Unemployed Food Writer Now Lives on Food Stamps

If (unlike me) you got out of town and away from your computer over Memorial Day weekend, you might have missed a much-discussed piece that ran in the Seattle Times. The gist is that Ed Murrieta, a former professional restaurant critic who until 2008 was pulling in a healthy salary plus a $1,300-a-month expense account with which to dine out, is now unemployed and living on a monthly $200 allotment of food stamps.

But that's not the interesting part. The interesting part is that, far from being a woe-is-me tale, his article actually makes living off food stamps sound ... not that bad.

He writes: "[W]hile my present situation is a challenge, it is not one for survival. Mine is gastronome's quest to eat well, to maintain a nutritious diet, to satisfy my foodie cravings, and to help those who help me .... Lessons I learned from my parents and cost controls I learned in working in restaurants serve me well. Discount stores, ethnic markets and liquidation stores are my shopping salvation: organic heirloom winesap apples (3 pounds for $1.50) that the supermarket doesn't stock; pork butt I grind into chorizo; $3 truffle oil I drizzle over instant mashed potatoes. Thanks to my knife skills, each salami I splurge on makes a week's worth of sandwiches."

As this quote illustrates, there are important reasons why this experience is not so horrible for Murrieta: he's in the best-case scenario for someone on food stamps. Although he doesn't go into details about his living situation (could he still be living in the house overlooking Puget Sound?), it's clear he isn't homeless. He has neither children nor a spouse; no one is relying on him to put food on the table. And a lifetime of working in the food industry, combined with lessons learned from his immigrant parents, have left him with unique knowledge of how to shop for and cook nutritious food on a budget.

Of course, the reality of living on food stamps is not so easy for everyone. For many families, there are epic delays, bureaucratic red tape, social stigmas, food deserts and worse to contend with. That doesn't make Murrieta's struggles any less valid or give him any less right to receive government aid to feed himself. Food stamps are meant to support people who need help — whether they're students, Whole Foods shoppers or unemployed restaurant critics. But I do worry a bit about splashy news stories that can come off as romanticizing life on food stamps. All the kudos in the world to Murrieta for being able to maintain a decent diet on food stamps, but the Seattle Times should think about following up with a piece about a family living a few miles away who may not be so lucky.

Photo credit: Mr. T in DC