The Melander Family Cultural Analysis

Food is very much a part of culture around. The beliefs, practices, and trends in a culture affect its eating practices. The food families eat around the world is greatly affected by the culture that they are surrounded in. The family in a refugee camp in Chad is barely able to spend $1.50 on a weeks worth of food, yet a family in German is easily able to spend $500 in food. Such drastic differences in food type, cost, and quantity are caused by life around them.
The Aboubakar family of Darfur province, Sudan sits in front of their $1.23 worth of food. It is all they have for the next week to sustain themselves. They almost completely live on the corn-soy blend provided to them by the United Nations. Any meat, fish, or eggs they are able
As German culture dictates, they drink larger amounts of beer than the other families in the article. They have access to refrigeration and freezing, allowing them to constantly have fresh dairy, meat, fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables and nuts. Germany also sees a fair share of prepared foods, as the family is able to cut down on their own work and make things easier by purchasing food pre-made as this family contains working parents. The German traditions of drinking beer along with modern amenities allow the Melander family to spend the most money in food each week than any other family in this
Fish is not available to them as they live very far from the ocean. Local fare is a primary source of food as out of season items require transportation and refrigeration the local infrastructure just cannot support. Their dairy source is powdered milk as it is easy transport and store. The family rarely eats candies, cakes, sugary soft drinks and snacks as this is not generally available. A huge plus to this is that cavities seem greatly reduced. Potatoes are plentiful in the village they reside in, but each village is different. The potatoes are cheap and plentiful, so the family eats quite a bit of it when it is in season. They have access to refrigeration but not freezing, providing them of a moderately effective way to keep their food longer. Lacking freezing in their home and in their surroundings prevents them from eating seafood and fresh meat, things that require freezing to transport from producer to consumer. With seven people in the household, the family manages to make do with about an $80 a week food budget. The culture of rural Guatemala dictates eating of local fare in season, preventing long distance transportation of more exotic