History Main / PovertyFood

Poverty Food is usually portrayed as an unappetizing, bleak and gloppy substance. TruthInTelevision in the sense that mush-like meals are cheap and easy to make while still being sufficiently nutritious. If it's not gruel, expect poor people to chew on (dried) bread or eat instant ramen.

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheKid1921 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_kid_food_1.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Bon appétit?]]

[[quoteright:339:[[Film/TheKid1921 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_kid_food.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:339:Bon appétit?]]

In RealLife the types of food eaten during hard times often become stigmatized in the times of plenty, turning into a kind of a StockYuck in that particular culture. This happens not only because people often resort to eating something they hardly consider palatable, but also because of psychological [[UsefulNotes/RamenAsDehydratedNoodles association of eating certain types of food with poverty]]. Note that just because the food poorer people eat is stigmatized, it doesn't actually mean it's all not good. Yes, some PovertyFood, like sodium nitrate-laden canned mystery meat, isn't good for you. But some food associated with lower income communities is healthy and nutritious: beans and rice, or fish chowder; season it to give it some taste, and you've got yourself a BoringButPractical meal.

** Penny, a Cheesecake Factory waitress who makes the least money out of the main cast, claims she often has to eat whatever scraps of food the customers left on the tables.

* In ''VideoGame/CultOfTheLamb'', Followers must be regularly fed to avoid death or rebellion. Grassy Gruel is the cheapest and easiest food to acquire, being crafted from the abundant grass of the first and easiest dungeon. However it does little to satsify hunger and, unless a specific Doctrine is taken, will both reduce a Follower's faith in the Lamb and likely make them sick. Notably, the Lamb will immediately vomit and lose health if they eat the Gruel.

* Food deserts are areas where large grocery stores refuse to set up shop because of low return yields, like far-flung small rural towns, and safety issues, like the inner cities, or increasingly because of competition with dollar stores. As a result, locals often have to rely on whatever highly-processed packaged food they can buy in the nearest convenience store or fast food joint rather than nutritious fresh food.

* Gruel, some sort of thin, boiled cereal product (a handful each of grains and leghumes in as big a vat of water you can get), has been a famous foodstuff of the desperately poor since time immemorial, perhaps most famously depicted as such in ''Literature/OliverTwist''. Certain historians think that gruel pre-dates even ''bread,'' which was [[MundaneLuxury "a luxury only available to city dwellers"]] in Antiquity.

* SoupOfPoverty: Cheap, low-quality soup as a Poverty Food, served at homeless shelters, sold in cans or homemade.

* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': Okay, who wants a Tang-wich? (Sand-like orange drink powder between two slices of bread). Then there's "toaster pickins" (aka toaster crumbs) and Al's toothpaste sandwich. Funnily enough, [[https://www.cracked.com/blog/6-crazy-sandwiches-from-tv-shows-taste-tested21 someone actually tried the tang-wich,]] and found that it was quite delectable, saying that the tang and bread together tasted like cake.

* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': Okay, who wants a Tang-wich? (Sand-like orange drink powder between two slices of bread). Then there's "toaster pickins" (aka toaster crumbs) and Al's toothpaste sandwich.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goetta Goetta]] is a type of mush made from scraps of meat and pinhead oats developed by impoverished German immigrants to the US to help conserve food money. However, it's gone full circle and is now considered almost a delicacy in the Northern Kentucky/Southern Ohio area (which historically had a lot of German immigrants).

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* TropeCodifier (if not TropeMaker) is probably Charles Dickens's novel ''Literature/OliverTwist''. Oliver is stuck in an OrphanageOfFear that keeps its charges just north of starvation on a bowl of thin gruel three times a day. In the book's signature scene, Oliver is moved by desperation to request a second bowl, outraging the attendants.

* Johnny Hart's cavemen appeared in an AnimatedAdaptation of their comic strip ''ComicStrip/{{BC}}: The First Thanksgiving'' in 1973. After failing to catch a turkey for dinner, the men had to make do with rock soup. Fat Broad ladled moist rocks onto their plates. It made for one grim meal.

In RealLife the types of food eaten during hard times often become stigmatized in the times of plenty, turning into a kind of a StockYuck in that particular culture. This happens not only because people often resort to eating something they hardly consider palatable, but also because of psychological [[UsefulNotes/RamenAsDehydratedNoodles association of eating certain types of food with poverty]]. Note that just because the food poorer people eat is stigmatized, it doesn't actually mean it's all not good. Yes, some PovertyFood, like sodium nitrate-laden canned mystery meat, isn't good for you. But some food associated with lower income communities is healthy and nutritious: beans and rice, or fish chowder.

** For non-Asians, rice goes for pennies a pound, leading to many poorer people buying it as a substitute for potatoes. Cook it without seasoning, add a tin of baked beans for the protein, and you get the modern equivalent of sci-fi's cheap, flavorless/ill-tasting nutrient paste. Naturally, if the cook knows how to season the rice and cooks their own raw beans, expectations can be [[TastesBetterThanItLooks radically subverted]], as the cuisine of Latin American countries can demonstrate.

