"Good start" funding for nutritional supplements

What an excellent meeting yesterday with Patrick Brennan, legislative assistant for Senator Kay Hagan. We talked about the need for "good start" money for some people when they first receive nutritional supplement funding such as food stamps, SNAP, or WIC. This money would let them get started and make the best use of resources.

How? By providing a little extra money so they can cook at home, from scratch when possible. The money could be used to buy kitchen essentials, like salt, baking powder, and mustard. For some, it would be used to buy a pot, a kitchen knife, and enough plates and cutlery for everyone. Many people without traditional kitchens could cook if they had an electric rice cooker, crock pot, or skillet.

Patrick said he thought the idea was worthy of being considered as a potential addition to the next farm bill. I'll be sending him more info and keeping you posted here.

Meanwhile, let's thank Senator Hagan for her great work on the Tester-Hagan amendment to the current farm bill. This amendment would protect small, local food producers from regulations aimed at industrial-sized operations. Ask your senators to support this amendment with the Senate reconvenes.

What do you consider to be a kitchen essential? If you were cooking for weeks in a hotel room or on a picnic table at a campground, what would you need?