My partner and I can’t be the only ones who are a bit… concerned, shall we say about coffee consumption during the Challenge. We’re hardly caffeine-fiends but we’re also not prepared to go cold-turkey. We’ve decided to address this portion of the Challenge with a spirit of celebration rather than privation. This week, we dusted off the old stove-top espresso pot we picked up at the Kiwanis a couple years ago. (Not the fancy electric kind with the milk-froth attachment, it’s the kind an Italian grandmother would have.) Our experiments indicate that we can make a shot of espresso for both of us in this pot. When the cup is filled with warm milk, maybe a spoonful of sugar, the result is… YUM! We may never go back to plain coffee.
Our calculations as to the cost, roughly 25 cents a cup, makes it a tolerable luxury:
- 1/2 oz of coffee makes 2 cups of espresso; the cheapest coffee at the Food Co-op (where the Justice is already roasted in the bean) is roughly $6.99/pound and this would make 64 servings or roughly 11 cents per cup for the coffee;
- 1/2 cup milk for each cup; a gallon holds 16 cups; a gallon of skimmed milk costs roughly $3.20 or roughly 10 cents for the milk;
- Since math isn’t my native language, I’m not going to figure out the exact cost per tablespoon of sugar but I really hope it’s not more than 4 cents.
7 comments ↓
Is everyone continuing to shop at the more expensive stores? Whole Foods and the like? I can guarantee that people on food stamps rarely get to shop there…(Does Whole Foods even take food stamps? I know Hiller’s didn’t use to).
RE: An’s question: Honestly, I read an article about WholeFoods in the Utne Reader about a decade ago regarding their antipathy towards unions and I’ve never felt comfortable shopping there. Also, there’s a tendency for food co-ops to close in areas where WholeFoods have opened a location.
I think the only thing I’ve EVER bought at Hiller’s was masa harina and that was years ago because I couldn’t seem to find it elsewhere at that time. (From time to time, we make refried beans and home-made tortillas and it’s a meal so good that my partner and I literally stand over the stove and devour the tortillas one by one as they come off the griddle!)
OK, how many people on food stamps even know about food co-ops?
Has anyone ever heard about Angel Food Network? There is a distribution site in Chelsea. It’s $25 per box of food…and they take food stamps. Here’s the link to them:
http://firemountainworship.org/Angel_Food.html
And how many people on food stamps even know about the Angel Food Network (grin)
I didn’t know about it, I will admit that. I do know that I tell anyone on food stamps that I do know…
Sometimes my thoughts run from one to another without a not a lot of fluidity…that’s what just happened. LOL
I did know about WIC, FOCUS HOPE and all the local food banks though…which you have to get a referral to if you get food stamps….because they figure you shouldn’t need help from a food bank if you receive aid.
And wow that was a really poorly written sentence!
Good for the old Italian expresso machine. I am the anti-statistics wrench in this challenge having been unemployed for a while and $3/day is routine for me by now. Yes a creative person living on food stamps would be using a used expresso machine. Coffee is actually great if you use the drip plastic cups. I boil water a hot pot (for a “real” impoverished person a microwave or a coffee machine might be a stretch) and slowly pour it over the grounds. My coffee is not as expensive as $7/pound but a French chefs secret comes handy here – pour a little of your favorite spice in the dry grounds and it gives the coffee a very rich taste. Hint make sure to enjoy the smell of the fresh coffee – that is free. Toast free day old bread from the Salvation Army with homemade jam and you have a Sunday brunch that is nearly free.
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