This week’s feature got me thinking about the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots in our small community and the statement from the National Resource Defense Council that every county in this country has families with not enough to eat. It’s the word every that hangs me up.
I can think of some very wealthy coastal counties and mountain resort counties where service personnel may not be able to afford housing, but if these counties are anything like La Plata County, there will be concerned people who manage their food abundance.
Gleaning does not just happen in fields. It happens in grocery stores, too. The meat counter, with its “Manager’s Specials” offers deeply discounted packages of meat that are usually good for three days beyond the expiration date.
Overripe bananas are banded and discounted. Avocados occasionally end up in the same basket. Mixed washed greens don’t have to be perfect to make a decent chop salad.
Durango’s grocery stores, bakeries and restaurants generously support its food banks and food pantries. Work a couple of shifts at the Manna Soup Kitchen and you will be impressed with the “raw materials” donated from these retailers and from home gardens, too.
Critical to getting the food into the mouths of those who need it most is getting the word out that no one needs to go hungry here. In addition to our free soup kitchen, the elderly can access very affordable meals at the Senior Center. Reduced-fee and free breakfasts and lunches are available to children in the public schools who are at or below poverty level.
However, there is one form of “food poverty” that cuts across all socioeconomic levels. I call it “food ignorance.” It’s being addressed by programs such as “Cooking Matters,” in which chefs, nutritionists and volunteers teach the hungry how to take nutritious, whole foods to the counter where they can make soups, stews, snacks and desserts from what is affordable, seasonal, possibly gleaned and occasionally repurposed.
Last year, I watched a student chef at Fort Lewis College take less than a dollar’s worth of beans, a hefty pinch of salt, a handful of herbs and some olive oil to create delicious hummus. Flour, yeast, water and salt make a pizza crust. Less-than-cosmetically-perfect peppers, onions, tomatoes and garlic made the topping.
I had a mom who “gleaned” the fridge once a week to make soup stock that stored well in the freezer and was the basis for many soups, sauces and even casseroles.
I can’t remember the last time I threw away a fish head or shrimp shells without first roasting them and then throwing them into the soup pot. Chowders and gumbos are a gleaners’ dream creation.
Until we learn to either get creative with or repurpose the frayed outer edges of the Romaine and the cabbage, the tops of beets and the less tender parts of the cow, we’ll never eat particularly well. Until we opt for small backyard gardens over green, manicured lawns, we’ll never fully understand where our food comes from.
Finally, we need to buy less food and use more of what we have, even if it is only to add this food to the volume in a green energy drink. Dust off the juicer and pull out the food processor. It’s time we pledge to purchase only that which we’ll actually use, rather than watch food spoil before our eyes in a fridge that reflects a lack of realistic planning.
I’ve always maintained that every adult needs to wait tables or work in a restaurant kitchen to get an idea what goes into what happens on a plate. Add to that one more job: planting or helping weed and harvest a garden that becomes the basis for all your meals, not the occasional ones.
Just as a painter blends and dabbles the last drops of paint to occasionally create a stunning sunset, so can the cook.
