Angel Food Ministries

So, to put it bluntly, the price of food sucks. Even though the price of gas has gone down dramatically, the price of food is nicely staying perched atop the height it hit in 2008. I know at the beginning of 2008 I was a horrible cook – epically horrible. The cost of processed foods kept rising though, and I saw our grocery bill keep rising, and I knew I had to do something. One thing that I have been meaning to do, though, is join Angel Food Ministries.

Angel Food Ministries is a program where you place an order for a box of food at the beginning of the month, and the cost of a box is $30. It can feed a family of four for about a week, and the average retail price is around $60.

This isn’t a charity, though. The success of Angel Food Ministries depends on people buying boxes of food – the more money they have the more money they are able to buy more food at a cheaper price. There are no applications, requirements, income restrictions, or minimum limit. It’s the good quality stuff, too.. it’s not second hand food. Food stamps are accepted, though.

This month’s menu, for example:

1.5 lb. Sirloin Strip Steaks
2 lb. Tray Pack Chicken Breasts
1 lb. Boneless Pork Chops
2 lb. Breaded Chicken Nuggets
28 oz. Salisbury Steak Entrée
12 oz. Sliced Bacon
1 lb. All-Meat Hot Dog
1 lb. Stir Fry (Broccoli, Red Peppers & Onions)
1 lb. Carrots
8 oz. Breakfast Cereal
32 oz. 2% Shelf Stable Milk
35 oz. Crinkle-Cut Fries
7.25 oz. Mac ‘n Cheese
1 lb. Rice
1 lb. Bean Soup Mix
Dozen Eggs
Dessert

Plus, you can get add-on boxes, like a Assorted Meat Box, Fajita Kit, etc.

You can find your local host site here (they are located in local churches), and then you can contact your host site to order that month’s box. There are many sites located in Cincinnati, making it easy to find a host site.

It’s definitely worth trying, and you can save money in the process!

(And to avoid the inevitable – this story about Angel Food Ministries came out on the same exact day I started writing this blog post. I wasn’t sure how to handle this, but I decided to keep blogging about it because people can get good food at a great price. I hope that the investigation turns up nothing, but if it does I’m glad that the FBI is investigating. Reminds me of the Locks of Love controversy, no?)

Polar Opposites of Food

From the opposite ends of the food spectrum…

The Consumerist has posted that Haagen-Daz is cutting their 16 fl. oz. cartons to 14 fl. oz., and the 32 fl. oz. cartons will be 28 fl. oz.

Shrinking food sizes in this economy has been no surprise, but I was pleasantly shocked to hear their honest and admirable reason:

To offset increasing costs, we did not consider reducing the quality of our ingredients or the care we take in making your ice cream, sorbet, and frozen yogurt. We opted instead to slightly reduce some of our carton sizes.

On the other side of things, Slashfood lead me to this great YouTube channel called DepressionCooking. Featuring Clara (a 93 year old great grandmother) who cooks simple yet filling dishes that were made back in the Great Depression v.1.0 and talks about her experiences. My grandfather would be 93 if he was still alive (but he passed at 89, so I don’t feel that he was shorted), so hearing her talk about her experiences are really neat!