Don't Toss Those Onion Scraps

Like most people, whenever I cut an onion for cooking, I've always thrown away the ends and the dry, papery skin that surrounds the fleshy, edible layers. However, this is in fact a big mistake. Although you cannot eat onion skin, it has a lot of flavor in it. You can keep a bag in your fridge or freezer into which you can put onion skins and the drier outer layers of the onion that you peel off. From time to time you can boil them down to produce a flavorful broth for cooking. Just tonight, I boiled some onion skins along with the bones from some chicken I cooked and stripped for soups and stir-fry. I got a fair amount of broth that filled the kitchen with a mouth-watering scent.

It's now in a stainless steel bowl in the refrigerator, cooling enough that I can pour it into peanut butter jars and put it into the freezer until I need it for soup or other cooking projects. Although some people also put the ends of their onions into the bag for cooking stock, you can also start new onions with them. Especially if an onion is beginning to sprout, you can set the top and bottom in a shallow dish of water and they will produce roots. Once you have a solid root network, you can transfer them into potting soil to establish themselves, and then plant them in your garden. You can harvest them as green onions, or you can leave them to set bulbs. When you harvest them, save the ends and start the cycle all over again. You can also grow an endless supply of green onions from a single bunch of store-bought green onions. Instead of using them all the way down to the roots, cut only the green parts and save the small white bulb to which the roots attach. Set them in water, and they will soon produce fresh leaves. At this point you can either plant them in your garden or you can keep them in water and harvest an endless crop of hydroponic green onions. You can even do this if you live in an apartment, as long as you have a window at which you get decent sunlight and where you either have a window ledge or room for a small table.

Remembering Angel Food Ministries

Over the past few days I've been sorting through some stacks of papers in my office area, in preparation for some repair work that needs to be done in it. As I was sorting and disposing, I came across a number of materials from Angel Food Ministries, a faith-based cooperative food buying system that allowed people to buy pre-packaged selections of food at a reduced price, via the sponsorship of local churches who collected the money and distributed the food. It worked because the parent organization pooled the contributions of hundreds of host sites and thousands of people to buy in bulk, directly from various food companies. Although some of the food came in retail boxes, a lot of it was in very plain packaging, further reducing the costs.

 It was particularly nice because there were no income qualifications, so if you were on the edge or had irregular income, you didn't have to worry about whether you qualified. Since it wasn't a distribution of a fixed pie of goods, you didn't have to worry whether you were taking food from those even more needy than yourself. In fact, because pooling money enabled the organizers to tap economies of scale that individual church food pantries couldn't have accessed, participating actually helped food become more available to the needy, and even made it possible to fund free boxes to the destitute.

And then, in 2011, everything came crashing down. I missed the September order cycle because we were going to be out of town on distribution Saturday, but when I went to their website in October to plan my order, I discovered that there would be no October distribution, and people's money for September was in the process of being refunded. The official explanation was financial trouble as a result of decreased participation, necessitating the discontinuation of the entire program.

However, that story was a fairy tale to comfort us. In truth, the leadership of the parent organization, Pastor Joe Wingo and his family, had been caught with their hands in the till by the Federal government. Several members of the Wingo family would ultimately be convicted in Federal court of various crimes, including money laundering and various forms of interference with a criminal investigation. It was a huge shame to discover that the leaders of an organization that so many deeply faithful people had come to believe in were in fact wolves in sheep's clothing, stealing in the name of the Lord.

 Looking over the materials with the benefit of hindsight, there were some odd warning signs. When I first began participating in 2008, each box of food came with a full-color eight-page magazine that included articles, recipes, and the next month's menus. At the end of 2009, it shrank to a single-sheet flyer with articles and recipes on one side, and the next month's menus on the back. During the last few months of the ministry's existence, it became nothing but a single-sided page of recipes, and the host sites had to print up their own copies of the menu sheet.

 Since the collapse of Angel Food Ministries, a number of organizations have tried to take its place, but none of them have been able to gain the sort of national reach that AFM possessed at its height. In 2018 we were introduced to a program called King Foods through one of the Lenten soup suppers that some of our local churches hold every Wednesday of Lent. Its menus and ordering systems looked very similar to AFM's, so we decided to give it a try and see how it worked out. Unfortunately, they had a catastrophic failure of the walk-in freezer at their central distribution site that month, and while they struggled to get their equipment replaced, they lost the momentum they had, and they appear to have ceased operations after November of 2018. Their Facebook page is still up, but their domain is now parked by GoDaddy.

