Omnivore Atlanta

Today’s New York Times website includes a video about patrons of a food bank in California. The reporter, Monica Almeida, spent a year tracking people who use the facility, a faith-based organization. Click here and look for the video piece entitled “A Year of Struggle at a Food Bank”…

Richard Blais is featured in a Businessweek article about the hamburger renaissance:

A finalist on Bravo’s Top Chef last season, Blais is a student of molecular gastronomy, cooking with nitrogen and the like. One of his beef burgers is cooked sous-vide, which is French for “under vacuum,” and describes food that is cooked inside an airtight plastic bag over a long period at low temperatures. What Blaise brokers in is not so much hamburgers as proteins of any ilk stuck between two buns….

Joel Antunes is cooking in Bali.

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LUNCH CRUNCH: Should Georgia's prisoners get lunch every day?

Georgia prisons are getting national attention this morning for their initiative to save money by not giving prisoners lunch three days a week. According to an Associated Press article running in some major newspapers today, prisoners in Georgia will still get the same amount of calories every day (2,800 for men and 2,300 for women), but now won’t get lunch on Fridays – in addition to Saturdays and Sundays, when state prisoners have been lunch-less for years now. Instead, they’ll get bigger portions at breakfast and dinner on those days.

As the fifth-largest prison system in the nation, the Georgia Department of Corrections has seen some major budget cuts within the last fiscal year, and they have to make up for the difference any way they can. And at a time when Georgia has a child food insecurity rate of almost 20 percent, it’s hard to decide just who deserves a free and healthy lunch every day.

Opponents of the prison lunch cut back say it increases violence in prisons because inmates become disgruntled as food becomes a hot commodity. The AP pulled up reports of inmate assaults through an open records request for their story and found that reports of inmate assaults have increased “substantially” in Georgia prisons for fiscal year 2009 over the previous year. However, it is unclear if there is any connection between the assaults and the lack of lunch.

(Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

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A Madison County, Ill., court approved a settlement last Wednesday under which Tyson Foods Inc. — the nation’s largest meat producer — will donate 1.7 million pounds of chicken to Illinois food banks to end a nearly eight-year lawsuit.

The legal issue arose after accusations that the company had inflated the retail weight of poultry by infusing the meat with cold water. The class action suit ran into settlement issues because the people who bought the chicken as early as 2001 no longer have proof of purchase.

Instead, in an out of court settlement, Tyson has agreed to donate the unclaimed funds in the form of chicken to be distributed by Feeding Illinois, the former Illinois Food Bank Association.

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Empty shelves at the Atlanta Community Food Bank

The holidays are here, but the joys of giving, receiving, and helping others have become more of a fantasy than reality this season. As our economy’s stock market plunged and millions of people got their pink slips, the ability for people to reach out and give back has declined drastically.

Monetary and food donations are suffering most as a result of the failing economy. It’s a sad phenomenon considering this society capitalizes on draining consumers dry with every given holiday. We make money by selling dreams and gifts to accompany them. But now our life essentials are put in jeopardy.

Food banks have experienced a major drop in donations although there was an increase in the demand for service. More people understand that others need help in this crisis, but there is less in the position to do so as they usually could. One food bank in Chamblee said that last November there were only 70 families seeking assistance. This year, at the very same food bank, 896 families sought out help.

Recently, I attended the Salvation Army’s annual food drive. The “Canathon” — which is also sponsored by Channel 11 Alive — has a turnout that was much lower than in previous years. There was also a growth of people looking to get food help for the holidays. A spokesperson for the Salvation Army said in order to help as many people as possible they would have to give less to stretch the donations.

Many food banks have had to make that sacrifice. Where they would usually be able to help families with a large food supply, they are looking to feed more families with about one day’s meal each. For those families who are running out of food, or cannot afford a big holiday dinner, every little bit helps.

Here are some places to give donations: Atlanta Community Food Bank, Salvation Army, and Society of St. Vincent de Paul. MyFox Atlanta also got in on the discussion about feeding more with less food.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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