Food audit

What's for dinner? According to Lisa Miller, our food
choices have become "the definitive marker" of our social status. In her Newsweek cover story, three families from
Brooklyn are pictured at their dinner tables. The first family, two adults and
two children, are eating meatballs, buckwheat pasta and organic romaine
lettuce. Mom selects locally grown and organic items and says that she spends "hours
each day thinking about, shopping for, and preparing" food. She believes that
she is contributing to the cause of greater health and the survival of the
planet. This family spends approximately 20 percent of its income, or $1,000
per month, on food.  

A second family of two kids and a single mom is shown
with a dinner of pasta with pesto and chicken breast. They spend $100 a week on
food; the mom's income is a $13-an-hour catering job. Fresh fruits and
vegetables are too expensive, the mom says, and they're not fresh in the
groceries where she shops. She worries about not having enough to eat.

The third family, an adult son and his mom, are eating
turkey salisbury steak with cheese, potatoes and green beans. Occasionally they
feed a niece or nephew who comes by. They are on fixed incomes, and they spend
$75 a week on food. The author adds that the son makes a pot of beans and rice
for the food pantry every week.