 It's a real shame.

The Siren Song of False Economy

When the money is tight, the first impulse is to cut back on non-essential spending. However, sometimes things that don't look essential will turn out to be far more expensive in the long run.

Two of the most common false economies are skimping on health care and on vehicle maintenance. However, there are other false economies. For instance, people buy cheaper cuts of meat and end up wasting them because they don't know how to cook them properly. This situation can become even more complicated when buying for a family, because some family members may flatly refuse to eat unfamiliar foods. Food that will only end up scraped from plate to garbage can is no savings.

Unfortunately, false economies are not always obvious, and often we realize them only in retrospect. For instance, there are times that it may look financially prudent to repair a vehicle, but in fact it just traps you in a vicious cycle of nickle-and-dime repairs to the point you can't afford to get rid of it. Trying to get by with inadequate or inappropriate equipment can be another ugly false economy.

The best thing we can do is try to learn from other people's mistakes so we don't repeat them.

When the Food Budget Is Tight

One thing I really miss is the AngelFood Ministries program. When I discovered that it had closed as a result of an investigation into allegations of the misappropriation of funds by the family that had originally organized it, I thought back to signs that had been developing over the past year that something was going wrong. The quality and variety of the food in the basic boxes had declined, while more and more fancy foods were appearing in special boxes that could be ordered in addition to the basic box. It did seem like they were running into trouble, but I never expected that it would be someone with their hand in the till.

It also meant that an opportunity for people to get low-cost food went away, and many people who were struggling but not destitute would be looking for some other way to make their food budgets stretch further. And that meant the quandary of whether to turn to the local food pantries.

One of the wonderful things about AngelFood and similar programs was the way that it allowed people to get low-cost food without worrying about whether they met qualification requirements or if they were taking food away from those who were even more needy than themselves. Unlike food pantries and the like, co-operative food buying programs like AngelFood weren't a finite pie being distributed to the needy. Instead, they worked on economies of scale to take everybody's small contributions and bulk-buy at far better price than individual families could hope to get buying retail -- and even made it possible to distribute free boxes to the destitute. As a result, if you were a little better off, your participation actually helped those who were worse off than you because the more people participating, the more money the organization had in their pool and the better deals they could get in their bulk-buying process, so that everybody could get more and better food.

Unfortunately, it appears that the development of new programs to take the place of AngelFood has been slow and spotty, and many places still don't have anybody serving their area. Thus people in those areas have to struggle with the question of whether they should turn to the local food pantries to help stretch a food budget that never seems to cover enough.

Gearing Down, part 6 -- Entertainment

When one's finances take a sudden turn for the worse, there's a strong temptation to cut out one's entertainment budget altogether. It's an obvious luxury, and with few exceptions, there's not an ongoing subscription of contracted monthly payments. So out it goes -- no more movies, no more video rentals, no more fun vacation trips to amusement parks or the like.

Except for one huge problem: cutting out entertainment altogether can actually make one's situation worse by creating the perception that pleasure has been cut out of one's life and is now forbidden. As a result, it becomes easy to feel down about life in general -- which makes it harder to approach tasks such as job hunting with enthusiasm, or just to cope with rough times and not sink into a downward spiral of depression.

This means that, in order to keep our spirits up, we need to find ways to have fun that cost little or no money. Which means we'll need to look close to home, in order to keep gas costs low.

Many of us go through life without even realizing the variety of activities going on in our own communities unless we are personally involved in the organizations that put them on. For instance, if we don't have children in school, how much do we know about the schedules of the local grade school, jr. high or high school sports teams? While some school sports, especially football and basketball, may have admission fees, track meets and baseball games (including Little League) are almost always free.

Similarly, how many people realize that their local jr. highs and high schools generally have bands and even orchestras that put on concerts at regular times? A few of them may have nominal admission fees, but often they too are free to all comers, and would welcome a few more people in the audience to appreciate their student musicians' efforts.

