do what you’ve described. That’s more of the kind of information that the USDA should be providing in order to educate the country.
Sadly, they’re more likely to say, “See. This is why women need to stay home, take care of men, and have babies. Women are born knowing how to cook and stretch food like this.” (BTW, I’m a woman. I know how to work and how to learn. I did not know how to do all this stuff.)
Great piece. One of the best so far. I lived on bread and peanut butter for a month because I had to and it was rough. I went to the grocery store once and saw all the food. It felt strange because I had no connection to it because I couldn't buy it. I've never forgotten that, nor will I.
When I got sick and went broke, I remember standing in the produce section wondering if I could buy individual carrots and celery stalks. I’m in even worse financial shape now due to ongoing disability and the disaster of the MAGA economy. I have been both trying to bring in more income and trying to figure out how to live in my car. I have infinitely more options and supports than so many people in this country and this is my reality.
Also, note: No mention of fluids in the reporter’s diet. No juice, coffee, milk. Like I said, this is an emergency plan for someone with short-term cash flow problems. It is not sustainable for the 44+ million who do not have, usually have never had, incomes above the FPL.
Side note: Many of these people at and below the FPL do NOT have functional freezers, much less refrigerators. Many do not have much in the way of basic tools for food preparation, much less storage containers. People like this are in every suburban, urban, and rural community, in the homes you pass by everyday. At the very least, I recommend people get out, deviate from your well-traveled paths, and really look at their communities. I do this, not as regularly as I should, and am shocked every time I do by the number who have basically nothing — those who live in tents, or without heat because they can’t afford utilities. They are everywhere.
Also… the numbers of food insecure are growing. The hollowing out of the middle class is contributing.
.
Thanks White House...This is so timely since, for the first time in 60 years, my Social Security check has now DECREASED by $100/month! (Not to mention my total bills have INCREASED well over $100/month!)
Not sure why you're social security check could be decreasing. Deductions increase? Since we're not having deflation, any adjustments should be increases.
I’d bet her Medicare deduction increased more than her COLA. My mom was even but that’s not keeping ahead of inflation in reality
Least-cost diet plans are short-term doable. Download the USDA plans— four tiers for varying income levels. They have changed very little over the past 20+ years. Some states publish recipes for these plans, supposedly based on these plans, usually designed by a university nutrition program. They are basically a joke, using ingredients that would be unavailable on the two bottom tier plans, including the least- cost plan. The least-cost plan is a basic survival plan, NOT designed for long-term health and growth, much less for labor.
In my experience, many recipes take for granted that you will have a kitchen stocked with basics that "go without saying." If you are really starting from scratch, there are many things you need to buy once or every few months that are still essential. Spices, oils, containers, aluminum foil, etc. Right?
And how does that impact childhood brain growth?? The needed nutrients just aren’t there.