I had no idea that you were a lesbian woman. Had I known that, I would have scoffed at the budget findings. As a single (though attached to a working man) woman, I find even gas prices hard to contemplate. As a recent college graduate, however, I have taken my share of women's studies courses to validate that the glass ceiling for women (LGBT or straight) just doesn't cut it when it comes to living alone in the area where one's degree best suits him or her (for me, it's Boston, where I'll be moving into the suburbs with my boyfriend, who recently changed jobs from Providence to Norwood) still exists and is very prevalent especially among women just graduating from America's top colleges (among them Syracuse University, where I've just graduated from). I assert that women everywhere judge and assert fair treatment and pay at mostly male-dominated firms and companies during this time of graduation and confirmation of degree and confirmation of MBA and PhD. graduates of Syracuse University and beyond. If your interest is food, I never went to culinary school, yet my total immersion is in the culinary and cooking arts, so I hope soon to get a job in either the reception (where most of my experience is) or the cooking (where most of my ad hoc experience is) industries.

The best from the Northeast,
Liz Petty

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I don't know. I think there is a bigger emphasis on the cost of food when you have children, so it seems normal that they would focus on that type of family. Food costs just aren't usually a hot topic in the young, singles group. I also don't know that there is any difference in two parent families with children of different races. Does one race spend money differently that another? However, I suppose it would just be more interesting of a story to include more variety.

I think food costs are generally an issue discussed among the elderly, so that might be a good group to observe.

In general though, I think families with children are the most interesting segment for this type of article.

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I agree that food costs affect everyone, but I don't know about equally.

With young people, even if you are struggling, income/expenses seem to be more FLEXIBLE even if you don't have more disposable income. Either way, it doesn't seem to be a group that discusses it much. At least in my experience, it is usually families with children and older people that are discussing food prices. The single people I know are complaining more about the costs of other things.

The writers could have added any number of demographics, but I think they have a market of readers that would most be interested in the family angle.

I just don't think they were slighting any group by not covering all of them. I think they just chose a segment that they thought fit the story. It may make the story more interesting to include other groups, but I don't know that it was a slight to exclude anyone.

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Interesting. Americans seem to have this idea that the entire country is made up of married couples with kids, and that those are the "real" families. But what about single moms? Inflation must hit them very hard. And elderly people must be feeling the pinch as well. And since I'm a single woman without kids, do I not count because I'm not part of a "family"?

I definitely agree that the article should have included some different kinds of families and some different races. Not because race is necessarily associated with spending habits, but because it's important for a newspaper to speak to the whole community, not marginalize part of it. And because a project like that gives a voice to people who are often unheard.

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As a poor college student, I definitely agree that rising food costs affect everyone and it would be interesting to see a variety of people taken into consideration. Most of the money I do make goes into buying food and I know I wish I could be a little more savvy when it comes to limiting my spending.

Also, while there might not be a HUGE difference between families of different ethnic backgrounds, I would imagine there would be some since the type of food they eat on a regular basis might differ.

The world is constantly changing and we need to look beyond the "typical" nuclear family of the past (mom, dad, 2.5 kids, and a dog/cat) and take into consideration a variety of people. I really would be interested to see single parent families included since many of my friends are single parents.

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portland demographic information (via wikipedia) kind of suggests white families are their target audience.

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Thanks Marisa, for including this on Slashfood. I wrote the letter and original blogpost because here was a full cover page of our largest state newspaper, completely missing the boat in reflecting our community. Believe it or not, here in Oregon we're not all white, married, with 2.5 kids. But looking at this article, you'd think we were. I certainly don't think there was any ill intent on the part of the writer or editor of this piece, but what a missed opportunity it was to truly reflect the community. Four stories all very similar, and to then in the opening paragraph say these families looked like their FoodDay readers, well, they just don't. As a consultant, I advise and work with my clients to authentically tell their stories, and to involve and reflect the diversity of our community. I think the media, and we as bloggers, can play a huge role in this as well. I hope my newspaper can do a better job of it: we can all benefit from the rich stories to be told from the elderly, to single parents, to GLBT families, and families of color. The list could go on and on: why give only one kind of example when profiling 4 families?

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Does sexual preference affect what you eat?!

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It would have been really interesting to see families of all sizes AND backgrounds for this article. Then many kinds of issues would have been addressed that wouldn't necessarily be seen in a nuclear family. For example, as a single woman I had a big problem with cooking for myself but not wasting food (cooking for one is hard!) so I ate things like fruit and cheese and crackers more often than a cooked meal, as a nuclear family mom I worry more about cramming healthy fresh foods down the gullets of my kids.

But more than that, there are a host of other things that affect your food costs depending on your lifestyle and more of those issues would have been explored if the sample makeup was larger. How did it affect your food budget if you have large extended family Sunday dinners every week? What if you are a soccer mom and had to purchase game-time snacks and drinks that week? What if you evening obligations that make it impossible to cook every Tuesday evening? What if you have medical issues that have changed the way you are able to cook (I'm diabetic, cooking for my health is SPENDY.)

A family of four with two teenagers instead of two smaller kids are going to be very different. As would be a family of four with two single mom's co-parenting two kids, a couple who has one of the member's parents living with them, or four college housemates.

The study was a good idea but did a disservice to their readers with it's self-imposed limiations.

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@lauren:

Wikipedia states the following:

"Out of 223,737 households, 24.5% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.1% are married couples living together, 10.8% have a female householder with no husband present, and 47.1% are non-families. 34.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 9% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older."

Almost half of households are non-families. If the paper truly wanted to target the demographic representatively, then 2 of the 4 households would have been single individuals.

I understand why families were targeted, and I don't think it was done in an explicit, discriminatory manner. However, I also think that if you want to do a story on how food prices affect all community members, you would provide an article of much higher quality and meaning had a more representative profile of families and non-families were covered.

@Alex: Of course not. However, like race or familial organization, it is unique in many sub-cultural aspects. It would be nice to have a story showing the multitudinous ways rising food prices affects these sub-cultures and social spheres.

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I believe they went with the typical famly because it is balanced. You can't take a family of 4 and put beside them a family of two and expect them to match up.And oregon does have a large white population not like here is california where it would have been a more mixed event. I asked the question "How much do you spend on food a month"? At a forum i go to alot and it was interesting how many families eat out. And how the 2 person famlies stayed in for dinner.
I wasn't seeing the prices go up at the market like a lot of people were till yesterday when i went to buy my favorite sparkling water and it has gone up .50. It's gas prices and that it's. All I can say is everyone get out and vote this year so maybe we can make some changes!

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It always makes me feel good seeing lgbt people interviewed in the newspaper.

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I'm not sure how your sexuality would play into the demographics of food buying, but certainly being single and/or single with children does...heck, even those people who immigrate from different countries are going to have different eating styles/habits.

I think, though, in the name of science, they probably tried to choose a single demographic with which to compare against. It would be interesting if they ran a series of stories of different demographics throughtout the week then did a larger overall comparison for the weekend.

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Marisa,

I know it's a little late, but I've been rereading my comments, and I just read your reply. My bad! I must have misread the post.

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