Food & Drink Magazine

Oh, SNAP!

By Kalamitykelli @venuscorpiogirl

Chess Pie

I’ve got my Nana’s recipe for Chess Pie to share – it is my birthday cake of choice and always has been. There is also a reminder about the Giveaway. But first, I would like to talk to you about something near and dear to my heart: SNAP. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as Food Stamps. Almost all of you know I am a public servant working with the elderly but most of you don’t know that I started my public service career in the Food Stamp Program. I even married a man who became our State’s Electronic Payment Systems Director – EBT, as it is called in SNAP, is the vehicle that people use to receive SNAP today instead of those little fake dollars and coins of old. There are many bloggers who are blogging about cost effective recipes today in conjunction with Share Our Strength – a non-profit that works with Regional Food Banks (they distribute food to your local food pantry) throughout the United States. There are so many people who are hungry today and while some of them may have made choices that led them to this most certainly the vast majority did not, especially children. SNAP cannot keep up with the demand these days and food banks are one of the few choices folks have when food can’t be stretched to the end of the month. Here are a few facts about SNAP:

SNAP Cook Book

SNAP cookbook

1. It is one of the few national programs where the rules are the same from state to state.
2. There are no other programs like it anywhere in the world.
3. SNAP is the cornerstone of 15 (maybe 17 at this point) food and nutrition programs that USDA-FNS supports.
4. Beaver County Oklahoma was the very last county in the U.S. to offer Food Stamps.
5. The biggest abusers of the program are not recipients; it is those pretending to be food sources.
6. Senior citizens generally receive (if they receive at all) $10 in benefits per month.
7. FNS does not administer benefits of less than $10.
8. The Feds determine the rules, not the states.
9. The last month my husband was in charge of the administration of benefits for our state, our state received almost $80 million – we are a small rural state populous-wise, I cannot imagine what the larger states receive.
10. If one state refuses the program, the money is not saved, it is sent to another state.

SNAP Cook Book

SNAP Cook Book

– the preamble to the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 —-
To strengthen the agricultural economy; to help to achieve a fuller and more effective use of food abundances; to provide for improved levels of nutrition among low-income households through a cooperative Federal-State program of food assistance to be operated through normal channels of trade; and for other purposes

So, do you see who the food and nutrition programs, including SNAP, was set up to benefit? Farmer (agricultural economy), Grocery Stores (Normal channels of trade), and income eligible individuals (poor people). Our economy would collapse if we ended the SNAP program now.

SNAP Cook Book

SNAP Cook Book

Look at these pictures – they are historical data in that they are recipe books offered to SNAP recipients over the years. Look at the recipes………..What do YOU look for when you decide to make a recipe? A picture? See one? Nope.

What you know about me is that I am learning to cook at an advanced age – I use tutorials for simply everything, especially the first time I prepare something. Couple that with the other demographic information known about SNAP recipients and how many of these recipes do you think are ever (or were ever) actually used? My greatest wish is that some of the fabulous chefs/bloggers/photographers I know would join me and partner with the USDA in making a cost effective and enticing cook book for all SNAP recipients. I still know people at the USDA and would be more than happy to contact them to work on a partnership. Yes, it would have to be given freely so it would definitely be done for altruistic reasons, a minimum of cooking utensils could be used because you must think of your target audience and what they own, and my more famous food blogging friends would have to share with the masses of followers they have because I don’t have enough to get the word out to all the bloggers. BUT – on the plus side for the bloggers – they would never get more American exposure than they would with this. The Pioneer Woman (a fellow Okie) currently has about 689,000 Face Book followers. There are more people than that who would receive a recipe book just in my state –it doesn’t include the other 49.

I hope this strikes a chord in enough of you, even if you aren’t a blogger but you are a cook, have some kind of camera, and are willing to make a meal that costs little – oh yes and are willing to share it with the masses for free, that you will let me know you want to participate. If I get enough, I will make my contacts and see what we can do. No pressure and I won’t ask more than this once. I know this is a little heavy for my usual post, but I really wanted to somehow participate in the blogger event! Thank you for listening to the public service announcement  now on to the Chess Pie!

Nana made Chess pie for as far back as I can remember. I was about 10 when I decided that is what I wanted for my birthday instead of a cake. Luckily, Top Girl learned how to make it from her and this year; I made it myself for the first time at Easter. Here we go:

Ingredients:

1 baked pie crust
½ Cup Butter, softened
1 ½ Cups granulated Sugar (I use Imperial)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs – added one at a time
¼ Cup evaporated milk
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons Corn Meal (optional)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 425 F
Using a mixer, blend butter, sugar, and vanilla until creamy
Add eggs one at a time
Then mix in the evaporated milk, vinegar, and corn meal if wanted
Once you put the pie in the oven, lower the heat to 325F and bake for 40 – 50 minutes or until the top is a lovely brown. Mmmmm……….
Let cool completely inside the oven. Don’t worry, it won’t dry out.

Chess Pie

Don’t forget about the giveaway going on until April 15th, 2013! Good luck!

Photobucket

Farm Girl Friday Blog Fest

Oh, SNAP!


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