Six people comprise our household. Two of us are consciously participating in the challenge; one is specifically NOT participating and the others are sort of passive participants. We’ve had to modify the “Rules” a bit to fit our household.

My partner and I are the enthusiastic participants. We’ve always been rather frugal but I’m especially curious if we can really live within the limitations set by the food stamp program. I’m over six foot tall and over 300 pounds and I work a job that isn’t entirely done sitting at a desk. I also know that I eat when I’m tired or when I’m lonely. The phrase “comfort food” to me is redundant. So it’ll be a real test. Normally at this time of year, we’d be eating mostly out of our garden: basil for pesto, tomatoes for sauce and salad, eggplant for mousaka and babaganoush and parmesana, summer squash for pan sauteeing, hot peppers to add life to everything, etc. We consider our “kitchen garden” to be a political-spiritual practice that reminds us that food is not essentially merchandise. We have decided to eat from our garden during challenge week but to keep a tally of what we consume.

The three “passive participants” are our daughter, our son and his fiancé who share daily meals with us but who haven’t specifically agreed to participate. Their participation in the challenge is that the meals we serve will fit within the $1/meal guidelines, but if they’re still hungry or aren’t interested in what’s served, they will have free access to a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread, or for that matter any of the items in our cupboard or pantry. Seems fair. These are the ground rules of our dinner table already because my partner and I tend to eat a slightly more radical diet than what our children prefer. (Our attempts to convert to pure vegetarianism, for instance, have been greeted with near mutiny.) Accounting for this kind of participation during the Challenge is a trouble, though. We need to budget as if they are full participants, that is, to spend $1 for each of their meals, but if they choose not to eat what we’ve made, we’ll either end up with leftovers or portions that don’t truly reflect the restrictions imposed by food stamps. It’s another thing we’ll have to keep an eye on.

The one member of our household who is specifically NOT participating is our grand-daughter. She is on formula and though we use as many coupons as we can scavenge, there is no way that she can eat for $1/ meal and we feel it would be immoral to try. I also realize that if our household actually did qualify for food stamps, that our grand daughter would likely qualify for WIC coverage, but that program isn’t in jeopardy at this point.

A week isn’t TOO long. We shouldn’t have much of a mutiny.