It seemed like such a long time away, when Chuck asked people to participate in the Michigan Food Stamp Challenge. It was easy to say yes then, but now that the day is nearer, I have to admit I’m dreading it. Not because I’ll need to figure out what to eat so I don’t go over budget, but because I just realized that it will seriously cramp my social life and affect how I conduct my job. Just today, my daughter invited me for dinner at her new apartment for Tuesday, and I had to turn her down- getting a free meal would be cheating. And as the director of a small nonprofit, I often get together for coffee or lunch with colleagues from collaborating agencies- those food/drink related appointments are an informal way to make connections and get things done. Presumably not many people living on food stamps have the kind of job where this is standard practice, or do they? I’ll have to think about that.
Why take on the food stamp challenge? My daughter just asked me “why are you doing this?” as I called her to tell her that dinner was off. I’ve been thinking about it a great deal. Usually I’m not one to jump on to the bandwagon – particularly because in a way this challenge seems gimicky. I’ve even thought that it could be perceived as offensive, as if it’s some kind of game, to eat only $21 worth of food for just one week. After that one week we all will sigh a breath of relief and happily buy what ever we want. So why did I say yes? When my daughter asked me, the answer popped into my head. Solidarity. Just a tiny bit of solidarity. It isn’t so much that I want to spend a week living off $21 to see how hard it is — I readily admit it’s hard, I see the signs of that in my job every month. But to say “no” would have felt wrong– like an insistence on privilege. I felt it would have been disrespectful to the clients the agency I work for serves — the clients for whom this is their every day struggle.
I e-mailed a lot of people to see if they’d participate in the Food Stamp challenge too. One of the most remarkable responses came from a staunch democrat, who told me he was trying to loose weight, and there was no way he could do that if he only spent $21 on food for a week. What does that mean? The connection between obesity and poverty has been established before — and I love it that we often heartily endorse (and fund, and schedule) “healthy lifestyles” classes/workshops/programs for under-resourced people (my new favorite term)- and ignore that all the education in the world is meaningless if they don’t have the money & resources to purchase healthier foods.
Someone else joked that she would have to give up her new favorite expensive drink (I can’t remember what it is) — an addiction, she called it. Those little luxuries that most of us allow ourselves, are indeed just that. But aren’t they what make us feel just a bit better, what help us get through the day -those little luxuries? We do so often equate well being with special food or drink related treats… so living off $21 means not just struggling to maintain a healthy diet, but also depriving yourself of some of those small self indulgences….
Our family has taken in an exchange student – something I also didn’t know when I said “yes”. I told Wasim, from Pakistan, about my plan. He’s been in our country for three weeks. He laughed. “No way” — he said, “you can’t do it”. Now, in Pakistan, yes. Two dollars could last you a week. Every day he compares prices — a hair cut there costs the equivalent of $1 (after he heard how much it costs here, he considered growing his hair long until he returns home)- the bus fares, houses. In this global economy it seems so hard to imagine that the price of food flutuates so much, how is this possible?
I read some of the recipes, and the postings on the other blogs. Looks like it’s going to be quite a bit of hard work. Looks like we’ll have to give it quite a bit of thought, how to spread that $21 around. And there are some decisions to be made. Purists, like Chuck, aren’t going to eat from their gardens. At Hikone, one of the public housing sites I work at, there is a huge community vegetable garden. It costs nothing to use, in fact, every spring residents can request plants they’d like to grow. Many families are eating fresh vegetables from their gardens around now. Unfortunately I personally have only one tomato plant, but if something ripens, YES, I’ll have it. In an article I read in the New Yorker, someone who tried to live off $21 for a week went to a soup kitchen and picked up a granola bar to help him get through. That seemed wrong — not only because it was cheating, but because those granola bars were meant for those who really needed it, not someone who was just participating in an educational exercise. No, I won’t go to any soup kitchens or accept give aways meant for the truly under-resourced. Spices? I’ll be using mine. Coffee? I need to think about that one.
Two days to think about it all, two days before the food stamp challenge starts…..