Food for the Family

I've been thinking about posting about food for a few days. John Key decided to make political hay, a few weeks ago, about the existance of an 'underclass' in NZ, and that many kids go to school hungry. His, possibly well-meaning, scheme to have private businesses donate food (muslie bars) to low-decile schools lasted about 5 minutes, because the principal of the first school such an arrangement was made for didn't appreciate the implication that their parents couldn't afford to feed their kids. While there certainly are kids who go hungry in this country, this topic has raised a number of interesting issues in the paper. (I don't watch TV.)

One, in last weeks Dompost, was an article by Sophie Gray, of destitute gourmet fame. She is a foodie who gives cooking demonstrations on how to eat gourmet food on a tight budget. Her take on the 'kids going hungry' issue appeared to be that parents are responsible for feeding their kids, but that they have been suckered into giving the kids too much choice about what they eat. As an example, she says that her kids get to choose what to have on their sandwiches for lunch, not whether they'll have a sandwich or not.

According to the article, she has two kids, aged 11 and 13, and feeds her family of four on $100 per week. Which didn't look like much, until I considered that I have four kids around that age range, and feed the six of us on $150 per week. As a comparison, the Otago University survey on food price estimates it costs $85 per week to feed a teenage boy - an amount which Sophie scoffs at as much as I always have.

When I looked up her website (see link above) what I noticed was that the recipes she shares sound very much like the recipes we cook and eat here; her spaghetti bol or vege curry could be just what Rowena made for tea tonight. One of her points is to not use pre-packaged stuff (it's usually dearer). If you don't know how to make a sauce from scratch, or do reliable baking, then you have no choice but to buy more expensive pre-made ingredients or meals. And on a personal note, not being a driver, I find it much faster to cook 'fast food' (like pasta with some sauce) than get to the shops and buy 'fast food' (like F&C).

When it comes to being able to feed your kids, one point is knowing how to do that cheaply and nutritiously. Another is to have some basic principles around food in your family. "In this family we always eat breakfast - so what are you going to have if you don't want Weetbix?" And, of course, I firmly believe in bringing up kids to be competent adults, which means that in our house when you turn 10 years old you get a cooking night once per week. This took quite a lot of hands-on help at first, but now it pays huge dividends, and of course, the child really likes getting out of doing the dishes!

(photo above from destitute gourmet site)