What to do When the Beans Go Bad

August 3rd 2013

On Thursday evening I opened the refrigerator to an awful smell. What could that be? It smelled rotten. I looked to see if there were any old leftovers that my son and husband had not eaten and could not find any. I was stumped, until I opened the pot of beans to prepare my evening meal. I had prepared a weeks worth to make sure that I stayed within my $1 a day limit for the whole week. But the beans had gone bad. I didn't know that black beans could go bad that quickly in a refrigerator. I had brown rice, a few tomatoes and a little bit of greens for dinner, but no beans. I survived it, but what does one do when all one really has is $1 a day for food and you've spent your whole week's worth and the beans go bad? The poor with whom we work in the Philippines don't have refrigerators and so how do you store things without risking the little food security that you have? For us who don't have to deal with that kind of reality, if the beans go bad, you just go get more beans. But what if you couldn't?