Share Your Thoughts on Hunger
One of the main purposes of our Hunger Action Week is to get people thinking about hunger in their community, whether that’s King County or anywhere else.
The facts show that even in the richest country in the world, hunger is still a problem. A recent New York Times report showed that hunger in the US is at a 14-year high.
Hunger means a lot of different things to people. Some of us were lucky that we never faced the issue first-hand, some had childhoods that were slim, and still others are struggling to feed their families today. No matter what, everyone has a story to tell and a voice to contribute.
We invite you to share your thoughts on what hunger means to you, your family, and your community. You can sound off in the comments section, write on our Facebook wall, or share a post from your own blog.
I’ll start it off:
While I deal with issues of hunger, poverty, and homelessness on a daily basis, I try my best to approach it from an analytical perspective. I know that becoming too emotionally involved with such daunting problems will only drain me and make me less efficient.
One of the times that I was most struck by the devastation hunger has to our community was actually outside of work. I was walking in the International District during a day off and happened to pass by the Asian Counseling & Referral Food Bank before their doors had opened. Outside of the building, there was a large crowd of older men and women, families, and children all waiting to get food. I realized that any one of the people waiting on line could be my grandmother, mother, or sibling. It was truly disheartening.
While walking through that crowd was difficult for me, it reinvigorated my passion for the work I’ve been doing at United Way. I know that the work I am doing here is making a difference in their lives and I can only hope that the families waiting for food will be able to utilize the services provided as a stepping stone to climb out of poverty and into financial stability.
We are a family of 4 and we are taking the Challenge! We believe that with some planning and creativity any family can have awesome food every day. Check out our Blog at http://web.me.com/olgap1/Back_to_Basics_Cooking/Blog/Entries/2010/1/24_We_are_taking_the_Challenge.html. We have our entire shopping list and detailed menus posted every day of the Challenge! Some great cooking tips too. Living on a limited budget is tough, but it does not have to be impossible!
So I went shopping to buy my food for the 5 days ($35.00). I am petite and had gained some weight over the holidays so am trying to diet to get that 5 pounds off so my pants fit properly. So I figured I won’t need too much food. So here is what I bought:
1 bunch of bananas – $ .77
1 box cereal bars -
Oops! I don’t know what happened but it posted before I was finished.
1 box of 6 cereal bars – $2.50
5 frozen dinners – $10.00
1 box teabags – $2.50
1 6-pack applesauce cups – $2.50
1 package of string cheese – $3.50
2 boxes rice-a-roni – $2.00
1 big bunch of broccoli – $1.49
1 box vege patties – $3.50
1 4-pack yogurt – $2.50
1 4-pack peaches – $2.50
So that comes to $33.76. Looking at what I bought, this is OK for a diet but is not particularly nutrition packed. I did choose convenience foods as that makes it easier for me to not overeat but this would certainly not be enough food for a non-dieting person or a man. Also I will basically be eating the same food all week. Plus I have two cats. I don’t know if food stamps cover cat food but I figured out what I pay now and it comes to $4.75 per week to cover the dry and canned food I feed my kitties (does not include litter). Also what about toilet paper and shampoo and toothpaste and all that? So we shall see how the week goes.
[...] bloggers, we got tons of different commenters sharing their thoughts and meals (read them here and here). Of note, Seattle Works CEO Alison Carl White commented about her first day taking the [...]
Monday, January 25th – Challange Day 1
The kids and I are very excited for this hunger challenge. My husband is going along with it since he has no choice – I am the one who usually makes dinner. I have already determined that the key to this is planning, planning and more planning. I went through the Sunday paper and checked store prices. I will be planning my meals according to what is on sale. Usually, I shop by impulse…what looks good when I am at the store, what do I have a taste for for dinner and what essentials do we need to stock up on. I can see this is not going to work for the hunger challenge. For example, my husband loves Yoplait yogurt. But, at $ .85 for a small carton, he is not going to get it. We will try buying the large carton of Safeway brand for $1.25 and then he can scoop out how much he wants. I have also told the kids that they will not have a whole lot of choices for their lunches. I don’t think we will have the luxury of deciding between grapes or oranges in lunch. It will be what is on sale. So, if apples are cheap, you will be getting apples in your lunch.
Breakfast was a knockoff version of an egg McMuffin. I scrambled one egg per person (Fred Meyer had 18 pack of eggs on sale as buy one get one free), added a couple slices of chedder cheese (Safeway brand, mild flavor is the cheapest) and then put it between a toasted english muffin ($1.59 for 12 pack of Safeway brand). The kids loved it and it was fast to make.
