Thread by @2TheImp, There's a thing going around on Twitter right now, about poverty and [...]

There& #39;s a thing going around on Twitter right now, about poverty and poor food choices, so I& #39;m going to take a few minutes to talk about this.

Unless you& #39;ve experienced poverty, there& #39;s a LOT that you don& #39;t realize, the million little choices and ways that impact you /1

And I& #39;m talking POVERTY. The kind where you wake up scared and go to bed sick b/c you don& #39;t know if you can hold off the electric company from cutting your power b/c you weren& #39;t able to pay the full bill that month. Having to choose btwn bread and milk at the grocery store /2

I spent years as a single parent. I worked two, sometimes three jobs at a time to keep the kids fed, clothed and a roof over our heads. I always made sure that the kids ate their fill first, and would be & #39;not hungry& #39; so they had what they needed. It was my normal. /3

So. Making good food choices? That& #39;s an interesting thing. There& #39;s a sense of blaming folx in poverty for their situation inherent in it.

Let& #39;s take a look at what & #39;good food choices& #39; can entail, okay?

First, there& #39;s accessibility. /4

The corner store? I could get there, with kids. Yeah, it was more expensive for milk, etc, but not once I factored in the bus ride there and back, plus wrangling a stroller on and off a bus, and the TIME it took. Time is an important factor in poverty, I& #39;ll mention that again. /5

Then there& #39;s space. I couldn& #39;t afford a deep freezer, so forget about any sort of & #39;stocking up& #39;. I was limited to what I could afford on my budget, and also what I could store.

Budget was the biggest issue, of course. And *knowledge* ran a close second. /6

I could get enough dry pasta, spaghetti sauce and ground beef to feed us for 2-3 meals for what a package of chicken breasts cost. Canned veggies were cheaper than frozen, but also heavier to carry. I was on a bus, so being able to carry things home mattered, & limited options /7

Then there& #39;s the time aspect. I was working 2-3 jobs. By the time I spent any time parenting, took care of errands, I was lucky to get a few hours sleep a day. Yes, cooking from scratch can be both economical and healthier, but it requires TIME. /8

It also requires KNOWLEDGE. I didn& #39;t know how to cook. Not a damn clue. And as a single parent, I had to choose: experiment on recipes I got from a cook book at the library (no computer at home) that may or may not work out, thereby wasting grocery money /9

Or stick with packaged stuff that I knew the kids would eat. I didn& #39;t have the freedom, either in finances or time, to experiment. If a meal didn& #39;t turn out, I didn& #39;t have the ability to replace the money I& #39;d spent. And I was on a constant track race /10

Between work, daycare, home. I didn& #39;t have the time needed to make a pot of soup. I was barely getting through to bedtime, just trying to survive. Spending an hour (or more) getting supper together just wasn& #39;t remotely possible for me. /11

And I didn& #39;t have a freaking clue how to make soup to start with. I only knew how to make a few things that were heavily reliant on soup based sauces, jarred this and that. Boxed rice.

Kids will eat it, fill bellies on my budget, quick and easy were literally my guidelines. /12

I haven& #39;t been a single parent now for 17 yrs. I learned a hell of a lot about cooking along the way, and I can easily say that we ate healthier and cheaper for a number of years before I became disabled than we did when I was a single parent. /13

But there& #39;s another kicker: a lot of folx with disabilities are also living in poverty. They not only have budget issues, but physical limitations heavily impact what they can physically manage to prepare. I see ppl laugh about peeled oranges/chopped fruit all. the. time. /14

For some folx with disabilities, those pkgs are their only chance of getting fresh fruit, stuff that isn& #39;t canned or frozen. I& #39;m lucky, I have a spouse and kids that willingly do kitchen duty. but even then, I run out of spoons, and we haul something easy out of the freezer. /15

In summation, there& #39;s a LOT that goes into food choices for those in poverty, beyond just the budget. Accessibility. Time. Knowledge. Storage. Physical ability.

Next time you hear someone chirping, "Make better choices!" I hope you remember this thread, and it helps. /16

Often, the food choices available to those in poverty are, "You can buy this and get as close to filling bellies as possible, or you can buy that, and not have enough to get through until your next pay."

Which really isn& #39;t a choice at all. /end

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