As I write this, it’s 5 hours and 25 minutes until the end of Food Stamp Challenge.
What have you learned?
- What have you learned in your personal experience taking the Challenge?
- What surprised you?
- What did you expect?
- How was your experience different than that of someone who really depends of food stamps?
21 comments ↓
I’ve learned that I would be really grumpy and a bit malnourished if I had to depend on food stamps. I was really frustrated that I couldn’t really buy many fresh vegetables, and the ones that were affordable didn’t look as good as the ones that were not affordable.
What have you learned in your personal experience taking the Challenge?
Green pea soup is dirt cheap and is so delicious that I plan to have it more often. It’s also an easy crock pot dish. On a larger scale, a diet weighed towards grains saves a lot of money, but needs creativity to make it tasty and enjoyable.
What surprised you? We didn’t eat terribly different than usual. We cook every day anyways, so it might have been less of a transition than for someone who rarely cooks at home.
What did you expect? I expected out break-the-FSC celebratory bratwurst to taste heavenly. It did. And for the first time in a week, I could have as much as I wanted.
How was your experience different than that of someone who really depends of food stamps? We have transportation, we have access to and time to get to Eastern market and rural produce stands to buy fresh produce in bulk. We have a wonderful food dehydrator and have been working hard drying fresh produce for the past few weeks to store for winter. All these options would probably be out of reach for the average food stamp recipient.
It was a great exercise. I think I will take away a greater mindfulness of the cost of things and the goodness of simple foods.
Thank you, Chuck.
This has been a powerful experience and I am definitely humbled. I spent much of the week worrying if I would have enough food and energy to do the work I needed to do, and every once in a while would remember that some people face this every day. I found the challenge a very useful segue for me into the High Holy Days where we try to remember our obligation to those less fortunate.
I am so glad to be done with the diet - not necessarily just because of the food sacrifices (like milk, cheese, crackers, coffee, etc.), but also socially. I found myself avoiding social situations where I knew I couldn’t afford to eat or drink (which meant every social activity this past week). I learned a lot from this process, and am so glad I did it. I can’t imagine living on so little for even another week.
It was both harder and easier than I thought it would be. I eat a lot, and I was okay for the first few days. After that, I ended up accepting food and going to potlucks and being very hungry– and with that, cranky. I don’t think I could live like this for very long at all, and I can’t see how anyone else could and still remain human (since people on Food Stamps probably have less time than I do for thinking of meals and being hungry. Malnourishment doesn’t help either). I’m also glad I did it though.
As of Monday night, we are officially out of milk, bread, fruit, pasta, tortillas, and all but a bite of cheese. Many of these things we ran out of much earlier in the week.
Since we started on Tuesday at lunch, we’re continuing through breakfast tomorrow to make it a full week–that breakfast will be oatmeal without milk!
The food has been very, very bland as we could not use our spices. If we were truly on Food Stamps we never would use spices because we could not buy them.
All week people have asked us, “how do you buy toilet paper and such on $21?” That’s the questions, isn’t it? There’s no room in such a small food budget. TP was one of the things we distributed at the food pantry where I volunteered in Chicago a few years ago.
I’ve thought SO much about food this week. The old fears from when I was a child and sometimes didn’t get enough to eat were with me all week. The fears are especially hard when one is hypoglycemic and must eat every four hours or get weak. It’s a physical fear, not an intellectual one. If we were truly on Food Stamps I would live with this fear forever.
First, the questionairre
* What have you learned in your personal experience taking the Challenge?
I learned I eat a lot more than I thought, and it costs more than I thought. Apparently, I haven’t been paying attention to my own eating habits, much less the plight of others.
* What surprised you?
I’m surprised the difference a few dollars makes, because we usually spend about $35 per person per week on groceries and don’t eat out. That’s less than $15 more a week, but I experienced a major qualitative and quantitative decline in my diet.
* What did you expect?
I expected it would be easier, because I have lived on rice and beans before. But it’s harder to do that as an adult whose expectations have been raised.
* How was your experience different than that of someone who really depends of food stamps?
We got press attention. They don’t.
