Cost of Dinner

Pantry staples are foods most American kitchens have on hand.

Just a few examples of pantry staples are: flour, sugar, rice, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, canola oil, spices, salt and pepper. Pantry staples are depleted throughout the week through normal meal preparation. For the integrity of this project I have made four decisions regarding the preparation of food.

1. I will not rely heavily on our food storage. Our food storage contains foods that were purchased in bulk. We have long term food storage such as grains, dried milk, sugar, dried beans, and frozen meats. The foods that we use throughout the month will be foods that we purchase for this project, or are part of our basic pantry staples. I have boneless, skinless chicken in our deep freezer, but for the integrity of this project I purchased chicken quarters at $.89/lb.

2. It is assumed that a family living in poverty will have basic pantry staples. Therefore, in order to prepare a tuna sandwich during the week, I will have to purchase the canned tuna using our food budget, but not the mayonnaise or flour for bread since they are considered pantry staples.

3. The estimated cost of the pantry staple will be factored into the cost of the meal, since the pantry staple will eventually need to be replenished.

4. If a pantry staple is depleted, it will be replaced. Because pantry staples are the building blocks of the food we eat, we cannot simply "go without." Therefore, if we need flour to make bread, we will buy it with money from our grocery budget.