Ask HN: Zero-cost startups for ordinary Americans?

Something of a different challenge for HNers. I have a friend ("from the Internet," so to speak) who is in a difficult situation. She's highly literate and intelligent, although advanced math is out of the question for her. Lives in upstate New York with her mother, who is also unemployed, and somewhat physically disabled; they're both short on income. She has a two-year degree that doesn't reflect her abilities, and little work experience to put on her resume. To top it off, she suffers from celiac disease, as well as anxiety issues, that prevented her from reaching her full potential for the first half of her twenties.

I don't think finishing a four-year degree is in the cards right now, and there's little seed money she could raise. I'm told that there are few jobs in the area, and enough demand for the ones that do open up that her background excludes her. What kind of steps can she take to improve her standard of living in the short-term while raising her prospects in the long term?

So far I've thought of some obvious things, like: 1) Cooking local gluten-free products, to be sold at farmers' markets and the like -- perhaps with some of the proceeds going to research

2) Using freelancer sites like Odesk to try and find writing-related work

I'd appreciate HN's thoughts on the plausibility of these and other ideas. As an engineer, I don't really know what it's like to be in this kind of situation.