I have been thinking about food all week. It’s almost like having an eating disorder, constantly counting and tallying everything. It definitely interferes with being able to think about other things. I caught myself thinking it was too bad I had to walk to the bus stop because the exercise would burn calories and make me hungry.
It’s just a good thing Jen and I are small and only need about 1,500 calories a day. If we were taller, we wouldn’t even have had any rice or beans left at the end of the week.
I was surprised how much it affected my mood (a thought regularly reflected here).
I also didn’t anticipate how it would affect my health. I’m coming down with a cold and there’s not OJ in my diet to get a dose of vitamin C (of course, staying up till midnight to enjoy the post-Challenge glass of wine and chocolate-covered raisins doesn’t help).
It also reinforces the adage of journalism “dog bites man, no story. Man bites dog, now that’s a story.” We got a LOT of press coverage for this, even though plenty of folks deal with this every day.
Finally, I did learn that I make mistakes when I’m rushing and not eating (which folks who have seen some of my emails lately can attest to).
What a blessing to see the comments related to mood changes. It is our window into the world of poverty. When one has to face “how or whether to eat” on a daily basis, it is very easy to become cranky. Those of us who do not have to worry about this can use this challenge to change our “everyday behavior” and not assume that all of us have the same set of resources to work with.
I re-learned this week the power of a simple challenge to change hearts and minds. Those of us who have participated recognize how much we can do with little, and do not have to leave a footprint as large as we normally do upon the earth, as millions of our co-inhabitants have very, very few resources. As we are the ones we have been waiting for, let’s remember that change begins with us. Thanks for the opportunity to participate in this challenge.
Well, it was definitely an educational week! I thought I was aware of the dire situation, and had been ranting for ages before taking the Challenge about the inhumanity of the food stamp situation. But walking that proverbial mile in someone else’s shoes was truly heartbreaking.
I had to go buy another gallon on milk on Saturday; the two I’d bought — two! Jeremy had been so thrilled to see two of them when I returned from the grocery store! — didn’t last, despite rationing. Just a bit on the morning cereal, some for the 2/$1 macaroni and cheese, and Jeremy pouring milk into glasses to conserve (rather than his usual m.o. of walking around the house with the gallon, drinking an average of one/day!) … and still it wasn’t enough. And with milk at about $3/gallon, someone who depended upon food stamps would not have had the luxury of supplementing the supply. I felt guilty doing it.
We ate reasonably well, I’m sort of embarrassed to say; Jeremy actually asked if we were supposed to succeed at this, and what “success” really meant. Being a good shopper and a regular cook, I got enough food for each of our meals and still had a bit extra leftover at the end … no teenage buddies stayed for dinner last week, or I likely wouldn’t have been able to make that claim. An egg or cereal for breakfast, baked chicken and frozen peas and ramen noodles, taco salad with lettuce but no chips, pasta salad, whole grain pancakes … it was a fine line between feeling the pain of food stamps and not wanting your child to go hungry for a voluntary project. But the low quality of the food (the $1 Ranch dressing and the $1.29 “syrup” were disgusting!); deliberate rationing — every single portion of food was accounted for in the week’s menu, with no midnight refrigerator raids on the list of options; and the inability to run to the store for a sale on Haagen-Dazs made an impact. That isn’t how we usually live. We are very carefree, indulging whims and cravings on the spur of the moment … but no more.
Whereas I would normally not eat many refined carbs, I got so tired of peanut butter sandwiches on cheap and squishy bread that I was THRILLED to be offered leftover lasagna at work one day. (Save that sandwich for tomorrow, stretch the food budget just a bit!) I went on a miserable breakfast date over the weekend, but at least I managed to get a free plate of eggs and hash browns out of it! We didn’t end up going to Shabbat services this past Saturday, where we would have been able to get an amazing lunch; the caterer had been cooking all week for the Bar Mitzvah. Had we truly been on food stamps, we would absolutely have come not so much for the ceremony, I’m sad to say, but for the free lunch … disrespectful as that would have been, a free hot lunch with protein and fruit and salad to supplement my child’s diet would not have been beneath my dignity.
