For $1.50, you could buy a cheap cup of coffee, two snacks from a vending machine or half a fast-food burrito.

On Tuesday, folks spent a maximum of $1.50 in play money for lunch and had their choice from a combination of delicious menu items made from scratch that included chicken enchiladas with sour cream, red beans and rice, cornbread and bread sticks, brownies and ice cream and coffee, milk, soda pop or water.

Sponsored by the University of Wyoming Cent$ible Nutrition program and Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies, the Buck and a Half Lunch illustrated the amount of money people in poverty typically have to spend on each meal, according to Natrona County program director Karla Case.

"Our program helps families eat better for less," Case said. "We teach people how to make grocery money stretch a little farther."

Cent$ible Nutrition classes are available in every county in the state and many are holding similar luncheons in September, which is hunger awareness month.

Guests at the luncheon included representatives from several social service providers, including Central Wyoming Senior Citizens, Department of Family Services, the WIC program and the Casper-Natrona County Health Department.

Many lamented that young people today really don't know how to cook from scratch and the thought of doing so intimidates them. Add the stresses of putting out fires in daily life, and it's just too tempting to spend money on convenience or prepared food at the end of the day.

Among the guests was 84-year-old Wyoma Burris, who charmed the audience with a brief story.

"I was raised on a dry-land farm right here in Natrona County," she said, "and we had very little, but we had milk, eggs and pigs."

She mused that adults even in her own family these days seem to cater to young people's food choices, rather than the whole family eating what has been prepared.

She said she recently made a large pot of stew and invited her son and his family to share it.

"He said, 'Well, I never really liked stew all that much,' and I said, 'Well, when you were at home, I made it all the time and you ate it then.'

"He said, 'But Mom, that was all we had.'"

The Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies supplies more than 200 agencies throughout the state with food from its Mills warehouse. In August, 144,000 pounds of food were delivered to agencies that pay 18 cents per pound for delivery. The rest of the budget comes from donations.

New director Marguerite Meyer told those assembled that "our agencies are the heroes on the front lines of hunger."

She said at least 50,000 people in Wyoming - roughly 10 percent of the population - worry about where their next meal will come from.

"We call that food insecurity," Meyer said.

Meyer shared a typical family scenario with two working adults, each making $10 an hour and with 2.5 children.

"If they pay $800 in rent, they may face real choices - do we put gas in the tank to get to work or nutritious food on the table?" Meyer said. "During this economic crisis with prices rising, this is a real and current danger we are facing right now."

For 80 cents, a guest at Tuesday's event could eat flavorful red beans and brown rice, warm cornbread, a homemade brownie with no nuts, a tossed green salad with ranch dressing and all the ice water they needed.

Reach community news editor Sally Ann Shurmur at (307) 266-0520 or sallyann.shurmur@trib.com

For more info

For more information about Cent$ible Nutrition programs, call 235-9400 in Casper or any local Cooperative Extension Service.

For more information about helping Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies, call 265-2172.