"At first, we didn't think much of it, the One Other Thing. When Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested a meal of one corn tortilla, one piece of broccoli, one piece of chicken, and "one other thing"-all for a mere $3-we dwelled more on the other parts. The one corn tortilla, the unit of broccoli, the piece of chicken! How strange and bland a combination! How stingy in contrast to the birthday steaks our leaders enjoyed! If we'd only known then."
"And at first, after we signed on to receive the Recommended Meal, it was food. A mint. Some popcorn. An almond. Nothing too surprising. On the fifth night, we let the baby open it. He put it into his mouth immediately, and I had to fish it out. Something hard and black. That was when we noticed that it was coal. A lump of coal. He laughed, but we were unsettled. What had we signed up for?"
A government-recommended meal scheme included a mandatory "One Other Thing" intended to accompany minimal food portions. Early inclusions were edible items such as mints, popcorn, and single nuts, but offerings soon became arbitrary and non-food: coal, household trinkets, stationery, and novelty origami. The contents shifted with political events, sometimes celebrating protein or referencing distant places, and occasionally arriving as confusing documents disguised as plans. The varied, often useless items left recipients puzzled about purpose and value and highlighted a mismatch between advertised simplicity and the unsettling, inconsistent reality of the supplement.
Read at The Atlantic
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