** For non-Asians Rice goes for pennies a pound, leading to many poorer people buying it as a substitute for potatoes. Cook it without seasoning, add a tin of baked beans for the protein, and you get the modern equivalent of sci-fi's cheap, flavorless/ill-tasting nutrient paste. Naturally, if the cook knows how to season the rice and cooks their own raw beans, expectations can be [[TastesBetterThanItLooks radically subverted]], as the cuisine of Latin American countries can demonstrate.

* Rice goes for pennies a pound, leading to many poorer people buying it as a substitute for potatoes. Cook it without seasoning, add a tin of baked beans for the protein, and you get the modern equivalent of sci-fi's cheap, flavorless/ill-tasting nutrient paste. Naturally, if the cook knows how to season the rice and cooks their own raw beans, expectations can be [[TastesBetterThanItLooks radically subverted]], as the cuisine of Latin American countries can demonstrate.

* Amongst East and Southeast Asians, there's congee, which is made by boiling existing steamed rice to make a porridge-like meal. Using broth instead of water and throwing in chopped veggies (fresh or pickled) and meats can make it more palatable. Rather ironically, it also doubles as ComfortFood in areas that have seen rapid economic growth after World War II since due to the timing of their rises the current working or recently-retired adult generation would have likely grown up poor and eaten congee as Poverty Food due to their family's financial situation before it transitioned to ComfortFood nowadays because it's something Mama used to make for them when they were little.

* In the United States, [[UsefulNotes/RamenAsDehydratedNoodles instant ramen]] is the stereotypical food of choice for people who are trying to spend the absolute minimum of money and effort on food, most specifically [[StarvingStudent college students]]. Depending on where you buy it, it can cost less than a quarter per serving, it requires no additional ingredients besides boiling water (and because the noodles are pre-fried, it can even be eaten "raw" in a pinch or if you prefer it that way), and until prepared, it needs no refrigeration and has a long shelf life.

** in the North of England, a "sugar sandwich" could have three ingredients. could have three. A scraping of butter - if available - on the bread. More often it was a cheaper edible grease - margarine. Or else a substance which OopNorth still has the stigma of being a poverty food - lard, rendered and filtered pig fat. Unrendered animal fat - pork or more usually beef dripping - was regarded as a foodstuff in its own right and was often a cheap sandwich filling.

* Gruel, some sort of thin, boiled cereal product, has been a famous foodstuff of the desperately poor since time immemorial, perhaps most famously depicted as such in ''Literature/OliverTwist''.

Compare MockMeal, EatTheDog, NoPartyLikeADonnerParty. See MessOnAPlate, MysteryMeat, and NondescriptNastyNutritious when the focus is on the visual and tasting experience of the food rather than the social implications of a dire meal. See FrozenDinnerOfLoneliness for when lonely characters eat convenience food. Contrast FoodPorn and GrapesOfLuxury. Often used for PovertyForComedy. In a bleak, dystopian totalitarian state that rations food, this may lead to characters craving tasty, fresh BlackMarketProduce.

Compare MockMeal, EatTheDog, NoPartyLikeADonnerParty. See MessOnAPlate, MysteryMeat, and NondescriptNastyNutritious when the focus is on the visual and tasting experience of the food rather than the social implications of a dire meal. See FrozenDinnerOfLoneliness for when lonely characters eat convenience food. Contrast FoodPorn and GrapesOfLuxury. Often used for PovertyForComedy. May lead to characters craving a BlackMarketProduce.

In RealLife the types of food eaten during hard times often become stigmatized in the times of plenty, turning into a kind of a StockYuck in that particular culture. This happens not only because people often resort to eating something they hardly consider palatable, but also because of psychological [[UsefulNotes/RamenAsDehydratedNoodles association of eating certain types of food with poverty]].

** The Roman Gladiators had [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3KANWtAHDc&t=2s&ab_channel=TastingHistorywithMaxMiller Puls]], a porridge made of barley and fava beans. The dish formed the staple of a gladiator's diet, save for [[PrisonersLastMeal the meals before games]]. This had the side effect of making gladiators become flabby and [[GassHole flatulent.]] [[note]] Max points out the flabbiness was probably an advantage in there line of work, since it would shield there vital organs[[/note]]

** [[DownPlayedTrope Downplayed]] with Spartan [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqQzWg9pXmg&t=15s&ab_channel=TastingHistorywithMaxMiller black broth]]. Despite its recipe calling for large amounts of blood, [[ForeignQueasine the poor reviews of contemporary greek writers]], and the [[TheSpartanWay reputation of the Spartans]], Max says the broth is [[SoOkayItsAverage decent]], aside from its [[TastesBetterThanItLooks horrid appearance]].

** [[DownPlayedTrope Downplayed]] with Spartan [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqQzWg9pXmg&t=15s&ab_channel=TastingHistorywithMaxMiller black broth]]. Despite its recipe calling for large amounts of blood, [[ForeignQueasine the Athenians vocal distaste for the dish]], and the [[TrainingFromHell overall reputation of the spartans]] Max says the broth isn't that bad aside from its [[TastesBetterThanItLooks horrid appearance]].