How to Feed Four Kids as a Single, Underemployed Manhattan Mom

By Amber Jamieson

Anita Manners, 31, enjoys family time after dinner with her children Allyson, 5, Yaa, 13, Matius,4 and Lawrence, 8. Photo: Amber Jamieson.

As a single mother of four children, Anita Manners, 31, sometimes went hungry in recent months to ensure that her children did not.

“I would buy my food. I would feed my kids. And what they don’t eat, I would eat,” she said, as she waits outside the Food Bank for New York City’s food pantry on 116th St in Harlem. The food pantry is like a mini- supermarket, where everything is free for those who qualify for it, its shelves lined with canned fruit, bags of onions and frozen meat

Already she’s been here nearly an hour, however it’s the first time she’s attended this pantry in two years (she used to be a regular) and she says the line is much shorter than previously.

“You have to expect to wait to get something you’re not paying for,” said Manners. Finally her number, 121, gets called and once she shows her children’s birth certificates as proof, she’s allowed in with a plastic card that explains how much of each food she is entitled to.

Anita Manners of Harlem eats her dinner after her children have eaten. Photo: Amber Jamieson.

After getting her allocation – which included three boxes of grits, cans of spinach and peas, chicken drumsticks, frozen fish, fruit juice, bread rolls and bags of fresh vegetables – Manners starts pushing her black shopping cart uptown to her home in Central Harlem where her three younger children are being minded by their big sister Yaa, 13. Children’s multiplication tables posters line the walls of the living room, where youngest daughter Allyson, aged 5, is busy finishing her homework.

The spices used in 13-year-old Yaa’s spiced chicken mix. Photo: Amber Jamieson.

Tonight’s meal of chicken, rice, potatoes, beans and corn is determined by two important factors: 1. the healthy fresh food picked up at the pantry today and 2. the likes and whims of each child. Matius, 4, is a potato fiend. Allyson loves beans. Yaa adores sweet corn, while Lawrence, aged 8, wants chicken and rice.

Food is a big part of life in this happy, loud house. “I love to cook, my kids love to cook,” said Manners. Yaa and her mother trade stories of their favorite Food Network shows: Chopped. Iron Chef, Rachael Ray vs. Guy: Celebrity Cookoff and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Occasionally the family goes to Union Square’s Greenmarket, where they spend their food stamps on fresh fruit. The kids love drinking smoothies made with blueberries, bananas and peanut butter. Manners remembers one time when the children demanded junk food but then refused their burgers from White Castle once they were placed in front of them.

Lawrence, 8, eats a piece of corn, while his little sister Allyson, 5, looks on. Photo: Amber Jamieson.

“Vegetables, that’s what we run through in our house the most,” said Manners. She dreams of buying all their food from the farmer’s market and Whole Foods, and tries to buy organic food whenever possible. Organic butter sits in the refrigerator.

Dinner tonight is a combination of ingredients from the food pantry and others found already in the kitchen. Manners slices up six potatoes and covers them in olive oil and sea salt, before roasting them in the oven as homemade potato chips. Yaa seasons the chicken with paprika, garlic salt, onion powder, chili powder and lots of salt and pepper, tossing it in a pot with four mushrooms, a whole onion and organic chicken stock. Meanwhile, a can of kidney beans is mixed over heat with tomato paste (along with a knob of that organic butter) and rice is cooked in chicken stock. Frozen corn cobs are boiled in water.

The finished product: chicken, rice, beans, corn and potatoes. Photo: Amber Jamieson.

The simple daily chore of putting food on the table has been complicated for Manners since 2008, when she chose to leave the Army rather than be sent to Afghanistan. An attempt to start over, which most-recently involved a job at Staples and liberal arts and sciences college classes at Hostos Community College in the Bronx, as well as her parenting responsibilities, proved to be too much. She became ill, dropped out of school and quit her job, and now relies on her disability allowance and $268 in monthly food stamps, a figure she’s appealed because she feels it should be higher.

The drop in income meant a drop in grocery money. “I lost a lot of weight,” she said. “I just made sure my kids were fed.” Manners says her elder daughter Yaa, 13, noticed her eating habits and would tell her “you didn’t eat anything all day today, you’ve got to eat.”

The kitchen gets very hot while the food is being cooked. Matius pops in regularly to steal a potato chip fresh from the oven. Once the kids’ plates have been served up, Manners sprawls on the couch to relax while her children sit at the four-person dining table. They all head back for seconds. When they are done, Manners grabs her children’s plates off the table and eats their small amount of leftovers.

Siblings Allyson, Yaa, Matius and Lawrence eat their dinner of chicken, corn, rice, beans and potato. Photo: Amber Jamieson.

Tomorrow, it’s back to school for the kids after spring break. This semester Manners is determined to get involved with the parent committee at Allyson’s elementary school and improve the school lunches. She is working with a travel company, WorldVentures, and planning future vacations for her family. Next year, three of the kids will be at the same school and Manners wants to head back to college, in the hope of eventually becoming a pediatrician.

But first, it’s time for the washing up.

See Anita Manners’ recipe here.

Amber Jamieson