Let Them Eat Squid

NOW THAT the season for champagne parties for grape workers has passed, the new thing is the welfare diet. On Monday, July 21, a group ‘of prominent New Yorkers, among them Howard Samuels, the upstate millionaire eccentric, went on such a diet, allowing themselves 66 cents per day to buy food. – The fad .began a month before in Washington, when Senators Church, George McGovern and Walter Mondale first tried it out. According to Carl Rowan, the Senators proved that . “hunger is hell.” Indeed. But they also proved that they possess little knowledge of how to buy, prepare and budget for food. They ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drank Kool-Aid, and pudgy Frank Church insists that his wife had to serve hot dogs two nights in a row. Now a figure of around 66 cents does ‘sound frightful. But for a family of five ‘is comes out to $23.10 per. week or $92.40 per month, sums which sound a bit more reasonable. This doesn’t allow for prime ribs or little prepared packages of rice au gratin, of course—but neither does it spell hunger. _ Actually, a family of five can manage “quite nicely on $92 per month if the wife knows how to shop and cook. Thousands of families of married students, for instance, are doing it all over the country. For one thing, they buy powdered skimmed milk rather than whole milk or Kool-Aid. It costs ten Cents a quart; as opposed to five for Kool-Aid, but the added food value Makes up for the extra nickel. And if Senator Church eats hot dogs two days In a row it is as much due to Mrs. Church’s lack of imagination as to her lack of grocery money. On the second day, for instance, she could have bought _ hamburger—30 cents for half a pound if she’d shopped around. Into this she could have a) crushed a bouillon cube io make it taste like ground chuck, b) mixed it with bread crumbs, an egg, a _ bit of ketchup, freshly chopped parsley and garlic, and seasoning, c) rolled it all Frank. into balls and browned, then simmered them in a sauce flavored with half a can of mushroom soup and a dollop of sour cream. And if, on the side, she had – served freshly baked biscuits, the Senator would have had nothing at all to complain of. The cost would have been just about the same as the cost of his hot dog supper (probably less), and there would have been a few meatballs and biscuits left over for his publicized lunch in what Carl Rowan calls “the plush Senate dining room.” And even had he insisted on those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which he dramatically pulled out of a bag, they would have been both tastier and much less expensive had Mrs. Church baked her own bread. -Mrs. Church might well complain, of course, that she hasn’t the time to be baking bread and chopping garlic and parsley. But the welfare wife certainly does. She is free from the necessity of attending teas and cocktail parties, and her husband, considerably less busy, one presumes, than a senator, should be able to entertain the kiddies while she bakes the bread. Others of the faddists tried, upon the recommendation of at least one welfare worker, such things as ham-hocks and neck bones (soul food, baby). They’d do better to follow Mrs. Church’s example and cook hot dogs. Ham-hocks and neck bones are at least 80 per cent fat. And not only that, it takes an extremely talented cook to make them palatable. There are much better buys available for the same money. Kidneys, for instance, cost the same and many people consider them a delicacy (and there’s no bone at all). Or, for a few cents more, one can buy liver, and even pork liver tastes better than ham-hocks. And it’s pure meat, packed with enough energy to send Daddy dancing down to the employment office. No one, of course, just handed 66 cents and told to go out and get a square meal, will do so. But a welfare family receives a weekly check and is thus able to plan and budget. With some common sense and with a knowledge of how to cook and shop they will be neither underfed nor undernourished, © for there is plenty of good cheap food available. Lentils, for instance, cost 13 cents a package, and a package serves ten people. They are rich in protein and iron, and when made into a stew with vegetables and a ham bone they can feed a family of five for the better part _ of a week. Beans, not bought in cans _ but made from scratch with salt pork and molasses, sustained New Englanders for decades. With food like this on the daily menu, there is plenty left out of that 66 cents for an occasional _ good roast. And even a taste for delicacies can be satisfied inexpensively. Squid, for instance, sells for about 30 cents a pound, and when prepared properly— cleaned and skinned, then deep fried, for instance, or stuffed and baked, or breaded and broiled—tastes remarkably like abalone, which sells in San ~ : Francisco sea-food specialty shops for better than two dollars per pound. ~ Smelts, small sweet fish, sell for 49 cents per pound, and a tuna fish casserole can be jazzed up to taste like a gourmet treat. Beef hearts are also both delicious and cheap, as are, say, omelettes made with chopped-up meat _ leftovers and zucchini squash. MARRIED STUDENTS, many of whom live on a total budget of less than $300 per month for six or seven years, eat this way. The average European no doubt feeds his family this way. Our grand-— : fathers and many of our fathers fed their families this way. Is it really too much, then, to expect the welfare family to do the same? Are expensive cuts of meat and fancy prepared foods a modern American birthright? Need we really provide the welfare family with an Armour-Gold-Star-marinated-wine-sauce-canned ham in every pot? And are we obliged to keep their children in chocolate-covered Hostess Ding Dongs? If the welfare family is given enough 2 money to feed itself decently—and $92 can feed a family decently—then surely the taxpayer is doing as much as he should reasonably be expected to do. And so, when Senator McGovern next pulls out his peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or Senator Church complains about hot dogs, let’s send them squid.

