One of the things about living on food stamps is that you can take advantage of other programs that help feed people--places like food banks, hot meal sites, etc. Or, you can go to church.
Wednesday was the first day of Lent, and the start of soup and bread dinners at my church. I had a large bowl of clam chowder and two rolls. This, on top of my usual breakfast (orange, bread, glass of milk) and lunch (apple, cheese, crackers, hard boiled egg), put me in a good place for protein, but I am fairly sure that I am lacking vegetables. I will have to work on changing that.
But I got to thinking--what about a family? How would a single mom with a teen-aged son fare on my food? Mom could probably make it, but the kid would be starving all the time (actually, teen boys are starving all the time no matter what, but that is a bigger discussion).
I ran my menu for Wednesday through a calorie calculator, and found that I consumed a total of 1516 calories (give or take--depends on the size of the apple, etc.)
Then I look on several websites for nutrition, including WebMD and find that a boy between 11 and 21 needs between 2100 and 3100 calories a day--TWICE what I am eating.
He could probably use some more vegetables in his diet also.
Me too. People worried about me gaining weight from my diet? I am concerned that I could be eating too few. I am trying to shed about 20 pounds, but this diet has me more than 500 calories A DAY under what is recommended for my age--and that is if I am sedentary. Which I am not.
I know that I am looking at just one day--and I will start checking my calorie intake more carefully.
Today I actually did worse. I managed my regular breakfast, but got busy and skipped lunch. Dinner was delicious--wonderful corn chowder provided by the community center I work at, with salad and angel food cake with berries for dessert. The meal is provided each week to anyone who wants to come, and many of those who come are obviously hungry. Tonight I was too. Every bite tasted better. But I also felt more self conscience than normal: I regularly eat at this meal--we are trying to build community, and you cannot do that without sitting down and joining the community for meals. But some of them have so little--and they have kids. Many of them are on food stamps, and clearly not making it. They make use of the food bank down stairs, and enjoy the meal upstairs.
Someone I knew once referred to the people who come to the food bank and the meal as "those people". And not in a good way. In a way that made it clear that "those people" were some how less than the rest of us. But they are not. They are moms and dads trying to raise their kids. Or raise their grandkids, in some cases. They are single parents doing the best they can. They are seniors, who worked hard for years, and don't need the food bank or really, even the meal, so much as they need the relationships and the community.
Spend day after day with them, and you start realizing that they are not "those people" but rather, they are people who do whatever it takes to take care of their family.
In the next few weeks, a bunch of congressmen and women in DC will try to take a bite out of food stamps. They will talk about the need to spend less on "entitlements". Some of them will talk about the "47%" who pay no taxes (this is a myth folks), and talk about how helping people keeps them from helping themselves. What they won't talk about:
- $100 million a year in food stamps are provided to current and retired members of the US Military
- the average person on food stamps is only on the program 9 months.
- the largest group of people benefiting from food stamps: children, who make up 47% of those people on food stamps.
- 21% of people on food stamps also receive Supplemental Security benefits targeted at seniors and the blind.
When congress talks about cutting $2 billion from food stamps, they are talking about taking food out of the mouths of those who need food the most--and placing an additional burden on the thousands of food banks and meal sites across the country.
There are smarter spending cuts that hurt fewer people.
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