Let me introduce myself and give you some background if you don't know me.    My name is Jane Ulness.   I am 70 years young, ( some days LOL) and I live in a multi- generational house.   I take care of my grandchild , design greeting cards, keep house, do some volunteer work, and write a blog.  

It came to my attention when my daughter worked several years teaching low income children that many parents were having trouble making the food budget stretch.  Many were on SNAP.
I discovered the problem was that none had ever taught them how to shop or cook from scratch- or semi- scratch.   My daughter told one lady, "oh my mom knows how.   ".  I have been doing it for years.    I have been published in Taste of Home and Woman's Day.  

No, I haven't got a degree- except for the degree of the college of hard knocks, as my mother would have said.   I have lived it.    In December of 1971, I was left with 5.12 , utility bills, rent and daycare bills looming, and a paycheck that wasn't going to cover zilch.    I had to sink or swim, and I was going to swim.    I knew quite a lot from watching my mother that budgeted no mater how much my dad made.   I started reading everything I could read.  I tried a lot of things, fell and got up again and tried more.   Those days there wasn't the Internet or a lot of tv.   We had a 10 inch black and white with rabbit ears.   When it died, we listened to the radio.   I still enjoy listening to radio drama.

Even when times got better, I still budgeted and continued to learn everything I could.    I made a plan and tweeked  it to meet our current needs until I have a good plan that doesn't take a lot of time or effort, but works and puts nutritious meals on the table.

My passion is to do what I can to see that a child doesn't go hungry just because their parents don't know how to shop wisely or cook.   They stopped teaching home Ec in schools I hear, and if your parents didnt cook scratch, you probably don't know either.

No child should have to suffer the insecurity of not having food in the pantry.   Fiscally, I can't do much.  I give to the food bank when I can , and fill food bags for an out reach program when I get a chance.   The best I can do is education.    I would love to teach.  For now, the best I can do is write a blog and hope enough people can read it.

I don't get money for my blog.   I write it with the hopes I've helped someone feed their kids a nutritious meal.