Too poor to eat properly

I’ve lived on next to no money, I’ve lived with no carpets, no running water, caravan etc. I worked my way out of it...but that is just background.
People say £1 for a microwave meal is cheap but if family of 3 or 4 that is £3 or £4. You can buy a 5kg bag of lentils for under £10, works out about 20p a portion, then add chickpeas, cheap veg. I also used to cater 3-course dinner for 14 regularly on a 2-hob camping stove. If you want meat, tinned toms, mince, some oxo cubes (cheap equivalent). Chuck in whatevers cheap, cook a big pan full, spag bol then chilli then curry. I lived so cheap, no phone, no TV, no heating, no car. You make do! I think a generation has believed there is this fictional pot of gold that the government have, that is theirs for the asking! You can also get free berries in hedgerows in season. And cans of veg when discounted. I was working 3 jobs to pay off debts and career change but still had time to shop and eat dirt cheap. I think our idea of poverty has also changed.

I just boil up a teatowel and make soup..

Didn't Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall start a scheme like that.

These schemes sound good - and I am sure there will be takers, but many of the poorest are working very long hours and live in inner cities. The houses with large gardens needing help are many miles away. Those who would most benefit from this may well know nothing about growing a pot plant let alone vegetables.

In my village, where there are many houses with large gardens, most of our allotments have been put down to grass because no one is interested in using them. This has been unaffected by the construction of over 300 new houses in the village in the last 5 years, most with tiny gardens and all of them being within a couple of hundred yards of the allotments, which are in the centre of the village

This thread and its replies just shows what a mess our country is in. We all got a proper school dinner, and for the poorer children, it was free. Girls learned cookery from their mothers and were also taught cookery at school. We were taught to knit and sew. What exactly are children learning these days? Perhaps there needs to be less concern about gender and more emphasis on learning life skills, because we appear to have a generation of dependent snowflakes who have lost the ability to do anything for themselves.

Nobody knows about growing things until they learn, and besides, in my scheme they would have advice and guidance from the garden owner.

Although not a quick solution I really believe that cookery classes for both boys & girls should be re-instated in schools & I KNOW how stretched they are already.
Basic knowledge of how to make cheap, nourishing meals is essential. Even if not at home then when they go to Uni or whatever in their late teens.
I teach all my GC to cook & they enjoy it. My 14 year old GS is very adventurous & will have a go at anything. I sold it to him in the beginning that when he goes to Uni he will be a wow with the girls if he can cook.

I think lack of proper cooking facilities - or money for gas/electricity - can be a major factor, especially if people have those pre-pay jobs, which I believe work out considerably more expensive than paying normally. Which IMO is a scandal anyway.

Having said that, I know from previous exceedingly-broke years (a long time ago now thank goodness) that it is possible to eat well enough very cheaply - if you know how to use cheap ingredients - seasonal veg, lentils, pearl barley etc. - and have the wherewithal to cook them.

I was lucky in having a very frugally-minded mother (often a necessity) in an era when cheap junk food simply wasn't available. Many nowadays just don't have that background to help them.

For quite a while dh and I virtually lived on thick vegetable soups, with the cheapest processed cheese on the side, for protein. Might add that dh still loves 'dustbin soups' as my mother called them, i.e. made with whatever she had. I still make them a lot in winter.

But I must admit that I do get very cross when people imply that healthy food always has to include things like fresh salmon, chicken breasts and blueberries.

I used to be the coordinator for the local food bank. The reality is that by the time people visit us they have run out of all resources. They have paid rent gas electric and have nothing left often because they are on thes zero hours contracts or they are waiting for six weeks for benefits to kick in. The good thing about the food bank is that a lot more than food is supplied. There are cleaning materials toiletries nappies baby milk pet food sanitary towels and also a pack of basic food items that lasts three days but can stretch further. There are often a soup pack as well stock cubes lentils etc. I used to put vegetarian items in as well as they really stretch the contents things like chickpeas beans etc can make a good curry . Unfortunately there is no fresh fruit and veg only tinned sometimes bread . But this is limited to three or four weeks. It is not a permanent solution. Thank goodness for schools providing breakfasts. We never turn anyone away. I take the point about learning to cook. Often friends pool resources if someone has credit in there gas they will cook there. There are also kettle packs or cold packs for those wouthout recourse to a cooker
There are also cooking classes for those interested. Now the people attending food banks have complex problems and the food bank zI was involved is now a hub with housing support mental health and other agencies.

So, do all food banks offer cookery classes?
If not, maybe some of the people who cook from scratch could ask about the possibility of setting up some sessions?

Like notanan2 I keep an extensive store cupboard as did my mum. My best friend (same age) doesn’t !!...consequence being she can only cook what she buys on a daily basis . It’s odd how people brought up in same generation could be so unlike in batters of cooking . I too have always homemade soup ‘on the go’ and use what’s to hand. Youngsters don’t seem to ‘cook’ anymore. My 11 year old grandson is doing ‘food tech’ at school but all he’s learning is pizza’s ...pasta’s...cakes...brownies... nothing substantial. I feel for them all because they are going to be at the mercy of the food giants filling them with salt..sugar... and unnecessary fats.

Hi my final comment is that foodbanks give out basic recipes on how to use the food given out to last three days. What they supply are more menus. There is always pasta rice and tinned potatoes corned beef etc. They suggest cooking pasta adding it to tinned soup etc. As someone said earlier some families have no access to cooker so there is a kettle pack or vcold pack. We also hand out a list of where people can get free food. There is a lovely lady from housing that helps get rehoused.