We didn’t have any birthdays or holidays to celebrate this week; how would you fit a birthday cake or a turkey/ham into this budget??? Again, scavenging for free meals or food, having to submit to inspection to prove you are in need … the humiliation and the exhaustion and the depression and the frustration have got to be as bad, if not worse, than the physical hunger. Living like this is a 24/7 burden, always counting portions and pennies, constantly worrying and bugeting and looking for a way to supplement and endure ….
I feel so bad. It sounds like everyone succeeded. I did not. I did my final calculations late last night, and came up with a total of $22.93 food consumed. It was not an exact science, because I mostly relied on food I had in the house rather than make a special shopping trip for the week, but I think $22.93 is pretty close.
I do think I could do it with a little better planning. I didn’t really need all the juice I drank, or lettuce that I
ate.
I felt like it could be sustainable, except for possibly the long term protein requirements. Sprout salads were
remarkably sustaning. My energy level was alright. I lost 5lbs in weight but I think the weight loss was leveling off.
I think I could definitely recommend sprouting as a technique for eating on a low budget.
I hope ICPJ offers the Food Stamp Challenge again next year. We were not entirely successful in staying within our budget, and probably the strongest truth I will take from this is knowing there are no exceptions when you’re on food stamps - you can’t buy splenda because someone wants it in their coffee, or buy organic milk or eggs. We exceeded the food stamp budget despite being vegetarian, cooking Indian dhals (lentil/bean dishes), and - our best defense - getting a csa share box full of tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, corn, carrots, and beets. I would like to try again next year!
I feel so sorry for people trying to live within these boundaries. For myself, a single person, it worked out OK, except I didn’t get to eat what I like (fresh vegetables and fruit). I tried eating a lot of the stuff I had stashed in my cupboards (some very strange combinations came up).
Thanks so much for all who participated. Thanks for keeping track and posting your comments. I promise to have a lot more empathy and understanding for those trying to make do.
As most of you know, I didn’t actually participate in this challenge because I have lived the life…but reading your stories has reminded me of things that even I forgot.
We still largely live on a food stamp budget in my house, but there is wiggle room and I have a car that enables me to drive out to a produce market in Westland and to a cheaper grocery store in Ypsilanti. I also have a little extra disposable income so that if I run out of something, I can just go get it and it doesn’t kill my budget.
I forgot what it was like at the end of the month when it’s 3 days away from more food stamps and you’re out of milk and bread and you have to make due with pasta and taco sauce (mexican spaghetti…sounds gross doesn’t it?) Or when I would fix food for the kids and the only meal I got was the one I got from the fast food restaurant I was a manager at (Thank God for the free meal policy).
I think all of you did a remarkable job!
Kris, I don’t think we’ll do this next year, but I think it is something we will do again in the next few years. It’s a great learning and educational experience, and I’d like it to stay fresh so that there is excitement about it each time we do it.
It was hard to believe this morning that the challenge was over and I made it. I even have one really sad banana, peanut butter and quite a bit of oatmeal and bread left over. I think the leftovers were mostly the result of finding bigger packages than I would eat by myself in a week.
But I did eat less and after the first day or so I wasn’t really hungry. I did see that there was a lot of junk I didn’t need in my diet and that I could be satisfied on one bowl of beans and rice or oatmeal eaten slowly and appreciatively. But that oatmeal would have been even better with some plain yogurt and those beans and rice with some fresh peppers!
That being said, I was happy to see my latte again this morning.
I learned it is a hard way to live and requires huge amounts of planning and creativity. I’ll be think harder at the grocery store this week; happy that I have the flexibility to choose some different things but aware that by choosing a little less I can put some of that money to better use.
Everyone who participated - a lotus to all of you. I hope that taking part in this effort has brought you knowledge and peace as it has for me.
Well, I think we made it in just under the $84 my family of four would be allotted. It really helped that since my kids are in elementary school, I did not count what they ate for breakfast and took in their lunches as they would be getting the free meals at school. And I would likely take advantage of that. I’m sure it’s much harder to make ends meet during the summer months. I hope there is no talk of cutting the school meals as it is a big help for families with school age children. However, I do have to mention that currently my kids almost never eat what the school provides as I think the offerings are full of fat, processed foods, and few fresh or healthy options.