Information on schedules of these and other school activities such as debate team or scholastic bowl meets can often be had for nothing more than a call or visit to the school administrative office. Be polite to the school secretary or receptionist and you'll probably learn a lot more than you expected about entertaining school activities that are open to the public. School officials are often struggling uphill on limited budgets, so they really appreciate seeing evidence of community involvement in their activities, because people who perceive a personal benefit from the school are more likely to vote yes on referendums for budget increases.

Another great place for entertainment when you have no entertainment budget is your local public library. Obviously, you can borrow books, videos and other things with which to entertain yourself, but libraries also sponsor lectures, workshops and other activities for community members. Furthermore, they are also a good source of information about other free activities in the community, such as a community band or chorus that gives free concerts, or small local museums and art galleries that are free or have minimal admission costs.

Local faith communities often have free activities that are open to people outside their congregations. Free community meals are a growing trend in many ares. Unlike the traditional soup kitchen, they are not focused on charity. Instead, they are created as opportunities for community members to socialize over a warm meal -- which means that not only do you get to eat out without a restaurant bill, but you also have the opportunity to meet people and have lively conversations.

Churches, synagogues, temples and the like may also have concerts, cantatas, Christmas and Easter pageants, or other musical program. They will be of a religious nature, but generally are not heavy-handed about the preaching side of things. There may be a free-will offering, but don't feel obligated to contribute if you don't have the money, although even a token gift will be welcome.

With a little research, you can generally find plenty of activities in your local area to help keep your spirits up during these difficult times without having to break the bank.

Gearing Down

One of the most difficult things in an economic downturn is having to quickly learn to live in straitened financial circumstances. Curiously enough, food waste often actually goes up immediately after such a downturn, as people try to economize and purchase unfamiliar items, particularly cuts of meat that they don't know how to cook properly.

So one of the most important skills to learn if you have reason to anticipate a sudden reduction of income is how to cook less expensive foods in tasty ways. Buying food that just goes in the garbage is a false economy, whether it spoils because of uncertainty about how to cook it or the family flatly refuses to eat it.

In fact, even if you haven't been hit yet by economic reverses, it might well be the time to get the family used to eating a wider variety of foods, and especially less expensive ones. Find a way to make it an adventure instead of a deprivation, so there'll be less resistance when it becomes a necessity.

Goodbye SHARE Food of Central Illinois

Illinois and Indiana residents who had been getting monthly packages of discount food via Peoria-based SHARE Food of Central Illinois received an unhappy surprise at yesterday's distribution yesterday. As a result of shrinking participation levels combined with rising costs of food, fuel, and other essentials, they are no longer able to sustain their operation and will be closing their doors at the end of the year.

December 18 will be the last monthly food distribution. After that time, there will probably be a clearance sale at the Peoria distribution center to get rid of the remaining food.

This is an unfortunate loss for families who had been relying on SHARE packages to make their food budget stretch further. However, this does not mean that we are completely out of luck. Most of the area served by SHARE is also served by AngelFood Ministries, another faith-based discount food-buying system working on pretty much the same lines. The Bit o'Blessing box is roughly equivalent to the SHARE unit, but there are also larger Bread of Life and Bountiful Blessing boxes available, as well as various specialty boxes.

Money Saving Advice for the Rest of Us

Are you tired of the oh-so-helpful advice on saving money that keeps showing up in magazines, the sort that seems to assume that you're one of those people who spend money like water? Something that will be useful to those who are already living pretty tight, but need to figure out how to live even tighter?

A friend of mine just posted some information on new ideas on ways to save money at eHow. Take a look and see if any of them are useful to you.

Ding Discount

Did you know you can get significant discounts on a wide variety of household goods simply by willing to accept one that has a relatively small cosmetic defect? A small scratch in a hidden place may well be worth 25%, 50% or even more off the regular list price.

For instance, I was able to get a set of shelves which would normally cost over fifty bucks for ten, simply because a forklift had torn the box and scratched one of the panels. I was able to assemble it so that panel would be against a wall, keeping the scrape discretely out of sight.

I've also gotten cans of fruits and vegetables at a fraction of their normal price simply because the edges have become dented and are thus less attractive. Of course you will want to use any dented cans right away, and be careful that they are not bulging or leaking -- either of which can be signs of spoilage rather than mere cosmetic damage.

An Eagle Eye Saves Money

When you go to the store, do you regularly watch to make sure that specials actually ring up at the advertised price? If you don't, you may be losing money.

