It’s a big headache for anyone who is crunched to a holiday budget and relies on SNAP assistance to provide food around the table.
Now, with the average household receiving approximately $290.80 per month in benefits and creative palettes like mine hunkered down for holiday meals, it’s time to enlist your loyal sense of taste.
Growing up in a house where food assistance was occasionally a necessity, I know from experience the feeling of gratitude mixed with fear that accompanies trying to make a festive Christmas at cost.
I still remember my mother, scribbling down all the numbers from grocery store promotions and sale papers for further study at her kitchen table with notebook in hand.
That’s the hidden reason for this book–it’s all those sights and sounds of thrift but also the realistic questions you will run into when trying to make a meal with your 290.80 dollars in bonus money go as far as it can.
Understanding Your SNAP Benefits during the Holidayseason
The idea of going grocery shopping becomes imbued with holiday preparation as soon as December sets in.
Last week in the grocery store I saw a little woman stand at the meat counter, holding meat and look coldly ask the price. Also there was some young maid with three children in tow excitedly pointing their fingers at boxes of cookies decorated like gingerbread men.
This scene I knew so well reminded me that when you are carrying a $290.80 in benefits, knowledge is power.
SNAP benefits can be used to pay for most of the food items needed traditionally at holiday meals. This includes things like meats and poultry, dairy products (milk, cheese), breads–as well as vegetables and fruits.
Things you cannot buy under these benefits are hot prepared food items or fast foods, alcohol, cigarettes-tobacco-sticks of any sort from anywhere else for that matter since they’re not sold in grocery stores which participate fully with WIC& foodstamps.
Vegetables & Fruits
“Many people do not realize they can get a lot more benefits than they think,” says Maria Gonzalez, a community food advisor who I dated at our local food bank.
As we worked around them, camlights swept over the boxes at the food bank that Saturday before Christmas.
‘But with careful planning, you can really make ends meet on $290.80 per household-member per month,’ Laird added.
Strategic Shopping: Squeezing Maximum Value from Every Dollar
In stores across America one set of fluorescent lights after another illuminates the scene: the careful shopper clutching a list, calculating price per ounce, searching for sale signs.
Your most powerful weapon with a limited budget is careful planning.
‘I start looking for sales at least three weeks before Thanksgiving,’ Denise told me.
We sat at her kitchen table, her handmade bread filling the small apartment with fragrance while she provided me with a page-by-page description of her coupon book.
“Most supermarkets purposely sell turkey and ham as loss leaders to attract customers.
That’s when I go shopping.”
Here are some strategies that can help you when you are trying to spread your $290.80 benefit:
Keep Track of This
Different stores offer different kinds of bargains.
Aldi, Walmart and local discount grocers will generally offer the lowest prices on staples; and although SNAP can sometimes be used at farmer’s markets, these places may also sell fresh, local produce competitively priced with that available on other merchants’ shelves.
Some are offering “double-dollar” programs during the holidays which amount almost to doubling your buying power for fresh fruits and vegetables: at times like this it pays off handsomely indeed.
My neighbor Ruth, a retired schoolteacher on a fixed income, told me how she found out which stores give the most value for specific products.
‘One store for my tins, a different one for the produce and a third gets them,’ she responded while showing me her shopping map in detail.
We’ll see it more that way: you’ll spend a little longer stitching than those lazy boys, but another way of looking at things is this—when you’re only getting sizes like 90 cents out of your pay envelope every 10 minutes, you can see from another angle that earning money is also about economizing on one’s expenses well. This is called living within one’s needs and not ever going over one’s bank balance unless necessary. But just at present, in this moment with our paycheque still waiting for the day when it will be cashed… But although I’m sure someone will complain, it is not sufficient to buy every week without wasting anything for three whole months.”
Cost Savings Tips
At the holiday season, grocery stores follow a set rhythm in terms of sales throughout the year.
There were plenty in the larder for last year’s festivities.
Bucking the Forecast
Paper products: tissue, napkins all go on sale about six weeks beforehand; paper towels are in August; gift wrap starts around two weeks prior to Christmas; and greeting cards are usually discounted a month before the holiday.
Canned vegetables often receive case discounts during the weeks before Thanksgiving.
“I used benefit money from last month in order to buy my Thanksgiving turkey meats,” explains Jason, a factory worker whose work hours fell off sharply recently.
In a tight schedule, he volunteers at the community center for meals even while eating is his own greatest barrier.
“I put it in my freezer right away, so now with this month’s $290.80 left I’ve got to buy all the side dishes and on towards Christmas.”Popcorn Prices Soar
The rhythm of grocery store discounts follows a predictable pattern during the holiday season.
Year-round favorites you typically see go on sale in January include cake mixes and instant pudding.
Buy Easter candy during March.
We all know that the fourth of July is the time for fireworks—so why not get your purchases in now, as cheaply as possible?Picnic Ham vs. Pork Shoulder
Which is better roast meat for Thanksgiving, picnic ham or pork shoulder?
Ask your local butcher or an experienced shopper.
