The disconnect between cooking tips and reality

Or maybe parents do a better job of teaching life skills out there than on the right coast. I’d be surprised but it is possible.

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Huh? I’m not trying to argue that something is a school problem or a law enforcement problem or a big problem or a small problem. This discussion is about ways in which these problems make it more difficult for people to feed themselves and their families. You have a lot of trouble acknowledging that that difficulty is not always self-inflicted. Not having enough time to do something - like shop, or cook, or educate yourself about shopping and cooking - does not necessarily mean you are bad at time management. Or that your priorities are out of wack.

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Here ( within the far reaches of the Nor Cal Bay Area). Unless you are on “the short bus”, which means a pretty impairing “disability”. I’m using quotes and can try to link the criteria if anyone is interested .

FWIW, I grew up ( in Queens) , then worked in outer borough NYC ( “The Bronx” ) , and while public transit was great, in retrospect, it took some ability on the part of “kids” that folks might not expect elsewhere. I am thinking of one or two buses and train changes by high school.

I remember a time in about sixth grade I was supposed to meet my mom in another burough, took the bus in the wrong direction, and couldn’t figure out how to get back home with no money. I had enough to call home but my big sister hung up on me!

FWIW, I was at Jamaica HS until I think fall of 1977, but I’m not sure if I technically graduated.

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For what it’s worth, many apartments in low-income housing these days have a microwave, but no stove or oven.

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When I think about my education in the NYC public education system, I think of my mom strongly steering me toward a school with both a vocational and AP track. (She was a teacher, but just sort of, as she had vocational but not teaching credentials.) I did both and I realize in retrospect why at the time, folks couldn’t wrap their heads around this. She knew I would have to get a job ASAP , and I guess she wanted it to be one that “got paid”. Being a nurse assistant gets paid way more than fast food service, but not everyone can get that credential, and I don’t think it’s all about ability.

I work with a lot of families that have harder choices than we had to make (don’t get me started on insanity!) , and while that Robert Heinlein list is good, some of their choices aren’t on it!

Yes, this is probably the wrong forum, but I am planning a " Healthy Kitchens Healthy communities" workshop.

So there’s that.

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That’s illegal if government subsidized, unless things are drastically different on the East Coast.
Weird.

My small town in NJ does not provide bus transportation to school unless you live more than 2 miles from the school - as the crow flies. While I live less than that away from the school if you draw a straight line from my house to the school, you can’t get there with out crossing natural and man-made barriers.

Several other towns which have their own K-8 schools are the same way but can be more than 2 miles when moving up to our regional high school.

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No stove?! So bizarre! I lived in low-income government housing as a youth too, but we at least had a small kitchen. Unfortunately, the only thing I see really being developed these days are luxury condos, and very little needed affordable housing, let alone subsidized housing. The places we have now were the same options my family had, and this was decades ago, so I know those buildings aren’t in great shape.

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I don’t know about legality but it’s offensive. Jeepers.

So lets take @bbqboy at face value. If in fact there are people who have no stove, no oven but just a microwave how the heck do you cook decently?

I’d rip the microwave out, sell it, and buy a couple of catering burners. Deal with the ramifications later. THAT is a reality of being poor.

Whoa. That post is peak privilege/caucasity there and makes me also wonder if you’re confusing broke with poor.
I wonder if you could take the time to listen to the stories of others, and realise that there are a range of positions people hold here, and that yours, as a cishet white man in a temporary condition of less money, might not be representative of all these conditions. (And that those conditions are not a matter of people lacking in any personal qualities.)

It seems you’ve been fighting against the claims made in all the post regarding the disconnect between a lot of advice and what poverty (not being broke) means in terms of the foodie advice people give (or those tiresome exercises in which a wealthy person chooses to live on foodstamps/reduced budget for a weak). I wonder what would happen if you took them in, sat with them, and recognised that there are those with radically different experiences to yours that might be worth taking into account.

If not, fine, but I can’t be part of a discussion in which posters are denying some pretty serious realities because they don’t align with their personal experience-- and that types of privilege aren’t taken into account.

After all, some people doing damange to subsidised housing may be risking their access to any housing in the future, their freedom from prison, or their freedom from an encounter with a white person with a gun who decides that is a threat worth of killing. And some have dependents to think about. (Also, to know where to buy ‘catering burners’? To sell a crap microwave for anything more than $10? Yeah. This doesn’t match with the world I have seen. I’m not saying it’s not your world. I’m just saying I accept that there are experiences of the world I am lucky enough not to have had, but I don’t deny them either.

It seems that when we deny these experieces, we end the conversation and don’t look for genuine solutions to systemic problems.

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Because I have been poor and push back when lectured by presumably liberal elitists? Poverty = extremely poor by the way unless you are using some other definition. I’d say worrying about buying food counts as poor. Three days from homelessness counts as poor. My condition of NO money was temporary because I dug myself out.

People in this thread of talked about driving kids to school and I’m the one that doesn’t get it?

Catering burners are available at WalMart and Dollar Store. Goodwill. They’re cheaper than camping stoves. Check homeless encampments. They’re common.

If that’s a reference to one of my posts, I was not referring to driving. I was referring to accompanying kids to school on foot, or by bus or subway. As described in the article you didn’t read. You made an incorrect assumption.

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School buses are not common in the UK and most families will be expected to get their children to school at their own expense. There are free bus passes for the public bus system for very low income families. In my borough, that means the family receives means-tested social benefits (such as Universal Credit) AND the family lives over a certain distance from the school (2 miles for primary schools, 3 miles for secondary schools). For most low income families, that means there’s just yet another cost to be found.

Dollar Stores back East must be much more ritzy than our West Coast ones.

This says a microwave may be substituted for a kitchen, so I stand corrected. I’m pretty sure that is not true here in Oregon, according to our local and state laws but the housing back East must be dilapidated in the extreme.

My apologies. You said “drop off and pick up” and I inferred a car.

I think that is sad.

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Excluded discussions – Please no discussions on the following topics: Policies, politics, racism, disability, religion, sexual orientation, discrimination.

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