Feeding took all the place

Photo Ben Pelosse
Denis Paquin and Josée Lalonde have found it challenging having to make lists and plan the nearest dollar, the contents of their grocery cart.

Marie-Eve Dumont

Sunday, 11 march, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Sunday, 11 march, 2018 01:00

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“I thought of myself as a book in the evening before I go to bed, just to change me the ideas, I thought it was too addictive. Feeding had become the main concern, ” insisted the mother, Josée Lalonde, who has been the most affected by the stress on the limited budget.

• READ ALSO: They have done the grocery store with$ 210 per week for a month

A family of two teachers of the college and their two children of 7 and 13 years was nourished for a month as if both parents were on the minimum wage. She, therefore, had to cope with $ 210 per week. This experiment was conducted at the request of the Journal during the month of February.

The planning and preparation of the meals have taken all the space in the spare time of the family, who was normally no issues when she went to the grocery store.

“At home in the evening, we checked to see if it was going to be okay for the next day. On the weekends, we planned for the rest of the week. We discussed a lot of what they would do to make the best decision, it was necessary to agree also on who was going to make each of the purchases, this is the time “, insists the mother of the family, Josée Lalonde.

This stress followed in her days at work. “I teach often on the dinner hour. It bothered me to have plenty of food in my face. Of the students who were eating, it made me think that I was hungry and that I was not eating what I wanted. Still, it’s tiring “, she says.

Ms. Lalonde had to skip dinner because she had forgotten her lunch at home and was afraid to spend too much if she ate in the cafeteria of her school.

The Impression of poverty

This stress that has been experienced by the family was far from being abnormal, according to Catherine Raymond, doctoral candidate in neurological sciences at the research Center of the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal. Poverty is associated with a level of stress higher.

“The most important thing is our impression of poverty. If one lives in a rich neighborhood, and that one has the smallest house in the neighborhood, you will feel more stressed and more poor, than if one lives in the biggest house in a poor neighbourhood “, shows Ms. Raymond.

Ms. Lalonde, who lives with his family in Ahuntsic, a wealthy area of Montreal, has quickly realised everything that is not accessible to people with a low income.

“We are accustomed to going to the bakery on the corner, at the coffee shop near by, but there, I knew that I couldn’t even return because it was not for me. One becomes aware that there are things that we can’t just not pay, one becomes excluded from a certain network, ” says the mother of a family.

The family Lalonde-Paquin has not lived a month in this situation, but some people spend a lifetime juggling with a limited budget. A high level of stress over a long period of time can lead to psychological problems, but also in the physical, what we tend to forget, ” adds Ms. Raymond.

“In the short term, it is beneficial. It is a system that gives us energy, we can use it to go look for a job, get out of bed in the morning, but if the system is activated too often, for too long, we can develop depression, but also of type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease “, mentions the expert.

Support of loved ones

The support of the relatives of the family has been paramount during the month, as the social relations have been reduced to the minimum. Their environment provided them with desserts or invited them to dinner on the Saturday evening, to help get through the month.

“The fact of having a network of family and friends, it helps a lot. If we had not had people who had thought of us, we would have spent, we would not be dead, but it you takes away a little of the pleasure of eating and to go a little further than the basic foods “, says dr. Lalonde.

The stress of the mother

“What bothers me, it is the mental workload associated with the purchasing, planning all the menus and it must be said, of least have the choice of what we will eat this week. I have to adapt to the special. “

“Yesterday evening, we were invited to eat at our neighbors. This is a huge well to go out and change the ideas. To talk about other things. Most importantly, not having to plan everything and to break the head to find out what we will eat ! It is sure that we are lucky to be so well surrounded and to be able to catch our breath. “

“This morning, I felt disorganized and frustrated. Thinking of the different stores where I will have to get the food, I told myself that I éprouverais not have the pleasure usual to go pick my fruits and vegetables at the fruit store of neighborhood, more expensive than other big box stores. “

– Excerpts from the diary

Indebted if they had not received food

Photo Chantal Poirier

The couple has used a trolley to carry the bags donated to the food bank, because they were so many.

The visit to the food bank at the beginning of the third week of the experience was a defining moment for the family. She believes that without this valuable assistance, it would not have been able to finish the month without exceeding the allocated budget.

“The use of resources is fundamental. If one removes the food bank, I think we would have found it difficult the past two weeks, and I even wonder if we would go to the end [of the experience]. We would not have had the choice to go into debt, ” says the mother, Josée Lalonde.

Photo Chantal Poirier

Chantal Comtois
NDMS

The family has made a Friday afternoon in a community center in his neighborhood, Ahuntsic, to receive the food given by the Department of nutrition and community action (SNAC), which offers, among other things, a service troubleshooting food.

