Week 9: Angel Food Ministries

The Holidays are quickly approaching and it seems everyone is feeling the pinch due to the troubled economy. I think this time of year is always hard for people since we tend to spend more money on food and presents, and I think this year will be even harder for people. My experience growing up with an Italian Mother and Grandmother was that food was an important part of the celebration and we always, always had more than enough food for any holiday meal. My Grandma Jam always had to have your favorite dish for a special meal and cooked as though we were having the entire church over for dinner, and sometimes we did! Manga! One year for Christmas, we had enough food to feed an army and she says to my Dad, do you think we need turkey roll? I am not sure what a turkey roll is, but boy did my Grandma think we needed more food.



Knowing that a lot of people will have to scale back this holiday season, we came across a great non-profit company that offers food for 4 people, for a week for $30! You can basically contact a ministry near you (nationwide) and schedule to buy as many food boxes as you would like for that month. This price is open to anyone, any economic background, no requirements needed to order. Not bad, we thought, so we decided to try it out and see. Here is a list of what we got below:

Angel Food Ministries - November Box

• 1.5 lb. New York Strip Steak (4 x 6 oz.)

3 lb. Split Chicken Breasts

2 lb. Baby Back Pork Ribs

2 lb. Chicken Chunks

28 oz. Jumbo Charbroiled Beef Patties with Gravy

1 lb. Smoked Sausage

1 lb. Ground Turkey

1 lb. Green Beans

1 lb. Diced Sweet Potatoes

10 oz. Peanut Butter

15 oz. Cranberry Sauce

7 oz. Beef-Flavored Rice & Vermicelli

20 oz. Shoestring Fries

32 oz. 2% Reduced Fat Shelf-Stable Milk

6 oz. Pancake Mix

One Dozen Eggs

One Dessert Item (Box of cookies)

Quite a bit of food for $30! We found that most of the brands we did not know or could not find in our local grocery store, but all the meat products looked okay, we are not quite sure what the chicken chunks are, but the rest is fine. We guesstimated that this was close to about $40 to $50 worth of food if you were going to buy it all on your own, a 33% discount is not bad! The food does not include fresh fruit or vegetables, but you have an option to order additional meat or fresh veggies if wanted. But we thought, that for about $40 to $50 per week total with supplemental veggies and fruit, a family of 4 could feed themselves dinner for a week.

They also have pre-prepared meals for $2.80 per meal, which is a balanced meal and probably better than the processed TV dinners at the supermarket. So all in all, we thought this was a pretty good value.

Check out the site below and you can search for a location close to you. Food pick up is once a month and you have to order a few weeks before pick up, which for us was the third Saturday of the month and we needed to have our order in a few weeks before that. So this requires a little planning, but worth a try to help cut down on some food costs. When we arrived on Sat to pick up our food, we just gave our name and they had a box just sitting and waiting for us. Easy, fast, and more convenient than going to the grocery store! Thanks Angel Food Ministries!
Check out the Hillbilly Housewife’s site, she prepares menus and recipes monthly based on the food provided at Angel Food Ministries, so you can find some economical and creative ways to use up the pound of hotdogs =). (We are not big hotdog eaters, but figured corn dogs would be good!)

Try something a little hillbilly! Have fun and enjoy.

Angel Food Ministries: http://www.angelfoodministries.com/about/
Hillbilly Housewife: http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/angelfood/