It’s easy to want to skimp on buying healthy, nutritious foods and lean more toward the starches that fill up a plate and tummy when money is short. Children have additional nutritional needs as do pregnant or nursing women or those who are ill or elderly, so skimping on nutrition to save money really costs the family in the long run with increased illness and decreased health.
Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP)
Formerly called food stamps, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program can help provide a low-income family or individual with a debit card that is stocked with credit for purchasing food at participating grocery and convenience stores. These are the same stores where a family would normally purchase their groceries, and the new debit cards act similarly to a credit card or bank debit card, so it’s discreet and convenient.
This program helps complement the monthly food budget, but is not intended to provide all the food for a family for the month. Even so, many families find food stamp benefits can buy the majority of the food needed, especially when used in conjunction with other food and nutritional assistance programs. To learn how to apply for food stamp benefits, click here. Click this link for more information about the food stamp, or SNAP, program.
Angel Food Ministries
Angel Food ministries has been around since 1994, and is a church sponsored outreach program that buys in bulk from pre-paid orders for boxes of food from their advertised and posted menu. They then use donated trucks and time from volunteers to break up the bulk-purchased food, separate it into shipments, and then ship to the local areas that sponsor the program. This bulk buying and use of volunteers lets Angel Food Ministries sell food cheaply. The food is fresh, the same brands and types of food you would find in your local grocery store. Click the link for more information on Angel Food Ministries.
For those who receive food stamps (SNAP) benefits, Angel Food Ministries accepts SNAP cards for almost all states, so between the SNAP benefits and Angel Food Ministries’s low prices, a family’s food can be nutritious and budget friendly at the same time.
Local Cooperative Food Programs
Cooperative food programs or buying clubs for food help reduce food costs much in the same way large retail or grocery club stores reduce prices to consumers: they buy in bulk. When items can be purchased in bulk but delivered to one central location, the cost for producing, transporting and packing the items is cheaper, and that savings can be shared with the consumer. Local buyer’s clubs pool finances together to place larger orders, and everyone involved reaps the benefits. Consumers can search online or a local phone book to find any local buyer’s clubs or cooperatives.
Food Banks, Charitable Organizations
Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army both take donations and volunteers and provide food boxes or gift baskets of food for holidays to people in need. The qualifying information for being in need for these food baskets or boxes is much different than qualifying for food stamps or welfare. If a family needs some temporary food assistance to get buy until payday, a food box from other location or a similar charitable organization might just fit the need.
The local food bank usually donates some of their collected, donated and government food to these programs, but in areas where these programs don’t exist, or when there is not enough donations to help everyone, the food bank itself might offer free boxes of food, or give away food that is very close to expiring to people who can eat it immediately.
Some food banks sell food directly to consumers at a very reduced rate compared to grocery store prices, but they still make a profit. In this way, everyone wins: the consumer gets food at greatly reduced prices, the food bank gets money to buy more food from the profit, and the people who need food assistance get more food from the profit too.
Growing Food
Seeds are amazingly inexpensive compared to the food they produce being sold in the grocery store. A small garden in the back yard or on a windowsill can produce fresh herbs, spices, vegetables, and with time, even some fruits. Not only can gardening be a rewarding hobby for some people, but gardening can produce very inexpensive but very nutritious organic food right at home.
Michelle L Devon - ~~Michelle Devon has 15 years of writing and over a decade of editorial experience, working with hundreds of publications and ...
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