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Oregon Mom Feeds Family of Five
for One Dollar
Cheap meals bring Christmas cheer
Linda Cramer came up with the idea of Cheap Dinner Night as a means of reminding her children that not everyone enjoys an affluent lifestyle. |  | Providing a meal for a family of five for just a dollar would seem a tall order for any mom, but it comes easy to Linda Cramer.
One night each week, the Cramer family from Medford, Oregon, has a “Cheap Dinner Night” where the sum cost of everything on the table can come to no more than a buck.
The cash saved goes into a big jar. Come December, the contents are emptied and used to purchase items from World Vision’s Christmas Gift Catalog—to buy something special for a needy family. |
Linda, 39, says despite the strict budget, none of the family goes hungry on the cheap nights.
A meal might consist of baked potatoes or a packet of macaroni cheese, or Top Ramen noodle soup.
Linda says her family enjoys a comfortable lifestyle, but she recalls her own childhood when there was scarcely enough money to put food on the table.
She says she came up with the idea of Cheap Dinner Night as a means of reminding her children that not everyone enjoys an affluent lifestyle.
“Just because their needs are taken care of I did not want my kids to grow up believing that everybody always gets a full meal at dinner. That’s not reality for a lot of people,” she says.
Linda says that far from resenting the parsimonious fare, her children—Miranda, 11; Matthew, 9; and Will, 6—have really gotten into the spirit of things, and the exercise has changed their thinking and the way they pray.
“When the Asian tsunami hit and when Katrina hit, the first response out of their head was, maybe we could help.”
She says her children also get the pleasure of choosing gifts from the catalog each Christmas. Their favorites so far have been chickens, ducks, and rabbits. Beneficiaries of the livestock can sell the offspring, or the eggs they produce, at local markets to supplement meager incomes.
Linda says Cheap Dinner Night continues even when guests come for a meal. The reasoning behind the dinner and the prominently displayed jar, decorated with pictures from the gift catalog, make for a good talking point.
To bring some Christmas cheer to a needy family, choose a gift from the Gift Catalog: www.WorldVisionGifts.org. |  | 1-888-511-6548 : P.O. Box 9716
Federal Way, WA 98063-9716 Who Is World Vision?
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
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