In the 60s, I decided to find out what poverty-level families were eating and do a story on it, so I drove over to the county welfare office in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and asked a case officer to show me what kind of food (this was before Food Stamps) I would get from the government if I were trying to eke out a living on minimum wage.
After looking at the assortment, I went over to the grocery store where I bought the equivalent of the foods and spent the $3.50 extra the case worker estimated I would have for other food.
The result was not a pretty picture. I had navy beans, rice, corn meal, cheddar cheese, peanut butter, canned green beans, macaroni, milk, flour, sugar, vegetable oil, canned tomatoes and canned corn (all “government surplus”), a ham bone, some onions, some celery, some ground beef, some tomato paste, eggs, some lettuce, some vinegar, salt and pepper, yeast and some mustard and a small jar of jelly.
I also had the book Joy of Cooking, so I knew I could turn this stuff into something. I made Senate navy bean soup., And I made bread and salad dressing and spaghetti sauce and macaroni and cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I ate the vegetables. I managed some sort of compliance with the food pyramid as it existed at the time.
It taught me I did not want to live at poverty level.
It forced me to think about balanced nutrition, also.
Nutrition, I am embarrassed to write, is something the “Grocery Guru” apparently does not understand. The Grocery Guru is an advertising feature put together by the NAC, the company owned by The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News, which prints and distributes both of them. The Grocery Guru is designed to draw attention to supermarkets by pointing out specials and coupon opportunities. I have no objection to that benefit. But the “Meal of the Week” feature in the ad is apparently written by people who have never been exposed to any nutritional information. The meals are stuffed with fat and carbohydrates, light on vegetables especially green ones and fruit, and low in protein. I hope any families using these suggested menus are loading up on vitamin supplements, because they are getting lots of empty calories and sugar.
Since the federal government harps about how fat Americans are and recently listed such functions as pushing the buttons on a remote control and putting dishes in the dishwasher as calorie burners, the Grocery Guru menu suggestions seem to be the ramblings of a lunatic.
One recent menu had a family of five fighting over one can of green beans at dinner. Another had the following suggestions:
Breakfast 1 Quaker Breakfast Bar (no milk, no juice?)
Lunch Lipton Alfredo Broccoli Pasta (what about the kids’ school lunch? what about fruit? what about some protein?)
Dinner Spaghetti, 1 can vegetables, Albertson’s Ready Bake biscuits and spice cake (what about a salad? what about some protein? what about some milk for the children?)
Grocery Guru Ken Roesbery, who works for NAC, explained the situation this way:
“This is not a nutrition section. This is an ad paid for by the grocery stores and they ask me to compile menus based on what they have on sale each week.
“It does not matter what I put in there someone is going to be upset. … I put fresh stuff in the menus when I can to take away the heat.”
There are ways to keep costs down and still prepare nutritional meals and these grocery companies know it.
In our Basics section on Wednesdays, however, readers can find food stories and recipes from Kathy Stephenson, our food guru, who does know about nutrition and feeding a hungry family on a budget.
Stephenson explains: “We hope the food stories and recipes published inspire our readers to experiment with new ingredients, take a cooking class, visit a specialty food store, try a new cooking technique or simply understand how easy it can be to prepare a healthy, balanced meal at home.
“Every day we do that, we help readers avoid fast-food or pre-packaged meals that are not only expensive but high in fat, salt and preservatives.”
A case of Ramen noodles does not a month of lunches make. If NAC likes the specials and coupon sections of this advertising display, then the advertising people need to use some common sense and either feature nutritionally sound menus or find something else to put in the ad.
Pass the instant mashed potatoes and canned gravy.
The Reader Advocate’s phone number is (801) 257-8782. Write to the Reader Advocate, The Salt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110. E-mail: reader.advocate@sltrib.com.
Scoreboard:
Number of readers who believe they are getting enough world and national news in the Tribune: 19
Number of readers sorry the Tribune did away with Salt Substitute: 6
Number of readers who wonder how fat the Grocery Guru is, if he eats his own suggested meals: 13
Number of readers who hate the newspaper’s weekly TV supplement: 31
