For Some Ohioans, Even Meat Is Out Of ReachExcerpted from NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92592545by Yuki Noguchi
My editorial comments in BOLD 
Angelica Hernandez and her mother, Gloria Nunez
Katia Dunn/NPR pic
They don't seem to have missed many any mealsAll Things Considered, July 17, 2008 · A generation ago, the livelihood of Gloria Nunez's family was built on cars.
Her father worked at General Motors for 45 years before retiring. Her mother taught driver's education. Nunez and her six siblings grew up middle class.
Things have changed considerably for this Ohio family.
Nunez's van broke down last fall. Now, her 19-year-old daughter has no reliable transportation out of their subsidized housing complex in Fostoria, 40 miles south of Toledo, to look for a job.
Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government assistance and food stamps. Some have part-time jobs, but working is made more difficult with no car or public transportation.
Low-income families in Ohio say they are particularly hard-hit by the changes in the economy, according to a new poll conducted by NPR, The Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health. <<<SNIP>>>
Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree.
((She's NEVER worked, never, ever contributed to society)) She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job. Instead, she and her daughter, Angelica Hernandez, survive on a $637 Social Security check and $102 in food stamps.
They didn't get that fat on less than $800 a month gross...Hernandez received her high school diploma and has had several jobs in recent years.<<<SNIP>>>
People tell Nunez her daughter could get more money in public assistance if she had a child.
"A lot of people have told me, 'Why don't your daughter have a kid?'"
Perhaps no one can afford enough flour to roll her in to find a wet spot...They both reject that as a plan.
<<<SNIP>>>
The rising cost of food means their money gets them about a third fewer bags of groceries — $100 used to buy about 12 bags of groceries, but now it's more like seven or eight. So they cut back on expensive items like meat, and they don't buy extras like ice cream anymore. Instead, they eat a lot of starches like potatoes and noodles.
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I've never earned more than $30k a year, I have, also, never failed to be able to afford steaks, ribs, shrimp and all the other crap I like to eat, but then, unlike Nunez, I do take my fat ass to work...
