A return to the Food Stamp Challenge. For now.

So today I am returning to my Food Stamp Challenge.  Why?

Well, there are several reasons.  The first is obvious--you cannot really understand in 40 days what people got through for months and sometimes years.  And second, (and this may seem odd) I need the discipline and quite frankly, the financial savings. 

I don't know how long I will continue.  But the average length of time a person is on food stamps is 8-10 months.   

But also, I want to see if there are ways I can draw more attention to those in this country who are hungry, and what their real needs are.  I want to bust open some myths about people on food stamps and help bring reality back to the conversation.  I have an idea on how to do this, but I have to check some things out to see if it is workable.  If it is, I will share it with you (and hopefully a lot of other people).

And I want to see if there are resources out there that I have not previously found or talked about.

So we will play it by ear.  This will continue while it continues.

Spent $14.15 on groceries so far this week.  Black bean tacos are on the menu.  Stir-fried spinach is on the menu.  Oddly, Cream of Wheat is on the menu (there will be cinnamon and brown sugar in it).  

One thing I want to check is if any of the local farmers markets take food stamps.  Produce, when in season, can be very cheap there.  But while I love the farmers markets, I have never really paid attention to this . . . so I will be looking into that.

The Food Stamp Challenge, one week after

So, Easter has come, Easter has gone, and for a week I have been eating whatever I please.

What did I miss the most?  

Mindless eating.  I could survive on food stamps if I had to, but I  spent a lot more time planning my shopping and cooking than I have in years.  This week I have eaten chocolate, drank soda, and generally ate a ton of unhealthy crap.

I was better off when I had to plan.

I am grouchy, bloated, and I spent more on groceries and food than I had any good reason to spend.

And what did I learn?

That you CAN survive on food stamps, given the right conditions.  I have no teenagers living with me, which made it easier.  For someone like Allison, a teen boy on a special diet made this challenge much more difficult. I was willing to eat the same foods over and over, and that was okay too.  But it took a couple of hours a week to plan my meals and do the shopping.  And when produce went bad--as happened a couple of times--it wreaked havoc in my plans.

But there was never a week that I didn't struggle, particularly toward the end of the week.  And the purchase of a staple that I had run out of--such as olive oil--put a whole in my budget.  And I still don't know how people who live gluten free or dairy free (or worse, both) manage to eat something resembling healthy on $21 a week.

With the effects of The Sequester starting to trickle into the economy, I am grateful that congress in its wisdom did not include the food stamp program in the Sequester.  It is enough of a struggle to get by on food stamps without having even less to purchase food with.

You want to help kids learn, improve test scores and stay healthy?  Ensure they have enough to eat.  Keep funding for food stamps.  

I feel like there is more I need to know.  So starting Monday (because I have lunch plans today and tomorrow) I am going to go back on the food stamp challenge.  I want dig deeper, learn more, and see where and how I can help create change.  Stay tuned.