Food banks are too far away (I'm in Opaheke) it seems no - one can deliver this far and walking 10kg+ with that weight as a 41kg male it's just barely possible.

Haven't the feintist idea what we will do.

Asked wins for a grant but I've already had two this year and as of late (3wks) they won't accept my application for TAS.

What do I do guys? Loosing my mind.

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[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 37 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

You can feed two for that, maybe not the yummiest but you can do it.

5kg rice - $10
can of beans - less than $1.50 each
I'd put in some chicken stock for flavour (powder, not fancy stuff). You could use soy sauce for flavour instead, or just check what you have in the cupboard.

Use the stock water to cook the rice, throw in beans and heat through. You could also mix eggs through for some protein.

10kg of rice is $20 and should easily cover you, 10 cans of beans for $15, couple of things of stock for $10.

That's $45, now grab some knock off weetbix (2x for $11) and eat with water to avoid the high cost of milk. Grab a bag of sugar to make it palatable ($3 for loads).

That's $59 total and should feed two of you for two weeks with some left over (but you'll never want to eat it again after eating the same every day for two weeks).

Also, check that the food bank you're thinking of is your only option. There are a couple of options sort of near Ōpaheke, see https://www.zerohunger.org.nz/find-a-community-food-organisation

You could also use some of that $70 to catch a bus, you don't have to walk. But if you do walk, you don't have to take all 10kg, you could just take what you can comfortably carry, it would be better than nothing.

But you asked about buying food, beans and rice are the cheap and filling options. Use any spare money to flavour it or throw in additions like a can of diced tomatoes or some frozen mixed veg.

[–] TechnoCat@piefed.social 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah. Beans and rice is what I was going to say. Doesn't really get cheaper while remaining nutritious.

[–] BaconWrappedEnigma@lemmy.nz 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Dry beans are even cheaper than canned beans. Just soak em overnight, put them in fresh batch of water, and then cook them for like 20 mins. Beluga lentils are smaller and cook faster than regular beans. You need to add salt to the water before you cook them. You can add fat into the beans to make them more delicious. If you have a tough set of customers, a 1/4 teaspoon of MSG makes beans really popular.

Soaking them and tossing the water makes them less windy according to research-based evidence.

[–] TechnoCat@piefed.social 5 points 2 months ago

I am a big fan of dry beans. And can attest to washing them before and after cooking being beneficial to minimize gas.

[–] TagMeInSkipIGotThis@lemmy.nz 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Rice, beans, split peas & lentils. It might feel like its not that well rounded on the face of it, but you're actually getting carbs, protein & fibre so its better than you might think. And the peas & lentils are dried so last ages, are cheap and cook relatively quick too.

As Dave mentions below adding some stock power for flavour could help to make it more interesting, or if you're going the lentils route a curry powder (if you like spices) would add variety too.

Just to add to Dave's price list, looking at Woolworths (as going by google maps that's likely the nearest supermarket):

Red Split Lentils come in a 375g bag for $2.30 - which works out to $6.10 / kg so is cheaper than buying from the bulk bins.
Green or Yellow Split Peas are even cheaper a 500g bag for $2.20 - so $4.40 / kg.

ETA - just a thought as well, I would guess Papakura probably has an Indian grocers (often small dairy sized) or other non-main stream grocers. Particularly the former you can often get a far wider variety of dried legumes, beans etc for a good price.