From B comes this gen in the NYT: Money Is Tight, and Junk Food Beckons:
This fall a couple in Encinitas, Calif., conducted their own experiment to find out what it was like to live for a month on just a dollar a day for food. Overnight, their diets changed significantly. The budget forced them to give up many store-bought foods and dinners out. Even bread and canned refried beans were too expensive.
…
Breakfast consisted of oatmeal; lunch was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
I have to laugh, because that has been my diet for oh, ten years.
Tags: food
…and dinner was homemade beans and tortillas.
They could have increased the variety and nutrition of their diet by growing some vegetables relatively easily. Cilantro, radishes, and green onions both grow fairly quickly and can be grown in a medium sized pot (8-10″): not even a need for a garden. They would make a decent salsa, especially with a little lemon juice.
A few other veges that grow really easily and quickly: swiss chard, lettuce, turnips, beets. Even strawberries can be grown in pots.
True, gardening takes more time, but usually in small bits, regularly. If one is buying beans, oatmeal, and rice in bulk, then with a small garden, one can save a lot of shopping time.
I’d be concerned, if I’d been one of their mothers, as much about calcium and iron as vit. C. Fresh greens have all of those essential nutrients.