Lunch was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (Fred Meyer had both Fred Meyer brand of PB and jelly on sale for $1 each.). I gave everyone ½ an apple and a couple pieces of a big chocolate bar that was on sale for $1. No chips as they were too expensive.
Dinner was spaghetti. Pasta was about $ .75 at Trader Joes. Sauce was on sale at Safeway for $1.59. I added a little onion and about ½ pound of ground beef ($1.59 on sale at Safeway). The ground beef was the higher fat content since it was cheaper. I sautéed it and then drained the meat on paper towels to really get the extra fat off. When I was at the store, I saw yummy aspargus – but it was too expensive. So, we went with frozen green beans on sale for $ .99 a bag. I also made extra spaghetti figuring it could be eaten as lunch the following day.
Monday, January 25th was the start of my first experience of participating in the Hunger Challenge. I had no delusions that this would be easy… how does a “pesce-tarian” live off of $7 a day and eat healthy? Not to mention that Tuesday, January 26th was my birthday. Not a good week to start the Hunger Challenge in my mind; however, this will surely be an experience that I will never forget and will have an impact on how I perceive the luxury of a full tummy, on my birthday or any other day of the year.
Monday wasn’t bad. I didn’t go to bed hungry and felt my meals were pretty satisfying. Breakfast, being my favorite meal of the day and the most important, wasn’t much of a stretch for me. I fried an egg in butter, toasted a piece of bread and melted approximately a teaspoon of butter on it and finished with a cup of coffee. Good start. Breakfast cost me less than a dollar.
Lunch was less than desirable by appearances but left me content. I had bought a bag of salad (with lots of veggies in it) at Safeway for $0.99 which I figured I could get four meals out of. So, for my first day of the Challenge I had a quarter of the bag of salad and a can of tuna in water with a big glass of water out of the tap. The tuna had 11g of protein which was crucial in making me feel that I had consumed a decent meal. Lunch cost approximately $1.33. So far so good…
For an afternoon snack I splurged. I had an apple. This was my big ticket item at the grocery store. The apple cost me $1.25 and I only got one snack out of it. It was delicious, though!
Now for dinner. This proved to be difficult as I didn’t have enough money left over to have a really well balanced, healthy, and satisfying dinner. But, I managed to find a way to get some protein and dairy in. I had a cup of low-fat cottage cheese with half a can of black beans. The other half I figure I would eat tomorrow, so in the fridge it went! I also warmed up a cup of frozen green beans. Considered making some rice but was too tired to wait 20 – 30 minutes for it to cook. Dinner cost me less than $2.00.
I suppose I should be excited. I had a full days worth of meals for less than $7.00. But I was tired and wasn’t completely satisfied with my dinner. Off to bed I went with dreams of tomorrows breakfast in my head.
Tuesday, January 26th. I woke up already knowing today was going to be extremely difficult to stick to the Hunger Challenge rules. It was my birthday and I wanted to eat my cake! However, I was going to give it the good ‘ol college try and do my best to stick to the $7 a day…luckily, I had a little money left over from yesterday! So, I figured I had $9 to spend on food today!
Breakfast wasn’t much different from yesterday. However, instead of frying my egg it was hard boiled. Breakfast still cost me less than a dollar. Again, lunch, although less than exciting it left me full and it was extremely cheap. Quarter bag of salad and a can of tuna fish with a big cup of water, lunch was served! For a snack I had an orange this time. However, someone brought in a cake for my birthday. I didn’t want to be rude so I took a small piece. The cake cost approximately $7. I figured if we split the cake into 12 pieces, each piece would cost approximately $0.60. I also had a cup of coffee which costs $0.25 at work. I’m still within my budget. I figure I’m doing ok.
Dinner. Again, it’s a challenge to eat dinner within budget. Especially when out at a restaurant with friends and family. No drink for me. I have to stick to water. No fun. Everyone wants to buy me a drink but that is against the rules. Water it is… I only have $6.25 to spend on dinner; but, that should get me something, right? I look over and over from front to back and can’t find anything I want for $5 ( I have to leave a tip ). My parents want to buy my dinner. I’m tempted to let them but decide to get a happy hour quesadilla. It’s $4. I’m within budget. Not full. Not happy. Not my idea of a happy birthday dinner. This is depressing. I feel so fortunate that I only have three more days of living on $7 a day and feel sympathy for those who don’t get to celebrate their birthday with a yummy cake and nice nourishing dinner. We finish our meals and the server brings me a complimentary birthday dessert with candles aflame! The rules of Hunger Challenge clearly state that we aren’t supposed to accept free food (not even at Costco!). But, it was awfully kind, so I take one bite and share the rest of the dessert with my friends and family…it was hard to only have one bite. I end the day and conclude I stayed within budget. It’s starting to be painful to eat off of $7 a day.
