Food Relief and Voters in Ohio

Mushroom risotto, recipes below

Recently news outlets have been talking about the midterm elections. Some have also been reporting on the ripple effect of the recession on Americans. For example, volunteers and state funded units working to feed the unemployed and underemployed have seen the number of folks who come to them for relief double and triple of the last several months. During the Great Depression New Deal relief programs started after Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932. Federal food relief came in many forms—emergency food stations, surplus food distribution programs, soup kitchens, breadlines, and relief gardens. New Deal administrators established emergency food stations in communities facing imminent starvation. For instance, in 1938, the staff of an emergency food station in Cleveland, Ohio, passed out oranges, apples, and a pound of rice to starving residents. These stations and other related relief strategies both helped communities facing starvation and they also got out the vote for the Democrat machine in midterm elections. Here is a mushroom risotto recipe that calls for one of the ingredients distributed as food aid during the Depression. The recipe is appropriate for this story and simple and inexpensive to prepare.

Memorable mushroom risotto recipe: http://schnitzelandthetrout.blogspot.com/2010/09/memorable-mushroom-risotto.html

Vegan mushroom risotto recipe: http://veganventures.blogspot.com/2006/08/mushroom-risotto.html