I disagree....the poor are very good at making something out of nothing when it comes to food....I have witnessed such with relatives on my husband's side that were part of the working poor.
And there are MANY out there just like them.
Quick and easy cooking comes from the middle class, with both parents working.
When the woman was not required to work in order for the family unit to have enough to scrape by, she was at home...and had the time to take flour and make biscuits or pies and cakes or dumplings or pasta....or the daily bread.....or a 3 hour stew made out of nothing but the meat on the bones...and left overs.
Care I see what the people using "food Stamps" buy. Little of it is food that requires preparation.
Now there is a difference in the elderly on food stamps and the younger ones. The elderly buy basics to prepare. The younger ones do not.
My generation prepared food, the succeding ones not so much.
I think we have lost many of the mother to daughter cooking skills that used to be passed down through the generations.
Most are unaware you can bake your own bread, that pancakes do not come from a box, that soup does not come from a can..
Of course it has been lost, most all women are working now and most all of their daughters will have to work as well....