Say You Want to Serve a Whole Processed Turkey
One time when I needed one, I found an augmented-reality pamphlet for crisping the skin of a whole processed bird called Yung H29LTIf this is one of the less-used dishes, of course—the only thing that might happen to make a difference in your life is that as an intelligent woman you might need some extra exercise and cleanup for your muscles after preparing.
He tapped nervously on the floor as he told of feeding his growing sons on limited resources.
“That $14 investment fed us for nearly a week between the main meal and all its leftovers.”
The supporting cast of holiday meals includes various items that are eligible for food stamps: potatoes (sweet, white) stuffing ingredients (bread, celery, onions, herbs) canned or frozen vegetables flour, sugar, and other baking needs milk, cheese, and eggs fresh, frozen or canned fruits for desserts
At the vegetable aisle at the supermarket, walking through it with Elena, a grandmother raising three grandchildren on food stamps, I watch while she snatches slightly imperfect sweet potatoes at a discount.
“No one will notice the difference once they’re mashed with a little cinnamon and a bit of maple syrup,” she smiled, carefully placing them in her cart. “And the whole trip should cost less than $4.”
Creative Methods of Dealing With Holiday Abundance The kitchen window steams up as pots bubble on the stove, the comforting aromas of holiday cooking making an atmosphere that can’t be bought. This sensual richness reminds us that abundance is not always about quantity.
Community Pooling Individual families sometimes get more food stamps by cooking together.One apartment building, where Tasha is a nursing student with two children, has “three families who get together for Thanksgiving. ” I chat with her while she studies at the library, underlining passages from her textbook as she speaks with me.”One family gets the turkey with their food stamps, another does all the side dishes, and my $290.80 covers desserts and drinks. We all eat like kings.”
Flavor Over Cost Simple ingredients made with thoughtful preparation can oftentimes create the most memorable dishes. herbes such as rosemary, thyme and sage are foodstamp-approved and they dramatically improve any holiday dish.
With just some onions and a little bit of time, you can give stuffing or gravies an astonishing depth at no great price.A single orange’s zest makes all the difference in ordinary cranberry sauce.”People overthink holiday cooking,” says Marcus, a former restaurant cook now working two jobs while receiving partial SNAP assistance. “The aroma of garlic and herbs filled my tiny apartment kitchen as he demonstrated making a bread stuffing that was as good as any fancy restaurant’s. “Good food is about technique and love, not expensive ingredients. I can make a feast for half of my $290.80 allotment that anyone who tastes will remember forever.”
Don’t Just Think about the Big Holidays The calendar pages turn rapidly in the holiday season, with ordinary meals making up a substantial proportion of them. As such brosns SMART LINK recipients go beyond merely thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner holidays.
Leftovers Are King Holiday meats transform into many different meals: turkey sandwiches, ham and bean soup, chicken pot pie. Bones can become rich stock for future soups and stews. And nothing must be wasted “My grandmother told me that if you make l and from a turkey carcass, it’s like liquid gold,” laughs Sophia, an elderly woman with a slight tremor to her hands that I met at one of the community meal planning workshops.”Simmer it with vegetable scraps and you’ve stocked yourself up for weeks of soups – which means turning that one purchase into many more meals.”
Preserving the Harvest The winter sales can lard your pantry far beyond December. Flour, sugar, canned goods purchased at seasonal discounts with SNAP benefits and then stored for future use will keep a family going well into next year. “I buy extra cranberries when they’re dirt cheap around Thanksgiving and freeze them,” says Patrick, a disabled veteran on limited benefits which manages his household well.
As we talk in this simple yet perfect home, light catches on his service medals laid out in an unfaded frame.
‘Those $290.80 monthly benefits have to work smart, not just hard.
By February, or else I’ll be living large again because the muffins callers are still on holiday pricing. ”
The Human Side of Holiday SNAP Benefits
There were no light meals during holiday season for SNAP recipients in America. Some one hundred million pounds of food each day headed for the nation’s landfills.
These programs are not just about calories and nutrition: they’re also for dignity, celebration, and inclusion in cultural traditions.
“I want to Feed America,” emphasizes Reverend Jackson, who ran programs for kids needing help in a highly collectivable neighborhood.
At a community meeting, families exchanged tips on seasonal strategies.
“It’s about belonging, partaking in the rituals that make us feel joined.
That’s what these $290.80 in benefits provide not just food, but participation in the shared experience of the season.”
For millions of Americans, SNAP benefits make all the difference between an empty table and a modest but meaningful holiday meal.
The program makes it possible for families living on tight budgets to share in traditions that feed both body and soul.
As I write this article looking up in a shopping aisle and seeing people with different degrees of economic freedom, behind every figure fitted onto a budget is a striver hoping to create moments of happiness.
The woman, picking over cans of tomatoes carefully as though she were measuring some precious commodity might well be planning an old-fashioned Christmas dinner. She will use every bit of pan-juice or broth from this tomato-based dish to corral onto plates an appetizing meal for six people who have not had fresh greens all year round.
The elderly man in front of me, carefully choosing a little ham for one, may have the only visitor of his own. That ‘visitor is, for all practical purposes, someone serving as his meal ticket for another year to come.