Running notes
4.18 miles in 60 minutes. I was shooting for 70 seconds at 6.0mph and then 110 seconds at 3.0mph for recovery. That pencils out to 2.33 miles at 6.0mph and 1.83 miles at 3.0mph. Bpm didn't hit 140 until 20 minutes into the session.
I was on my "favorite" treadmill. The only problems I experienced were right hamstring cramping between 10 minutes in and 20 minutes in.
Livestock
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| ISA Brown and Barred Rock pullets |
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| Rabbits, both female. Creatively named "Black" and "White". Unbred, female rabbits are the original "stock option". They are called "does" because one does not need to exercise the option. |
The bunnies are already at Southern Belle's "farm". The chicks will be heading over there in short-order.
The Charlotte, Michigan Family-Farm-Home has $1 off on one-week old Cornish-Rock meat birds, if anybody is interested in them. They have at least 70 of them when I picked up Southern Belle's chicks.
Sore Throats
Kubota had "something" and the symptom that caused him the greatest discomfort was the sore throat.
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| The key point is not the brand but the ingredients. |
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| Several brands offer "max" versions that have 15mg of Benzocaine per lozenge. |
Kubota was impressed by the pain relief.
A question for the folks who work in food pantries
I assume that there is some variation in the food preferences of various constituencies who rely on food-banks.
I remember working in a restaurant and one group ALWAYS selected "Orange Drink" over all other soft-drinks. Another example is that younger people almost always choose "American Processed Food-like" slices when ordering sandwiches at Subway, with the hip, 40 year-olds ordering Provolone or Pepper-Jack and the mature, senior citizens being more likely to order Cheddar.
The reason I am floating the question is that food-banks that receive Federally subsidized foods are prohibited from denying food to anybody, even if that person had already visited 8 other food-banks that week or was highly selective and only took the high-cost items. I assume that they are not forced to give food to people who are violently drunk or actively over-dosing.
Personally, one group who I have a great deal of empathy for are the older senior citizens whose purchasing power has been crushed by many years of inflation. Unlike younger people, getting a job (or a second job) is not an option.
The question on the table is "What food items are eagerly sought by older senior citizens but are not preferred by people who, conceivably, could be working?
My (limited) information is that list includes Campbell's condensed soups, canned beans and canned peas, boxed Jiffy muffin mixes, Hamburger-Helper type skillet boxed foods, Rice-A-Roni/Spanish Rice type foods, instant Oatmeal, boxed Jello, cottage cheese, creamy peanut butter.
These are foods that were very popular in the 1960s and 1970s. They require some preparation as they are not ready-to-eat. They are fairly dense in terms of nutrition and they are soft/easy to chew foods. On the downside, many of them are high to very-high in sodium
What are your boots-on-the-ground opinions?
I think more people would be willing to donate food to food-pantries if they had some kind of assurance that most of it would go to people who really needed it. Since the people working at the pantries cannot exercise that control, it must be done by the selection of what is donated.
A lot of 'starving college students' will combine canned meats with bread or crackers, as will workers who spend their lunch hour close to work to save $$ on gas as well as food. Some will gather spare mayo - mustard - jelly single serve packets to include into their food so as to not require refrigeration
ReplyDeleteI like your questions, they are usually very thought provoking and make good conversation starters with people on both sides of the aisle.
ReplyDeleteJoe the convenience foods (heat and eat) are very popular with elderly as well as everybody else. In my food bank work, I notice if it needs cooking very few will take it home.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to target elderly directly look to the senior centers where they in my area Feed them Lunch and donate directly.
For take home donations I suggest the boxed mac and cheese with the cheese packet inside. No added milk and so on. Boil the noodles, drain, squeeze the packet stir and eat. Tasty BTW, going to have some for lunch.
"In my food bank work, I notice if it needs cooking very few will take it home."
DeleteYou mean that only the people who are really hungry and needy will take foods that require modest amounts of prep?
That almost seems like a feature. Please note that I am not talking about baking beans from scratch or baking bread that needs to rise.
Just the facts Joe.
DeleteI accept that what you wrote is a fact.
DeleteMichael the anonymous here.
DeleteI was unclear. A lot of the folks who come to our food bank don't have a fixed address.
Homeless or semi-homeless.
Thus their ability to cook food is limited.
Likewise after I called a few home care nurses I worked with a LOT of our homebound elderly are not fully safe cooking much more than microwave or quick Mac and cheese style meals.
