Most people in the United States of America know what food stamps, now called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) are. Right now, many people are able to use SNAP that have not had it in the past. In addition to buying food with SNAP, you can buy vegetable seeds and plants to grow your own food. Growing vegetables with SNAP isn’t hard.
How To Grow Vegetables
How do you grow these seeds and plants? For help, contact your local county Extension agent. Actually, most counties have a Horticulture/Agriculture agent that can tell you what vegetables grow best in your area and when to plant them. Texas A&M University has a website that has growing instructions for all the popular vegetables that grow here. As you harvest your vegetables, the Family and Consumer Science agent can give you recipes for cooking your vegetables so you and your family will enjoy eating them.
Get Children Involved
Not sure how to get your children to eat their vegetables? Studies at elementary school gardens show that children are much more likely to eat vegetables they grew. Gardening also teaches kids science and math, which are essential to earning a good living. There are loads of lesson plans to use gardening to teach school subjects on the internet. A good source of such lessons is the Junior Master Gardener series of lessons. Ask your child’s teacher about Junior Master Gardener groups in the area.
Container Gardening
You can grow vegetables even if you do not have a yard. Container gardening in pots either in your home or on the porch or balcony will still provide food for your family. Just make sure you do not put too many pots on your balcony or it will fall down. Wet dirt and plants are heavy!
Community Gardens
In Great Britain, people get “allotments”. These are spaces in a community garden in which to grow vegetables. There are more and more community gardens in the United States. Your Extension agent will know where these are located, or you can Google “community gardens” and your zip code to find them. Most have a modest fee, but some do make provisions for people who cannot afford the fee. Many gardens will pair you with a garden mentor to help you learn how to grow the vegetables you want to eat.
Growing vegetables with SNAP is not hard. There are lots of books in the library, lots of blogs like this one online, and the Extension agent and Master Gardeners to answer questions. If you need more information, email me at stephanie@stephaniesuesansmith.com. If I don’t know the answer, I will find someone who does.
Want to learn to garden? My first attempt at gardening ended up in failure. The weeds took over and squeezed the vegetables out. I was very frustrated by this waste of good seed, time, and money. So I became a master gardener and spent a lot of time helping other people avoid or overcome problems in their garden.
In order to help others garden successfully, I have written a book, Vegetable Gardening from the Ground Up, available in an ebook or a paperback from Amazon. It is also in Kindle Unlimited.