Just to clarify, I am one year away from receiving my pension. I live on ESA due to a chronic long term debilitating illness that means I, unfortunately, cannot work.
Not living in a rose tinted bubble it is not families living entirely on benefits who are in poverty, (unless substance, alcohol, gambling or massive debt problems exist), but those where one or both parents work and receive £1 or £2 above the limit to qualify for benefits, or singles trying to exist on £75 a week.
A family fully on benefits can have upwards of £350 a week income, rent and Council tax paid, (CT - 80% paid).
My income of £254.30 per fortnight pays all my bills, provides all my, fresh food, (I cook from scratch) with enough left to enjoy the odd coffee or lunch out. My brother, on £75 a week,, paying the same bills, barely manages and often uses the food banks, community kitchen or the family to keep going. For him it's a case of - pay the bills or buy decent food. His shopping consists of economy tins, cheapest/reduced items and ready meals. It's no wonder he's severely depressed. He isn't working because ge suffer a minor heart attack 5 years ago and employers won't take the risk of employing him, (he's been told at job interviews or in letters, that he's too high a risk!).
Poverty isn't about being on benefits, unless you're single, it's about how well you manage, or not, your income, your expectations and how willing you are to forgo the latest gadgets and technology in favour of a warm home and decent food.

A portion of rent, of course, if people are living in privately rented accommodation.
That can mean 300 pounds a month shortfall which the tenant has to 'top up'.

Or more, by the way.
I was stating what I know my upstairs neighbour paid out each month on a two bed ex council flat.

We married at the end of the sixties and our children were born in the 70s. It was a struggle but we always managed to have a good meal 3 times a day.
Also work wasn’t a problem, you never had a problem getting a job.. we didn’t claim anything, even though my husband was on a low wage at that time.
Times have changed it’s not easy, food is extremely expensive, and so is rent, fuel and a mortgage if you have one.
We have been able to manage because of the early days of being careful.
Nowadays it’s harder.

In an ideal world the older generation would teach the younger ones how to cook. I'm not sure if they want to learn though. I heard of a young man who declared "I don't eat house food". When asked what house food was, he said anything made in the house, he only ate takeaways!

Well, that's just one person.
There are probably people who would welcome help and have nobody to give it.

The grand architect of Universal Credit, Iain Duncan-Smith, once notoriously claimed he could very well live on £53.00p per week - what on earth was he trying to tell those who actually have to?

So, come one Duncy - you said that some years ago but have you not got around to doing it yet?

Talk's cheap, as my mum used to say..

I was watching Back in Time for School on TV last night, and reminiscing about the Domestic Science classes I did at school. We learned to put a nappy on a doll, and had a room where we had to learn how to clean the floors and furniture - and to wash up properly! But most importantly we learned to cook simple basic meals, about different cuts of meat, about proteins, carbs etc - such useful stuff that has served me well ever since. It is a real shame that there is now a huge emphasis on exams and league tables which seems to preclude schools being allowed time in the curriculum to teach the practical life skills that are so necessary. For boys these days as well of course!

Usual stuff about schools teaching kids how to do different things. There really isn't enough time on the timetable to teach all the other new initiatives.

Head on the TV this morning saying they didn't have a Food teacher, wanted one but couldn't afford it from the budget so some teachers were being taken from other subjects for a few lessons a week (which btw places disproportionate stresses in other areas that I wont go into).

Other schools with no Food specialists have converted their Food rooms into ordinary classrooms.

Finally in 1989, the National Curriculum decided what should be taught. Food, especially teaching cooking, was 'downgraded'.

I haven't had pilchards for years and I like them. They are going on my shopping list.

There is a scheme where those who can't manage their gardens agree to someone else using it and enjoying the produce but I don't remember what it is called.

I had to buy biscuits for some workmen coming to our house and was amazed at how cheap they are, one pack was 28p and others were 2 for 80p. Supermarket offers seem to be mainly on the unhealthy food.

Its not just the poor or uneducated who can't cook. Not so long ago I was in a boarding school being shown round by the principal. He told us they were joining forces with a local day school (private) to build a kitchen to teach the seniors how to make tea and coffee and cook simple meals. I suggested that was the parents' job and he said the parents didn't teach them. Surely parents should take responsibility? I taught all mine to cook, to iron (not very successfully) and to look after their property. Some things they are better at than me and some not as good. However, they all cook their own food from scratch and they all eat healthily and economically. They do this so they have money to spend on other things. Colleagues in the same jobs don't and complain about all the things they can't afford.

Ah, Margs you must mean the Ian Duncan Smith who claimed £85 expenses for his breakfast.

MissAdventureTaking the trouble to find how to give yourself and family nourishment on a low income is not difficult.
Supermarket 'own brands' are cheaper than major companies and lets face it who provides these 'own brands' You don't have to be a superman/woman to work that one out.
There will always be those who would rather buy 'frozen nuggets and chips' than take the trouble to look around the shelves and freezer cabinets to see how you can do it yourself with 'own brand' products to suit both 'veggies and vegans'.

Of course there will always be 'those'. Those who are too idle to bother, those who have no idea what healthy eating even is, those who couldn't care less.
That is not everyone though, and its a shame to tar everyone with the same brush, I think.