Why is this challenge only 5 days, snohomish county does it for seven and let me tell you the last two days make all the difference.
[...] great stories of people taking the challenge and sharing their experience. You can find them on this post and also on our Facebook [...]
So far, so good with the Hunger Challenge. We haven’t had to alter our meals too much, aside from losing convenience (buying a block of cheese on sale, instead of nicely shredded cheese, for example). What’s different is that we’re big snackers in our family, and we’ve had to forgo the yummy olives, extra fruit, special desserts, etc. We also gave up wine and good coffee. To save money, I also bought some frozen veggies on sale in lieu of whatever delicious produce looked good to me. For breakfast, we’re eating oatmeal, cereal or toast. For lunch, we’re having either left-overs or sandwiches. For dinner, I’m preparing surprisingly healthy, home-cooked meals based on the following staples: rice, beans, potatoes, chicken, tuna, pasta, and soup stock (with veggies and cheese added in various ways).
Though I’m glad we don’t HAVE to live on a food-stamp diet, I think this challenge shows me that we could, and, more importantly, that perhaps we should. I started thinking that there’s no reason why we should spend a fortune on indulgent food when we could eat quite well for less and have money left over to put to good use elsewhere, such as helping to feed those in need. That being said, I’m sure I’ll be looking forward to a splurge at the end of the week. = )
Tuesday, January 26th – Day 2
I am very thankful that I have the luxury of going to various stores to find the best deals. I have the ability to get in my car and go. This challenge is hard as it is, let alone not having a car or having to take a bus to the store.
Breakfast was oatmeal. I cannot remember the last time I made oatmeal from scratch. Usually, it is the little packets of instant. The kids did not like it since it was not very flavorful. A spoon of sugar on it did not do much to make it more appetizing. Normally, I would have made them something different, but this week, they get what they get. This morning was a big wake up call for them. I imagine by lunch, they will be pretty hungry.
Lunch was leftover spaghetti from last night. I warmed it in the morning and put it in thermos’. Along with it, I gave everyone cut up carrots. A flyer came home from school asking if I could make cookies for the class. As I started adding up the cost of the chocolate chips, butter, etc. I realized I would not be able to do it on the allotted amount of money. I will have to let them know that I can’t make the cookies.
Dinner was baked chicken drumsticks with mashed potatoes and frozen broccoli.
Wednesday, January 27th – Day 3
I have started brainstorming about various ways to save money on meals. I think my crockpot will come in handy. I figure I can get cheaper cuts of meat, add lentils, beans or rice and cook it for a couple of hours to make a hearty soup/stew.
The kids wanted to have pizza for dinner tonight and were upset to find out that one large delivery pizza from a certain gourmet pizza restaurant would cost the same amount as what we are supposed to spend on the whole day. It was very enlightening for them.
Breakfast was bagel, cream cheese and a banana. Bananas were $ .19 each at Trader Joe’s. Bagels were $1.99 for 6 at Safeway and cream cheese was $ .99 from Fred Meyer.
Lunch was chicken noodle soup (Safeway brand for $ .49 per can), cheese and crackers and an apple.
Dinner was homemade pizza. Fresh dough from Trader Joe’s ($1.19 per), leftover spaghetti sauce from Monday, mozzerella cheese (I bought pre-grated from Trader Joe’s for $2.50 per bag). I fried up the other ½ pound of ground beef from Monday and added it to the pizza for protein.
I ma going to get a crockpot meal started tomorrow morning for Thursday dinner. I am spending a lot of time figuring cost effective meals, different ways to shop and whether I truly need something specific from the store.
Thursday, January 28th – Day 4
I fired up the crockpot this morning. I added a cheap cut of beef from Safeway ($1.49 per pound). I figure I can skim off the fat after it cooks. I added potatoes, celery, carrots and 2 cans of beef broth. After it cooks for a few hours, I might add lentils to give it more bulk.
Breakfast was oatmeal. I am getting a little tired of trying to come up with creative meals for the kids and myself. I don’t even like oatmeal, but am eating it since it is cheap.
