Food Stamps - Part 1

Do you know the price of pinto beans?

Of course, I don’t. I don’t like them, and pass the open cartons without a glance when I’m in the produce aisle of the grocery that caters to local folks.

The question only came up when I was talking to a woman who was complaining that her food stamp allocation had been cut to $39 dollars and she wanted to know how you eat on that with the high price of pinto beans.

Since an individual’s food stamp account in New Mexico is updated once a month, I assume she was asking how do you live on $9.75 a week, $8.75 if you set aside some for five week months.

The next time I was in the local store, I checked the price. A pound of beans is $.69 and contains 12.5 servings, each a quarter cup before soaking. If one reverted to the staple diet of the region for centuries and bought a package of corn tortillas at 30 for $1.18, one would have nutritious, if boring, meals for a week.

However, judging from the quantities in the store, more people buy wheat tortillas, which are also larger. However, wheat lacks the essential proteins found in corn treated with lye, and is less nutritious with beans.

One could double the amount of pinto beans, and eat them twice a day. Instead, I would buy a bag of lentils and a bag of white rice for $1.72. I know brown rice is better, but it wasn’t available in the grocery which caters to local poor people. Like corn treated with lime and pinto beans, the two are complementary proteins.

I would also buy a five pound bag of potatoes and make it last two weeks for a cost $1.00 a week. The cheapest stick margarine was $.23 a stick, and should last a week to flavor the potato, if I was careful.

My total purchase would be $4.82 for the week. It provides 800 calories. The suggested daily intake is 2000, with 1000 the minimum for safely losing weight.

If I wanted to set aside a dollar for that five week month, I still have $3.93 to spend. People here would probably buy eggs, avocados and some kind of dried or fresh chili. When the price of each is spread out over two weeks, they cost about $3.00.

An alternative is peanut butter and white bread, another pair of complementing proteins, which would cost $1.88 a week. Again, I know wheat bread is better, but the cheapest costs $.20 more a loaf and doesn’t appear to have any more nutrients than the enriched white. Brown bread isn’t necessarily whole grain.

Since I have a limited tolerance for both eggs and peanut butter, I would probably buy a gallon of the cheapest citrus punch and possibly some avocados and canned tomato sauce to flavor the pinto beans. The first cost $2.00 a gallon and has 90 calories a serving; small avocados were being sold for 3 for $1.00 when I looked and have 227 calories; tins of tomato sauce containing 3.5 servings are $.33 and 20 calories each.

I considered canned vegetables which sell for 3 for $2.00, or $4.00 for six days. Each can is supposed to hold 3.5 servings, but it would difficult to store the left overs - this budget doesn’t allow for such luxuries as plastic wrap or aluminum foil. I could eat the whole can, even though it would contain 50% of my daily salt requirement, if I were actually eating 2000 calories. After all a can of peas would add 245 calories, corn 280, and green beans 70.

Any remaining money could also be used to buy black pepper ($2.50 for a large can) to spice the bland lentils and pinto beans, or permit more margarine on the potatoes.

Choosing the citrus punch with pinto beans, potatoes, lentils and rice, avocados and tomato sauce, my daily caloric intake would be just over 1,000. I would have 74% of the protein for an adult woman (adult men require more), but 163% of the necessary vitamin C and 132% of the fiber. Based on the recommended 2,000 calories, I would also have 19% of my sodium, 27% of my calcium, 69% of my iron, and average 15 to 25% of other necessary vitamins and trace minerals.

I could make it, but it would take a while for my stomach to adjust. It would be harder on the woman who posed the question; she weighs more than I.