interesting NY Times piece on poverty & cooking

thanks for a summary.

Not quite what I thought the article would be about.

But good nonetheless.

I don't have the business knowledge to know how successful these "soup kitchens that aren't soup kitchens" would be, but it seems like a pipe dream IMO.

If you're trying to avoid it being viewed as an emergency food program/soup kitchen, you'd have to offer at least decent food.. you'd have to have it in a relatively good area of town.. you'd have to create a certain "look" (atmosphere?) that would encourage more than just the homeless.. etc.

Those are all things that restaurants do.. and restaurants have a massive markup.. and many fail/don't turn a profit.

So, as the author said, where would the money for these non-soup kitchens come from?

An idea that sounds good, but I think would be very difficult to execute.

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The generalized notion that "poor" people have less free time to cook than "rich" people seems to me to be a rather odd generalization.

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I thought about that too...it's a viewpoint focused on the urban poor, I guess: people who spend hours a day on public transit going to & from one/more jobs. I'm more attuned to the rural poor, who do more cooperative ride-sharing and are more isolated physically from resources than urbanites.

I found it interesting b/c it seems that cooking is undergoing "hobbyization". For so many, it's not a daily skill refined through practice & necessity; it's recreational and specialized, with great reliance on outside instruction, rules, and an emphasis on cooking as performance. Whereas good ol' daily survival cooking is rooted in improvisation, necessity, and thrift....

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And that's where i stopped reading. Article is now complete shite.

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Yeah, I thought it was going to be an article about the history of cooking/meal preparation for people in poverty

I was wrong.

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.it's a viewpoint focused on the urban poor, I guess: people who spend hours a day on public transit going to & from one/more jobs. I'm more attuned to the rural poor, who do more cooperative ride-sharing and are more isolated physically from resources than urbanites.

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New Yorkers can be extremely myopic. That cultural segment of urban working "poor" and even the flip side urban "rich" is such a small segment of the overall national composition, yet they will constantly point to it to try to make grand generalized type cultural statements on any number of issues, such as this.

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But i find it rewarding. You are creating good food from a pile of ingredients.

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I completely agree with you. It's my favorite thing on earth.

I agree with the person who said it is undergoing a hobbyization right now, though. Food is everywhere. Look at the Travel Channel. Over the past few years, it has become basically a food channel. And you have food shows on prime time television, on Bravo, etc.
It's "cool" to be a foodie these days. In some ways, that has been a really good thing for the world of food. It has kick started the opening of tons of amazing restaurants and other food resources.

I never run out of things to watch, read, cook, eat, etc. because of this food revolution that we've had.

But with it, there seems to be a decline in the "normal" home cook.
My mom cooked every single day growing up. Dining out (even fast food) was extremely rare. Is my mom an amazing cook? Nah. She can make some really good things, but she's a "mom" cook. Takes a lot of shortcuts. But she cared enough to cook for us every day and make sure we weren't eating crap.

I don't know if this divide is real or if media just makes it seem that way, but it seems that today there is a big divide between those who adore cooking and spend lots of money/time doing it vs. those who grab fast food every night.

Also, I'm totally on team cooking, but I see their gripe with time. Reminds me of people who don't have time for the gym. I get it. They have the time, but I understand not wanting to utilize that time in the gym (or cooking) if it's not something you love.

I get off at 5pm. By the time I get home, it is dark outside now. I'm usually pretty starving. I live alone, so I have no issue pouring a glass of wine and starting a meal.

But someone with kids? I totally see the difficulty. Forcing a child to wait while they're that hungry (and don't have wine!) is difficult.. and it does make for less time for other things that evening.

Of course, there are crock pots and easier meals.. but it is work. And I guess some people don't put as much value into cooked meals as we do.

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I don't know if this divide is real or if media just makes it seem that way, but it seems that today there is a big divide between those who adore cooking and spend lots of money/time doing it vs. those who grab fast food every night.

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RE: grabbing fast food every night--that's not the segment that puzzles me. I can understand the lure of grease/salt/immediate gratification. The thing I don't get is folks buying the fast-food-equivalents intended for home reheating: such as chicken nuggets, highly processed meal-in-a-bag kits, frozen pancakes on a stick w/breakfast sausage inside. There are PLENTY of people who claim to be "cooking for their families" nearly every day but who are really just buying crap & reheating it. It is no better than fast food, nutritionally or environmentally. But someone's guilt is assuaged because they MADE IT AT HOME and didn't buy fast food.

(And yes, pancake on a stick w/sausage inside is a real thing: LINK )

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(And yes, pancake on a stick w/sausage inside is a real thing: LINK )

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My kids love em.

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I don't agree. On weekends, I'm a cooking fool. But during the week, I'm taking shortcuts just so I can spend more time with my family. I'd much rather utilize that seasoning blend and saute that instead of cutting everything up if it saves me an extra few minutes to hang out with the little guy

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But you're not who I'm referring to. So you can't really disagree

I'm talking about people who DON'T cook. That sentence came after the suggestion that people "without time" use crock pots and quick recipes, but they still refuse to do so.