Hunger Awareness Week Day 1
By: Sheri Wetherell
Published: April 21, 2009

In an effort to help fight hunger in my community, Barnaby and I have taken The Hunger Challenge. As part of Hunger Awareness Week, we'll be living on a total of $12 a day (the amount given to a two-person household in Washington State) until this Friday. At the end of the week we'll calculate what we normally spend each day on food and beverage, then subtract the allowance and donate that amount to our local food bank. I know it won't solve the hunger problems so many are facing, but my goal is to at least provide meals and tasty inexpensive recipes for those in need, and encourage others to join in the fight against hunger. In King county alone, an additional 137,000 meals a day are needed. We can all help reduce that to zero if we work together. Even in an economic downturn we are still a very wealthy nation - no one should go to bed hungry, and no one should have to choose between paying the rent or eating.
This week our focus is to be creative and come up with inexpensive meals that are healthy and flavorful. It's easy to eat cheap, but unfortunately nutrition and taste are usually left out of the equation. One way to find quality ingredients for a fraction of the price is to shop at ethnic markets. We've always enjoyed shopping at our local Asian and Latino markets and find their fruits, vegetables and meats -as well as herbs, spices and sauces- are high in quality and markedly cheaper than mainstream markets.
Our first dinner was a remarkably tasty concoction created by Barnaby. Inspired by ingredients we found at an Indian market, he created a dish that he simply calls "Turkey Dal." The dal we used was masoor dal, a type of orange lentil. It can be purchased in bulk, is high in protein, and is cheap, cheap, cheap! And delicious too. We cooked the dah -which ended up dissolving into creamy goodness (photo shows the dish pre-cooked)- with ground turkey, canned tomatoes, carrots, celery, onion and curry powder. Our total cost for this meal we calculated at only $4.40, and we have two more meals worth each left over.
Budget or no budget, this was one darn good meal!
Click here for the recipe:

Comments:
paul redman
April 21, 2009

great of you guys to do this!
Anonymous

Good for you guys for trying this out!  It is hard to eat nutritious, tasty, food for $12 a day.
Something to think about: why is the food in ethnic markets so cheap?  And, is it possible to eat nutritious food on $12 a day without the (unintended) consequences of cheap food? 
Food for thought.
Sheri Wetherell

My guess is that Asian and Latino markets are less expensive than mainstream markets is because they buy direct.
I should have used "inexpensive" rather than "cheap," and didn't mean to imply that these foods are lacking in quality. The foods that we find at these ethnic markets are quite high in quality, sometimes even better than I find in mainstream markets. Best of all, many times these foods are local and organic. So, to answer your question (above), I absolutely believe that two people can eat nutritious, quality food on $12/day! :)
Nurit - 1 famil...

Sheri, I often wonder too if cheap/inexpensive also means in a way low quality. I believe not always, but for sure, it does. I hope I'm wrong for the sake of all the poeple who can't afford anyting else.