Our area has a senior center, bus support and meals on wheels because of local businesses and volunteers who support it.
Mac and cheese with squeeze cheese is most requested meals. No milk needed.
Hope this helps.
I have gone back and forth on the food pantry issue. Here "Blessing Boxes" are quite common outside churches, and there have been reports of people going around town and collecting all the good-stuff, and re-selling it on the roadside flea-markets for profit. Then there's the debate about need, which is sorely subjective.
ReplyDeleteI say it is God's will. I give the money, the church does the work, the rest isn't my problem, and I try not to worry.
Ask around your local AO. What about Meals-on-wheels, that tends to target the same demographic? Veteran's organizations may have a food-pantry, or know of specific individuals in need. Aim-small, miss-small!
Fred in Texas, time to prepare and a kitchen area are a huge game changer. People who are struggling to stretch the grocery budget are also usually struggling in other areas like time control and housing. That was my experience when I was young and poor. Maybe there's a kitchen but cooking utensils and pots and pans are the bottleneck... There's a reason the military has developed and refined the individual supply packet. (MRE and ammo packs). It works. A big area that the food pantry NEEDS more of is toilet paper, toothpaste and brushes, hygiene items etc. That was always an area that was lacking back then.
ReplyDeleteFred again. I just thought about this, what about non-food items unique to the elderly? Polident, aspercream and menthol rubs, or stuff your mom and dad used when you were young...
ReplyDeleteOur church has a separate ministry that serves the local VA home. They have a list that they rotate through every three months where they solicit donations for items like the ones you mentioned. I suspect that the food-pantry and the VA ministry cooperate with inventory-leveling.
DeleteMy experience is a bit tainted. We bag up what we have and hand it out as is. One bag of frozen food, on bag of canned goods and usually a gallon of milk or fruit juice. No hunting for this or that.
ReplyDeleteI will say the universal favorite is....A block of government cheese! People love that stuff especially seniors.
BTW, many of the seniors we hand food to are raising their grandchildren.
I want to reinforce what Gerry just said. There are MANY Seniors raising their grandchildren ! Some adopting them, some through Foster Care ( In either case they may at least get some Medicaid help for the kids healthcare), and some in informal legal situations. I would have to suggest it is probably 5x - 10x the numbers I saw 40 years ago. ( Of course, I am more in the know than I used to be as we are raising 3 of ours.) I will say some ethnic-cultural groups seem to jump in to one degree or another to help their family/grandkids quicker than others. In any case it can be costly for grandparents especially if they are on a limited or fixed income.
DeleteThe food-pantry I am most affiliated with went to handing out "boxes" when Covid shut-down in-person visits. The staff boxed up the stuff and carried it out to the waiting cars.
DeleteThe downside was that they were handing out white-bread to diabetics and handing out foods they knew were going into the trash-can as soon as the family got home.
Not many elegant solutions.
Our food bank only has what is given by grocery stores and whatever is fresh is close to the 'best by' date. For example we have several pallets of a cookie called crust-less PB& jelly. Now little kids are very pleased with this particular selection.. that makes me smile.
ReplyDeleteOurs has 'special needs' packages only for those with infants or elderly people. Milk, formula, diapers, a little meat if available and items that are already cooked. As to cooking, some people, in an effort to keep utility bills down try to use as little electricity as possible, maybe only using a microwave or hot plate to heat food on. We did, one time, have new pillows, that was a luxury that poor seldom have. Thanks for letting me chime in - JoeRoy
ReplyDelete65 years ago as a poor college student in NOLA, I became fond of Red Beans and Rice, and Filay Gumbo. Both dishes require extensive preparation. Now, a tasty and filling combo is a can of Hormel chile with beans and a can of cut corn. Heat and serve.
ReplyDeleteHmm, my limited experience with food pantries was at places where you could only get food if you lived in specific local zip codes - and you got what the workers gave you in a box; you didn't get a choice.
ReplyDeleteBut those pantries were very well organized and I don't know their funding above regional (part of a state) levels.
Jonathan
I thought the latest research shows a j-shaped relationship between hours of jogging and mortality. You may want to consider cutting back to 3-4 sessions per week and 45 minutes per session. More is not necessarily better.
ReplyDeleteSore throat is often caused by post nasal drip irritating the throat at night. Echineacea/goldenseal can be very useful to dry the drip.
ReplyDeleteIt may not work in all cases, but it is very inexpensive and easy to obtain. Worth a try.