This weekend I saw a bargain on salmon listed in one of our local grocery store fliers. However, when I actually bought the item in question, it rang up as $3.99 per package, rather than per pound as listed in the flier. If I hadn't been watching and complained, I would've ended up paying four times what I had planned.

Sometimes these discrepancies are honest misprints and miscommunications (for instance, the people in the meat department may not have been told correctly what item the ad refers to), but it is not unknown for less scrupulous stores to deliberately misprogram the computer for one or more items' prices, thus being able to bring in some extra money. So keep a close eye on those prices, and don't be afraid to hand something back if it rings up higher than it was marked. Merely having put something in your cart and brought it to the checkout counter does not obligate you to complete the purchase.

Praise for the Humble Potato

Potatoes have received a bad reputation of late for being unhealthy, largely because of their high starch content, and thus their high glycemic index. However, like so many unhealthy things, the real problem with them is eating them in excess, rather than eating them at all.

In lean times, when food is hard to come by, potatoes can be a very useful way to stretch otherwise inadequate food supplies to make a complete meal. For instance, you have a roast on Monday, and the left-over piece isn't big enough to give everyone a full-sized portion. Or you get a round steak at the food pantry which isn't quite big enough to go around. Instead of giving up, or tucking it away for some day when some family members are absent, you can cut the meat up into chunks and stew it with two or three potatoes cut up into cubes. Slice up a few carrots to give everyone a vegetable serving, chop an onion for flavor, and you have a complete meal in a single skillet.

Potatoes can also help extend a soup or stew when unexpected guests turn up close to mealtime. My great-grandmother, who raised a brood of nine on a carpenter's wages, never worried when one of her children had a friend over to play and suppertime approached. She'd just peel an extra potato (or two if several little friends showed up) and add it to the pot, and the meal would now stretch to feed everyone without anybody feeling like they were getting shorted or overstaying their welcome.

Tips for Saving Food

With prices rising and food budgets shrinking, it's always frustrating to have something go stale or otherwise spoil before it's used up. Here are some tips for avoiding needless waste of perfectly good food:

If you get a whole head of iceberg lettuce, immediately unwrap it and rinse it under cold running water. Then wrap it in paper towel and put it in a zipper bag in your refrigerator. If the stem starts to show rust (reddish spoiling), immediately trim it back and remove any leaves that show rust.

If a loaf of bread starts to go stale on you, slip a piece of fresh celery into the bag and tie it back up. The moisture will restore the flavor of the bread.

If you burn gravy when you are making it, transfer it to a clean pan and continue cooking. Add sugar by the pinch to cover the burned taste.

To keep cookies fresh, crumple a little tissue paper in the bottom of your cookie jar.

Some of these ideas are taken from the March 2009 SHARE Food Peoria newsletter.

Pulling Together To Keep Food Costs Low

People who are having financial difficulty but not yet destitute are often hesitant about approaching food banks and other food assistance programs. Sometimes there's fear of condescension or having to answer embarrassing personal questions about their income, but far more often the thing holding them back is concern that they will be keeping those who are even more needy from getting food.

But would that change if I said there was a program that offered low-cost food without any qualifications save being willing to show up on the appointed day with a basket to pick it up? A program structured in such a way that you never have to worry that the food you receive meant less for the less fortunate, and in fact the more middle-income people participate, the easier it becomes for low-income people to get affordable high-quality food.

It's not a fantasy, and in fact there are two programs of this sort offering food assistance all across the country. Both of them work by pooling the money of tens of thousands of participants to buy food in bulk with minimal packaging (often only the FDA-required nutrition labeling and a bag to protect it from contamination), and distributing it using primarily volunteer labor. Because of the leveraging effect of pooling a large number of payments, the participation of middle-income families really does help make the food more affordable for low-income families. Generally you get about twice as much food for the money compared to what you would pay in a regular grocery store.

The first is Angel Food Ministries, which is a single nationwide organization. The second, SHARE Food, is actually a network of regional organizations, and there is no single Website that covers the entire nation. Here in central Indiana we are served by SHARE Food of Peoria, but you will want to find out the organization that serves your area.

There may also be other, smaller co-operative food-buying programs that serve your area. Whichever one you look into, you can expect to save a significant amount of money and still eat as well, if not better than you have been.