Recipes make the most of food bank offerings

Eric Shaddock talks about his plans for cooking the food he picked up at the ACCESS food pantry Wednesday in Ashland. Jim Craven | Daily Tidings

When Joanie Smith started using food pantries to supplement her food budget this fall, she noticed that many of those in line with her didn't know what to do with the abundant staples, such as rice, beans and canned goods.

She started posting free recipes using common food pantry items on Craigslist and now receives between 50 and 100 e-mails every week from shoppers around the Northwest that she answers from her Phoenix home. She suggests ways to use unusual foods, but most of her recipes involve dried beans, canned meats, rice, pasta and canned vegetables.

"When I was growing up, those kinds of foods were healthy, nutritious and economical," she said. "Even if I didn't have to get food boxes a couple of times a year, I'd still cook with them — they're so versatile."

Smith gets many requests from young people who grew up on fast food and microwave cooking asking how to cook basic items.

"A lot of these women don't even now how to do basic cooking, so they aren't sure how to boil the dried beans," she said. "Even a recipe for navy beans is still confusing if you don't know how to boil water. Some of them think you put soap in the water overnight to soak them."

She has also devised recipes for canned salmon, powdered eggs, edamame, and cranberries that get donated in hoards after the holidays.

At the food pantry

On a visit to Ashland's ACCESS food pantry, housed at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Smith used a sample box of food to create eight different meals, including Spanish rice, tuna casserole, a hearty soup with Ramen noodles and canned veggies and even some no-flour peanut butter cookies for dessert. She had only two cans leftover.

Joanie Smith has created recipes that people can make from common food pantry items. Jim Craven | Daily Tidings

"Some of these recipes are fantastic because they use so few ingredients," said Barbara Derhalli, manager of the food pantry. "I'm really excited about it because people need these things and they'll be able to use the food we have to give them."

Derhalli said two or three people every week pass up items such as yogurt, tofu or dried beans, either because they don't like the food or are unsure how to use it.

Both the ACCESS pantry and the Ashland Emergency Food Bank use a shopping format in which recipients are able to choose their own food from predetermined categories, which cuts down on food waste, directors of the programs said.

"It's nice to be able to give people a choice, because I think they'll choose what they're going to use," said Brad Woodring, manager of the Ashland Emergency Food Bank. "I think definitely people like that, and I'm a firm believer in, 'Why give stuff to people that they're not going to use or are unfamiliar with?'"

Still, the food bank does receive odd donations from time to time, such as a recent large shipment of sweet potato puree. Volunteers provided a list of meal ideas, such as smoothies, casseroles, using it to thicken soup or for baby food.

Volunteers who guide customers through the food bank can also suggest ways to serve the food if the shopper seems uncertain about accepting less-common vegetables such as turnips, said Ann Marie Huston, vice president of the food bank.

ACCESS volunteers sometimes direct shoppers to the Web site healthyrecipes.oregonstate.edu, which features recipes developed by Oregon State University researchers to meet dietary guidelines at a low cost, said Philip Yates, nutrition programs director.

Shoppers respond

Even with a few suggestions, those who frequent food pantries say the limited offerings require imagination.

"You've got to be creative," shopper Eric Shaddock said as he thumbed through his lot.

The carton of eggs would become deviled eggs and egg salad sandwiches, a can of chili as topping for hot dogs, Shaddock said. He doesn't use recipes but has devised a chicken gumbo, taco soup and enchilada casserole good enough to share occasionally with co-workers.

"The problem is it's always the same thing over and over again, and very limited, so you end up having to augment cheaply, but then again every once in a while you get things that are very cool," said shopper Bonnie Brouwer, who added happily that she found squash and eggplant this week. On her last visit, she took home a rare bag of rice flour.

Her family has devised unique meals over the years — her daughter once made a chocolate cake using biscuit mix — but even she turns down some offerings.

"I turned down the beans just today," she said. "They don't get along with me, and there are times when, no, I'm not going to take that because we wouldn't eat it. Our kids are just as bad as everyone else's."

For more of Joanie Smith's recipes, contact her at grannyj40@yahoo.com.

Staff writer Julie French can be reached at 482-3456 ext. 227 or jfrench@dailytidings.com.