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Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
Kudos on food stamps advice
The op-ed “Food stamp detractors are out of touch” in the Oct. 19 edition of The Maine Campus was excellent. Thank you, William Davis, for hitting the nail on the head when you wrote the effective approach to health in this country is education.
You are correct that $133 per month per person is pretty slim and that the best way to deal with stretching that money is to buy unprepared foods like potatoes, carrots, apples, bananas and whole grain flour.
But many of those food stamp recipients are working at minimum wage jobs — often two different jobs — leaving little time for home cooking. Where do they learn food preparation now that Home Economics has been removed from many of our public schools?
I personally am using more canned foods and finding them to have more nutrients in many cases than fresh items losing vitamins as they are trucked across the continent and possibly sitting in the grocery store several days before I purchase them.
I also agree that food stamp recipients would prefer to have jobs that provide sufficient funds to buy adequate food for their families.
Thank goodness for writers like you and for the participation of approximately 600 UMaine students who take a basic nutrition course each year.
— Prof. Katherine O. Musgrave