“We try to preserve the dignity of people as possible. It installs them in a room so that they wouldn’t have to stand in line outside for too long, we try to put them at ease by talking with them. We give them recipes, we bring in other agencies who offer them information, ” stresses Chantal Comtois, director of the NDMS.

To receive the donation once per month, you must register by proving that his household is under the threshold of low income.

For four people, the threshold is at 46 $ 262 and for a single person, it is 24 949 $.

Photo Martin Alarie

Josée Lalonde and Sebastien Caron in the preparation of recipes in the kitchen collective.

A family of four with both parents at minimum wage full-time is eligible.

A voluntary contribution, which is, on average, 50 cents, is also requested.

More workers

“There are six or seven years, our clientele was made up to 95 % of people on social assistance. Today, 25 % of the people who come are workers in low wage jobs (part-time, on-call, stand-alone), retirees or students, ” says Chantal Comtois.

Moisson Montréal was encrypted in 2017 that 11% of the users of a program of food assistance were employed.

Photo Chantal Poirier

The family has had a good amount of fruit and vegetables to the food bank.

Only 10 % of the clientele of food banks returns every month.

The Journal is provided to compensate the body for the food data and the family Lalonde-Paquin has given $ 5 of their budget for the month.

FIVE bags filled

She emerged with five reusable bags filled with eight loaves of bread, oatmeal, meat, and bacon, thirty of clementines, two big baskets of grapes, a packet of three lettuces, a bag full of Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, milk, yogurt, oil, legumes, pasta, tuna, or even canned vegetables.

“It was quickly seen that it was necessary to think about what they would do with it all. Clean and freeze them, plan how to turn the food, etc, It was not bad eating grapes all week, ” said Ms. Lalonde in his journal.

These donations have allowed the father to take a break from production of bread and especially to allow the family to spend its budget on something other than the base product, and even to blow a little by allowing an exit at the restaurant.

The collective kitchen for socializing

The communal kitchen allows you to prepare meals at a lower cost and to develop cooking skills. It also seems to be an opportunity for participants to socialize, which was greatly missed in the family Lalonde-Paquin during the experiment.

“We note that the participants develop friendships, and even see themselves outside of the sessions, a collective kitchen,” stresses Sébastien Caron, host community to The recycle Bin Bordeaux-Cartierville.

The family Lalonde-Paquin has found it difficult to not have plenty of time to see friends or family because the planning and preparation of meals were all over the place. She did also not have the means to get at it, just as it had been in the habit of doing.

“We managed to cope with the fact that we would not receive people with us during the month, but in reality, you can’t just have you close in on yourself, it is necessary to have a social life, to be surrounded by our friends and families,” said Josée Lalonde.

Moreover, many experts stress that poverty often leads to isolation (to be read tomorrow).

10 to 15 servings

During the challenge, the mother of the family joined in a collective kitchen organized by this organization in his neighborhood.

The groups meet for four hours twice a month to cook three recipes. He is normally a starter, a main dish and a dessert. Each participant leaves with 10 to 15 servings of food for less than $10.

The other participants during the evening were all three of african origin. A worker in computer science and two retirees.

“I learned how to cook soups. I didn’t know what to do with my remaining vegetables before. It is also an opportunity to meet people, to discuss with the other ” says Lydia Lonmene, aged 44, who lives with his spouse. Both work for small wages.

Isolated

At the community kitchen, the participants will consult to the choice of recipes with the host of the body.

Most fruits and vegetables and meat are supplied by The recycle Bin and the rest of the ingredients is bought in turn by one of the participants, but all costs are divided equally.

During his participation, Ms. Lalonde is left with almost a dozen servings of soup with parsnips, soup won-ton and small cakes with fruit, for a total of $4.10.

Under the basket average

The amount of 838 $ per month allocated to the family when the experience is lower than the basket price paid by an average canadian family of two adults and two children in 2017, which is 966,67 $ per month*. This is equivalent to 11 600 $ for a year.

It must also say that this amount is the MAXIMUM amount allotted to the grocery store (which also includes household products, restaurant and alcohol). There is little to no margin of manoeuvre as possible, as it is very difficult for the people at minimum wage to put money aside.

This amount does not take into account contingencies such as an increase of the electricity bill, the purchase is not planned shoes broken for the youngest or even the visit to the dentist, the oldest, which causes a drop in the budget allocated to the grocery store.

*Data from the canadian Report on the price of food consumption conducted by the Universities of Guelph and Dalhousie, which is based on data from Statistics Canada.