I planned carefully and made a few changes in our usual routine (made good use of a bag of potatoes, did not buy my usual organic milk, switched from butter to margarine, and did not allow for any “extras” like pickles, olives, flavored cream cheese etc.) and was able to have a fresh fruit and vegatable for every evening meal. For the most part I didn’t get any complaints about the food.
I just wanted to add one more thing to this discussion. As I work daily with families on food stamps, I have had quite a few discussions about their trials and strategies for coping. What never fails to amaze me is how quickly food stamps get reduced or cut off. If a family member gets even a part-time minimum wage job for a few weeks, the food stamps get immediately reduced. Often times it will take weeks to get the food stamps restored once the job is done. This is just another issue families on food stamps have to deal with.
It’s been interesting to follow others’ experiences. Thanks to all of you who documented your week.
I’d like to take a sideways cut at the last question first. I was aware at several points of having some concern about offending people who have really experienced what it is like to live on food stamps–or who are currently experiencing that. I think the people involved did take this very seriously, and I think it was a very good thing to do; yet I wondered how it felt to hear or read about this if you were living on food stamps for far more than a week.
I think the biggest surprise was that I lost about four pounds. I never felt like I was going hungry, but I not only cut way down on sweets but on nuts, dried fruit, my evening bowl of cereal, etc. (except the last night when I indulged myself in the last of my oatmeal and canned peaches and some sweetened yogurt, knowing I didn’t need to hoard it any more because it might run out!). This experience made me realize more clearly that I often eat when I’m not really hungry but just because it tastes good–or to satisfy an emotional need.
One important learning for me was directly experiencing something I had heard in a workshop on class this summer–that one huge inequity between poor people and middle class or upper class people is the lack of choices. I think that was the hardest thingfor me–feeling like I couldn’t have anything that wasn’t part of what I had bought. And yet knowing that I still was way better off than a lot of people since my access to transportation had allowed me to shop around and get good bargains and my daily calorie needs are pretty low.
I like what Jackie says about what she is taking away from this–I hope to both more fully appreciate the flexibility and choices I have and also choose to eat somewhat more simply and use the money I save for better uses than mindless treats.
We used only $41 after subtracting the leftover things
But there was some Cheating with free food:
1-Lunch in the Synagogue on Saturday
2-Two meetings with cakes.
(We didn’t count our Vitamins and prescription pills).
For snacks we used thin slices of potatoes tosted in the toasteroven. Also toasted pieces of the Chalah we baked.
It is easier to eat less for us since we are older. From the other hand our health can go bad eating very little fruit and vegetables.
I would like all of you to know that you are supporting a very lost cause. I am a registered democrat and strongly favor most social welfare programs with the exception of food stamps. I worked my way through college, full time, (including a year-long student teaching experience) in a grocery store. During my years there I witnessed so much reckless abuse of food stamps by the vast majority of recipients. Granted, there are honest people that truly need assistance, but they are totally outnumbered by the scammers. I’ve seen it all from people managing to buy beer with their bridge cards (buying pop, dumping it outside and returning the bottles for the deposit), to people with multiple bridge cards, sometimes they have more than one form different states. It makes me absolutely sick to see such misuse. The thing that disgusts me the most is that college students have now started applying for and being given hundreds of dollars in food stamps per month.
I know a lot of you people that live above the poverty line find this hard to believe, but just ask anyone who works in a grocery store or supermarket, and they will back up my claims. Instead of wasting your time supporting this disgusting waste of tax dollars that could go to schools to hire more teachers (I still haven’t found a teaching job in my area yet, and I refuse to leave Michigan), call your legislators and ask them to think about reforming food stamps into a program like WIC where recipients meet with a caseworker and they help determine what specific foods they need for basic survival. I am a firm believer in LBJ’s great society, but we would get so much closer if we gave a hand up, not a hand out. Thank you and goodnight.
I agree, Cody, that we should try to avoid gaming the system, but that doesn’t mean that we should abandon the program. I had a friend on WIC who was a very conscientious single mother, and she was furious when grocery store workers told her she had to buy generic formula for her daughter (this was around the time when all the product recalls were in the news). So restrictive programs like WIC also have their problems.
Your Great Society example is good: we need to find ways to have a complete system of support to get people back on their feet, which means job training and development, affordable housing, affordable quality daycare and after school programs, and quality food programs.
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