Yeah, I was getting $388 (before taxes, but I didn't have them take any out and ended up only having to pay the feds about $800) a week on unemployment. My job before that paid me $690 a week after taxes. It was a huge comedown, but the fact I wasn't paying $400 a month in gas and for lunches, etc. really saved me a lot. The job I have now just barely pays more than unemployment after taxes, about $150 a month. I can live on it, but I have a second source of income of $6700 a year. I would have to give up a lot more (cell phone for a start) than I have if I didn't have that.

Oh, also about people eating healthy food if it's provided.

So, I think I told y'all that when mom retired she was finishing her Master Gardener class and doing community gardens around our hometown [link] She said they can't even get the kids to wash the crop before they're wanting to eat what they've planted. They've had to get a chef to come round and teach them how to cook the stuff up. (As a side note, I am so proud of my mom for this it's making me choke up a bit right now).

But, yeah. Kids will eat veggies.

These crocheted animals are one way your neighbor could channel some of her anger, Sophia.

ita, if you're not eating and can't face solid food, could you maybe manage a protein shake of some sort? liquid nutrition is better than none. Maybe something solid that's a small serving of something bland? (My stomach once went on strike and wouldn't accept solid food for ... four days, I think. Unlike you, I carry enough reserve fat to last longer than that.)

As I just said in a meeting yesterday, you can do gardening and cooking with kids, and they will be into it and eat everything, but you need the parents to have the ability and the interest to continue that when they are food shopping for the family.

And, in regard to unemployment, there's this guy. um ... privileged much?

Oh yeah, and I thought when I was on unemployment that it was based on 75% of my previous income (for some specific time period).

She said they can't even get the kids to wash the crop before they're wanting to eat what they've planted.

Kids will eat almost anything they've helped to create, even if it's something as simple as letting them hand you stuff out of the refrigerator. (Dylan loves kale now that he's started coming with me to our weekly CSA pickup.)

[edit:

but you need the parents to have the ability and the interest to continue that when they are food shopping for the family.

Oh yeah, I have no illusions about how priveliged I am to have (a) a weekly CSA pickup and (b) time to cook with my son.]

One cool thing King Arthur Flour does is travel to schools and teach kids to bake bread (free): [link]

Cooking is great for math skills, among other things. Especially since we use the wacky not-metric system of measurements!

but you need the parents to have the ability and the interest to continue that when they are food shopping for the family.

And the energy. I barely have enough energy to cook and shop for healthy food in a food desert with no car, as a single person with a stable job.

Of course, riding the bus in a city where public transportation is not so good has made me a lot more sympathetic to this sort of issue. If I had kids I think it would be a full-time job, on the bus just to take them to and fro from school (in Rochester, you are pretty much expected to do that) and get food and clothing.