How to afford food when money is tight

0:01You're listening to LifeKit from NPR. Hey, it's Mariel. I saw this post on Instagram the other day from Kevin Curry. He's the founder of Fit Men Cook. We've had him on the show before. In the post, he shared a bunch of tips for what to do when it's hard to afford food. Like when the federal government stops paying SNAP benefits because of a government shutdown. Kevin has personal experience with SNAP. He graduated from Harvard Kennedy School in 2008 during a global financial crisis. I remember a couple of buddies. We were all talking about it. And some of us knew friends who were who had graduated from HBS and they were driving Ubers and putting their resume on the back of the cars and Ubers.

0:45And so everyone was just trying to like just trying to make sense of it all. Kevin ended up applying for SNAP and he had a lot of feelings about it. I was embarrassed. I was angry because I had done everything, quote unquote, right. But then a caseworker changed my entire perspective when I was there. She looked at my Harvard fleece. I had no idea that I was wearing my Harvard fleece there. And she said, don't be ashamed. This assistance was made for people just like you. This is a bridge from where you are to where you are going. People need help, and it doesn't look like one type of person. And I think that once we get that out of our mind, then I think that people will be able to look at SNAP for what it is.

1:24And it's a resource for all of us. On this episode of Life Kit, Kevin Curry is going to share the tips and resources he's learned about with us, including how to navigate food pantries and find free hot meals, how to get discounts at the grocery store, and how to build a low-cost grocery cart.

1:45All right, the first thing we're going to talk about is places that offer free groceries or meals with no questions asked. And a good place to start is by calling the National Hunger Hotline. That's 1-866-3-HUNGRY or 1-877-8-HOMBRE in Spanish. And they will give you phone numbers for resources in your area, including food pantries, soup kitchens, and Meals on Wheels. Folks can also do an online search for this info. They can look at, you know, like where the local options are. And I would just put in, like for myself, I would say Dallas food pantries. But the good thing about calling the hotline and going through the national numbers is that they have up-to-date lists.

2:25Sometimes I've done that in Google searches and figured out that places is no longer there. You said there's help specifically for veterans too, right? Yes, there is. I called that out because a lot of veterans don't know that they have additional benefits sometimes, you know, and that they can actually go to the VA social work office, you know, to do that. and veterans are actually a large, large, large group of the people who actually need a lot of help oftentimes. And so I think that, you know, I've heard from some of my veteran buddies, they're a little bit disenchanted and so they don't even reach out.

2:59They don't think that they actually qualify, but so many more people qualify than they think for federal assistance. And so I tell veterans all the time, you know, Hey, check out, you know, the VA office, you know, social work office, you know, they have, and, and, and you may be able to get some more access there. Let's talk about food pantries in general. You have some tips here, things that most people don't know about food pantries. Yeah. So the first one is just like the grocery stores. I go to several different grocery stores to get several different items. You can do the same thing with food pantries.

3:29You can go to multiple food pantries and grab items. First off, let me put an asterisk. I'm not saying you should go and abuse the system and whatnot and try to like stockpile groceries, but I am saying that you can visit multiple pantries because they have different items and most pantries know that. And what I love about this too, is that it reinforces, especially when there are food pantries where they just kind of give you something versus the ones where you can go in there and shop your own ingredients, that it does reinforce this idea of having choice, of having variety, that there is dignity in that.

4:02And so I think people just think that, all right, I just got this box from this one. This is all I get. No, you can go and visit another one. I can understand right now in this climate, why it's scary for a lot of people, especially a lot of the undocumented communities here. And I can say for the ones that I've been able to volunteer at and to work with, they don't look at immigration status. They're not going to check all that stuff. They just get in line. If you need some help, help is here for you. And you said that many food preemptries have fresh produce days or they partner with farms. Yeah, they not only partner with farms, but they partner with large grocers.

4:37You know, there are a couple of the larger grocers around here that actually give a lot of food. And it's not spoiled food. It's not rotten food. It's great food. It's name brand food. And there are also mobile food pantries, which are like large trucks that hand out groceries. Yeah, there are mobile pantries that actually come to your neighborhood. Usually you have to go to that food pantry there. They're actually taking it to the neighborhoods and there's an actual schedule for it. So first off, you've got to just Google it. Google your city or your county, your zip code, and do mobile food pantry, and you can see some of that.