PC

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Patricia Coyne

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NOW THAT the season for champagne parties for grape workers has passed, the new thing is the welfare diet. On Monday, July 21, a group ‘of prominent New Yorkers, among them Howard Samuels, the upstate millionaire eccentric, went on such a diet, allowing themselves 66 cents per day to buy food. – The fad .began a month before in Washington, when Senators Church, George McGovern and Walter Mondale first tried it out. According to Carl Rowan, the Senators proved that . “hunger is hell.” Indeed. But they also proved that they possess little knowledge of how to buy, prepare and budget for food. They ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drank Kool-Aid, and pudgy Frank Church insists that his wife had to serve hot dogs two nights in a row. Now a figure of around 66 cents does ‘sound frightful. But for a family of five ‘is comes out to $23.10 per. week or $92.40 per month, sums which sound a bit more reasonable. This doesn’t allow for prime ribs or little prepared packages of rice au gratin, of course—but neither does it spell hunger. _ Actually, a family of five can manage “quite nicely on $92 per month if the wife knows how to shop and cook. Thousands of families of married students, for instance, are doing it all over the country. For one thing, they buy powdered skimmed milk rather than whole milk or Kool-Aid. It costs ten Cents a quart; as opposed to five for Kool-Aid, but the added food value Makes up for the extra nickel. And if Senator Church eats hot dogs two days In a row it is as much due to Mrs. Church’s lack of imagination as to her lack of grocery money. On the second day, for instance, she could have bought _ hamburger—30 cents for half a pound if she’d shopped around. Into this she could have a) crushed a bouillon cube io make it taste like ground chuck, b) mixed it with bread crumbs, an egg, a _ bit of ketchup, freshly chopped parsley and garlic, and seasoning, c) rolled it all Frank. into balls and browned, then simmered them in a sauce flavored with half a can of mushroom soup and a dollop of sour cream. And if, on the side, she had – served freshly baked biscuits, the Senator would have had nothing at all to complain of. The cost would have been just about the same as the cost of his hot dog supper (probably less), and there would have been a few meatballs and biscuits left over for his publicized lunch in what Carl Rowan calls “the plush Senate dining room.” And even had he insisted on those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which he dramatically pulled out of a bag, they would have been both tastier and much less expensive had Mrs. Church baked her own bread. -Mrs. Church might well complain, of course, that she hasn’t the time to be baking bread and chopping garlic and parsley. But the welfare wife certainly does. She is free from the necessity of attending teas and cocktail parties, and her husband, considerably less busy, one presumes, than a senator, should be able to entertain the kiddies while she bakes the bread. Others of the faddists tried, upon the recommendation of at least one welfare worker, such things as ham-hocks and neck bones (soul food, baby). They’d do better to follow Mrs. Church’s example and cook hot dogs. Ham-hocks and neck bones are at least 80 per cent fat. And not only that, it takes an extremely talented cook to make them palatable. There are much better buys available for the same money. Kidneys, for instance, cost the same and many people consider them a delicacy (and there’s no bone at all). Or, for a few cents more, one can buy liver, and even pork liver tastes better than ham-hocks. And it’s pure meat, packed with enough energy to send Daddy dancing down to the employment office. No one, of course, just handed 66 cents and told to go out and get a square meal, will do so. But a welfare family receives a weekly check and is thus able to plan and budget. With some common sense and with a knowledge of how to cook and shop they will be neither underfed nor undernourished, © for there is plenty of good cheap food available. Lentils, for instance, cost 13 cents a package, and a package serves ten people. They are rich in protein and iron, and when made into a stew with vegetables and a ham bone they can feed a family of five for the better part _ of a week. Beans, not bought in cans _ but made from scratch with salt pork and molasses, sustained New Englanders for decades. With food like this on the daily menu, there is plenty left out of that 66 cents for an occasional _ good roast. And even a taste for delicacies can be satisfied inexpensively. Squid, for instance, sells for about 30 cents a pound, and when prepared properly— cleaned and skinned, then deep fried, for instance, or stuffed and baked, or breaded and broiled—tastes remarkably like abalone, which sells in San ~ : Francisco sea-food specialty shops for better than two dollars per pound. ~ Smelts, small sweet fish, sell for 49 cents per pound, and a tuna fish casserole can be jazzed up to taste like a gourmet treat. Beef hearts are also both delicious and cheap, as are, say, omelettes made with chopped-up meat _ leftovers and zucchini squash. MARRIED STUDENTS, many of whom live on a total budget of less than $300 per month for six or seven years, eat this way. The average European no doubt feeds his family this way. Our grand-— : fathers and many of our fathers fed their families this way. Is it really too much, then, to expect the welfare family to do the same? Are expensive cuts of meat and fancy prepared foods a modern American birthright? Need we really provide the welfare family with an Armour-Gold-Star-marinated-wine-sauce-canned ham in every pot? And are we obliged to keep their children in chocolate-covered Hostess Ding Dongs? If the welfare family is given enough 2 money to feed itself decently—and $92 can feed a family decently—then surely the taxpayer is doing as much as he should reasonably be expected to do. And so, when Senator McGovern next pulls out his peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or Senator Church complains about hot dogs, let’s send them squid.