Five tips for eating healthy on a tight budget
1. Plan ahead and cook your own meals. Planning will allow you to use the same ingredients in multiple recipes (baked chicken the first night, chicken salad the second), as well as avoid over-buying ingredients. When you cook, you know exactly what ingredients you need and can adjust to make them healthier.
2. Buy in bulk. A whole chicken costs less than its cut-up parts. You also can find bulk bins of many grains, legumes, nuts and cereals in some grocery stores. Not only are they often less expensive, but you can purchase just the amount you need.
3. Cook in batches to cut down on your time. Freeze extras in individual or family serving sizes for a quick, already-made meal.
4. Make at least one meatless meal a week. Meat is more expensive than dairy and plant-based protein sources. Try eggs, beans, lentils or quinoa in place of your usual beef and chicken.
5. Buy fruits and vegetables in season. They have more flavor and are less expensive. Stock your freezer with flash-frozen vegetables. They retain a high nutrient value and you can use them at any time.
Source: Open Hand
Nine-year-old Brandie Shepherd happily noshed on carrots and broccoli, but hesitated when she reached the bright red grape tomato at the bottom of her bowl.
Brandie, a rising fourth grader, picked it up and examined the summertime treat for first time.
“I love everything,” she said, pausing, “but the tomato.”
Brandie and about 15 other elementary-age kids weren’t only snacking on raw vegetables on a recent afternoon at the East Atlanta Kids Club. They also were learning about the ABCs of nutrition and why fruits and vegetables play an important role in a healthy and balanced diet. A long table overflowed with vegetables — everything from cucumbers to eggplants to radishes. The workshops they attended combined a lesson with a taste test.
Quality Care for Children, a nonprofit that has worked for years to improve quality of and access to child care, expanded its services last summer to provide a summer food program for children from elementary to high schools. QCC teamed up with Open Hand to provide healthy meals through the summer for children who rely on free and reduced-price lunch during the school year.
The program provides free breakfast and lunch every weekday for 1,100 children throughout Atlanta. This summer, QCC and Open Hand added an education component, taking the efforts to fight hunger — and obesity — one step further with the hope of getting kids to try foods they are not accustomed to eating or, in some cases, have never tried before.
Jochen Lawson, a chef with Open Hand, told the kids how vegetables are good for you — from those carrots boasting nutrients essential for good vision, to vegetables that lower blood pressure and are key to overall health. Sarah Shanahan, a registered dietitian with Open Hand, encouraged the kids to be open to trying new foods, and new vegetables. It can take up to 20 times trying a new food before we like it, she said.
Pam Tatum, president and CEO of QCC, said child obesity and hunger actually go hand in hand. She said many children are filling their bellies with high-calorie, low-nutrition foods like ramen noodles.
More than one in four Georgia children (28 percent) live in food-insecure households (meaning that they don’t always know where they will find their next meal), according to Feeding America, a national hunger-relief charity.
Two years ago, Tatum’s organization was surprised what it discovered in a survey of child care providers.
“We left an area blank for them to address any concerns, and we got so many comments about kids coming to the child care centers hungry,” Tatum said. “That was our ‘aha moment,’ realizing so many working parents are not able to feed their children adequately.”
Teaming up with Open Hand, and with the help of a $35,000 grant from the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation, they were able to stretch federal money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (which is under $2 for breakfast and $3.41 for each lunch) to provide nutritious meals.
Lunches this summer, served at 17 sites across metro Atlanta, might include chicken, sauteed squash, homemade cornbread, an apple and milk. Other lunches include a Southwestern salad with chicken, corn and black beans and a pita pocket with hummus, carrots and dried cranberries.
Charlotte Hayes, a registered dietitian and senior director of programs and policy development for Open Hand, said the organization, which started as a grassroots movement providing meals for people dying from AIDS, has evolved and serves a broad group of needs, including meals for seniors and people with chronic illnesses. When the organization was approached by QCC to provide meals to children over the summer, it was something “we really want to do.”
Open Hand’s team of registered dietitians worked on a menu that was full of nutrition but also tasty. Still, for some children it was not food they were used to eating. The nutrition workshops, Hayes said, help the kids be more open to new, healthy foods.
Brandie went back for seconds on carrots and broccoli. She didn’t care for more grape tomatoes. But she’ll try them again. She knows, she said, it can take time before you like a new food. And she’ll give it a shot — 19 more times, in fact.
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