5:13You also talk about free meals that kids can get at school. Right. You know, there's early breakfast programs. There's even after-school programs. And after-school programs are actually pretty cool, too, just because they oftentimes provide food and snacks for them. And so that's really important. The other thing is that, you know, my friend who's an educator, she said there are so many people who actually qualify and don't apply. They said, first off, to apply. And one thing that parents can do if they're not sure about that, they can talk to the counselors and they can ask for a school social worker.

5:49And the school social worker should be able to help them out with extra resources and pointing them to the different things that could be available. All right. And then you have a bunch of other resources, places that you might not think to look to fill the gap here. Tell me about some of those. First off, there's the Sikh Gurdwara's, and I am going to butcher that, and my brown friends are going to talk about me. But basically, these are centers, right, where they actually provide free meals, and everyone is welcome. And I think sometimes we'll look at certain ethnic groups and think that it's prohibitive.

6:27But no, a lot of that is just open for the community. Yeah, they're called langar or communal meals, where any and every visitor will be served simple vegetarian food at all times of the day. Love it. After the break, we'll have more tips and resources on affording food when money is tight.

6:51We're back with Kevin Curry from Fit Men Cook. Kevin, another option you suggest for folks is the double up produce match. What is that? So basically it's for people who are on SNAP and it matches you dollar for dollar up to a certain amount on purchases of like fruits and vegetables. I think the limit, I don't know, it's like 15 or 20 bucks per day. But basically the whole goal is to make fresh, healthy food a lot more accessible for low income families. And so you can use your Snap card and then the program will match your purchase dollar for dollar. How can you check if your market or grocer offers this?

7:30You have to ask. So you do have to ask. And then also it's mainly for, again, the fresh foods. But I just liked it just because, man, fresh foods can add up so quickly. Give me a game plan. Like if I really wanted to get some deals at my grocery store on stuff that they were about to get rid of or that they will be putting on sale because they're bringing out something fresher? What are the times I should start going? And what should I ask when I go? So first off, if you're going to the grocery store, you know, like the days where it's really full. So I would just say that on a Sunday and a Monday, the grocery store is going to be stocked.

8:06So those are the days that you're probably not going to see deals, right? So if everyone is shopping on a Monday, then you're saying, all right, let me go in there on Wednesday day and just kind of see what they have left. All right. The most important day though is right before the weekend. So I usually go on that Friday. I'll sometimes I'll go in the morning. Sometimes I'll go in the evening times, but just on that Friday when the stock is really low and when they're trying to sell these things, that's when you start seeing a lot of the deals. And then for bakery stuff, it seems like end of the day.

8:43You want to go when they start cleaning up the area. So when they start putting up the meat and all that kind of stuff, when the bakery is closing, that's when you want to go, do you have any of, oh yeah, sure, here. And if they don't offer you a discount, do you ask? Yeah, of course. Do you just say, can I get a discount? Yeah, just keep it simple. Can I get a discount? And you know, you forget that workers are people too. They know how it feels. They want to, you know what? Cool. And the last thing that they could do is say no. But there have been so many times just being friendly in the grocery store.

9:23I've gotten so many hookups, extra meat. It just pays to, you know, go to these places, not be ashamed, be yourself, just be open. And what I found, and this is just in general, is that people genuinely want to help people. People genuinely, at the end of the day, they actually want to help each other, and they will. You also talk about Too Good to Go and apps like that. Yeah, Flash Food and Too Good to Go apps. Basically, there's tons of food that grocers have, and so you can actually purchase it for a huge discount. This is also some of the food that goes to these food pantries. So it's not expired.

10:08It's great quality food, but they've just got so much. And this is so great because the amount of food waste that we have here in the States is just incredible. And so this provides a path for people to go ahead and get rid of it. Now, I would say with an asterisk, this one is you have to spend money for it. But at least you're buying things at 50 to 70 percent off, which is a pretty good deal. And then also like using the app, it's based off of where you are. So you can kind of find good deals within your area. So the last time you were on LifeKit, we talked to you about your meal prep strategies.

