But have you tried dehydrated milk?
Look this is the one key question I ask when somebody tells me how they've survived on food subsidies. Have you drank dehydrated milk? Seriously, I think it's a true sign of poorness to have stomached this. I've eaten a damn many things, but the worst was milk dust in water.
I like the comment about "if I shoot a deer does it count" heh I lived without power or water (it was a mile away to an artesian well)... I read a lot of books, chopped a lot of firewood and ate a lot of meat. Because when you're already living outside the system there's not much to stop you from trapping and hunting animals outside the season. But does that count? No. If you live in the city, you're screwed, there's no garden. There's no deer or rabbit or quail or duck or bass or catfish to take.
But in the "city" you don't have the opportunity to "hunt for your food" you can barely grow a herb garden... the entire setup is against you with the concrete and all, in reality you should move to the country and grow a garden... surely you can find a job that you can do for some money. But people don't like to move, even when they clearly should.
I don't know, I'm ranting... you want to feel truly poor? don't eat for three days. Walk two miles every day. Then finally eat half a pound of government peanut butter with crackers and drink dehydrated milk. Then go another two days without food while still walking two miles a day.
And this all explains why my pantry is overflowing with canned vegetables, flour, salt, sugar, canned fruit, a freezer full of meat, a stupendous array of spices and dried chili, it's enough food for 6 months to a year... because apparently if you grow up with "food insecurity" it breaks your mind. You will always stockpile food. I never realized I was even affected until I saw a PBS program about food insecurity and I looked around.