10:41And I wonder, can you talk about what that looks like when you do not have much to spend? You say folks can try to build a low-cost cart. Yeah. So these are things that you probably already thinking of. These are also things that are really plentiful in many food pantries. And it's just basically whole food, whole ingredients, I should say. So you get your beans and lentils. And the things I'm saying, too, they can be canned or fresh. So beans and lentils, rice, oats, pasta, frozen and canned goods. Frozen and canned goods, especially canned goods, they aren't bad. I think people inherently think that they are just lower quality, that they're not good.

11:20Now, there are some that aren't the best, but they are generally fresh, and they can be good for you, and they are nourishing. frozen veggies and frozen fruits. I always recommend, you know, just to have those anyway. So that way, when you have these moments, you'll have things to reach into your fridge to help you navigate those times. Another tip that you give in here about building a low-cost cart is making batch meals. And specifically, you talk about buying a small set of low-cost ingredients that you can make three or four different meals from for the week? I just started a brand new series on this, and it came from this idea.

12:06So what I did was I gave myself a budget of like$16. I wanted to get it smaller than that. And I bought a couple of things. I bought potatoes. I bought ground turkey and onion, bell pepper, cheese, enchilada sauce, and canned black beans. and I was going to say, all right, I'm going to show you what to make, how to use this for the entire week. And so the first thing I made yesterday were these amazing stuffed burrito potatoes and just delicious. And everyone really loved them. And so today I'm showing, and I've had about three to four cups of leftover filling left. And so now I'm going to roll out what to do each day.

12:45And so today I'm making these crispy waffles, crispy cheesy waffles from that filling, which is a great thing to do and you know it's good for kids too it's a fun way to do it and also it stretches the food the next thing after that and like hey if you want to have like a get together or a party I'm going to show you how to make this amazing like dual layer dip which is phenomenal by the way and then the fourth thing that I'm showing how to do is we're making frittatas mini grab and go frittatas so using a muffin pan putting some of the filling in there They're baking it, getting it real hard, adding egg on top of that.

13:19And these are great grab and goes for you for the week. So it's things like that to show how you can take just these small staples and then turn them into several meals throughout the week. So that way you're only essentially cooking just once and just doing small things throughout the week just to supplement. Well, Kevin, thank you so much. These are really helpful tips. Thank you for having me. Really appreciate it. Okay, time for a recap. If you're looking for free groceries or hot meals, you can call the National Hunger Hotline at 1-866-3-HUNGRY or 1-877-8-HOMBRE in Spanish. When you call, they'll give you phone numbers for resources in your area, including food pantries, soup kitchens, and meals on wheels.

14:09Some things you may not know about food pantries. Some will give you a prepackaged box of food items, but others are called client choice, which means you walk through the aisles and take what you need. Many food pantries have fresh produce days. And there are also mobile food pantries that might come to your neighborhood. If you have kids, apply for free school breakfast, lunch, or after-school snack programs for them. Religious communities may offer free meals regardless of your background. And one example is Sikh temples. They have a tradition where they serve a simple vegetarian meal to all visitors for free.

14:44If you do get SNAP benefits, find out if your grocer offers a double-up produce match. Go to the grocery store just before they restock to get the best deals. And you can also ask for discounts on bakery items at the end of the day. Consider apps like Flash Food and Too Good To Go for steep discounts on groceries. And as you're meal planning for the week, consider ingredients that are hearty and won't break the bank. like beans, rice, and oats. And try choosing a set of ingredients that you can make into three or four different meals throughout the week. Kevin has a series on this called Ballin' on a Budget.

15:17You can see the recipes on his Instagram, at fitmencook. And that's our show. For more Life Kit, check out our other episodes. We have another one with Kevin Curry about meal planning, and we have one with Beth Monsell of Budget Bites, who shares more ideas for a low-cost cart. You can find those at npr.org slash lifekit. This episode of Life Kit was produced by Claire Marie Schneider. Our visuals editor is Beck Harlan, and our digital editor is Malika Grebe. Megan Cain is our senior supervising editor, and Beth Donovan is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andy Tegel, Margaret Serino, and Sylvie Douglas.

15:54Engineering support comes from Stacey Abbott and Becky Brown. Special thanks to Tovia Smith. I'm Mariel Segarra. Thanks for listening.

16:07Thank you.