Lunch was egg salad sandwiches. I cooked about 6 eggs, added a little mayo (Safeway brand for $1.79). I put it on bread (Safeway wheat for $ .99 a loaf). I splurged and bought the kids each an orange.
I need to think about snacks for after school. I will do a bag of microwave popcorn and maybe a glass of orange juice (can of frozen for $ .99 from Fred Meyer).
Dinner will be the crockpot stew. I have to say I am getting tired of trying to come up with creative and inexpensive meals. I feel very stressed trying to make it all work.
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For anyone doing the Hunger Challenge with children, I have a suggestion. Get all the food out of your house except the food to be used during the week. We caught our kids cheating! I took $2 out of our budget for the week – $1 for each kid – even though they probably did not eat more than a quarter worth of food. I bet they won’t cheat again. I bought snack food for the family but it is hard for them when there is other food in the house.
We have $10 left in our budget. I need to buy some milk & bread, plus the kids do not have school tomorrow so I’ll probably buy some boxed mac & cheese for them to have for lunch – they love that stuff. We may be lucky enough to have some money left over to have a treat Friday night. Maybe some chocolate pudding (the cook & serve kind) would be good.
We planned our food purchases and have learned that our “thinking” about food is privileged. I suggested we make a menu then a grocery list for the 5 days so we could go shopping and stay within our budget. My husband responded with “but I like to go every couple of days and pick stuff up spontaneously.” My reply was yes but that is an expensive way to shop. What if we do that and by day 5 we have no money left? He was, I think, somewhat dumbfounded by that idea. Then he came around and started making a list. Then came “thinking” realization number 2. We are used to eating expensive food. When I asked my kids, ages 13 and 15, about lunches for school, my son said well we would probably eat a free or reduced lunch at school. My daughter’s immediate response? EW, Gross! I’m not eating that stuff at school (yep she is the 15 year old). I suggested cup of noodles; got another Ew, gross those are full of salt. So it took some negotiation to come up with ideas that were acceptable but within the budget. We are shopping for soups, pita bread and hummus. We shall see if it stays in the cart. Then it was the drinks. My husband drinks coffee every morning and well, we have to live with him so that is not going. My daughter drinks tea (caffeinated, English style) and well, we have to live with her too. So that leaves the hot chocolate my son and I like. The Mexican hot chocolate that costs $9 a can. Clearly that was not making the cut. After much discussion we now have a menu and grocery list for the week. Apparently we believe Mexican food will be inexpensive; tacos, enchiladas and tostadas are on the dinner menu. We shall see how it goes.
Hunger Week for the Nagles
Our Seattle family of 5 was excited to participate. Well, some of us. After I explained to my 3 kids, ages (8) (6) and (3) that we, as parents, had the sole mission in life to provide for our children, they were put at ease. Allowing their parents to fast, if necessary, did not seem to be a concern to them!
We set out last Saturday morning to the local Safeway to spend our allotted $26/day or $130 for 5 days, starting Monday. Each family member was given a list (ok, the 3 year old had a very short list) of items to get. Our total bill came in at $135 dollars – but at least $5 was for non food items, so we were off to a great start. Fortunately, between the savings and “deals” we found for items, we felt somewhat comfortable that this budget was going to work out. We set aside an area in our home to identify what was “in scope” and noted everything else as “off limits”. We were upbeat, and then left town until Sunday night.
Breakfasts:
Monday morning came quickly. Breakfast was well handled, perhaps not diverse. Cereal and Milk. Milk (2 Gallons) started to run low on Thursday. I think we will eek out Friday. There were a lot of cereal specials at the market, so that was not a great expense. However, if breakfast is the most important meal of the day.. I don’t think we gave it justice. It was more of a shortcut. We ran out of fruit on day 3. We had a box of satsumas, and many of them were rotten when purchased. That did not help.
Lunch
We had enough apples for the kids lunches, and sandwich bread and meat (all on sale). For the working folks, we packed a few lunches. This is not easy. It was not easy for me personally to not buy lunch. I’ve been doing this for 10 years. I’m certainly not looking for sympathy on this! I am embarrassed.
Snacks
This was difficult. Packaged snacks are expensive. And preparing snacks takes time. So, it was somewhat of a “no snack” week.
Dinner
We used a recipe book at the beginning of the week that helped us re-use all leftovers, and bake them into new meals. This seemed suspicious, but it worked out. We bought some meat, and some vegetables, and had various versions – no real spices, some salsa – and it was ok. Not creative or great, but ok. We did not throw out food for the most part.
Dessert
Did not happen.
Thoughts:
We realized quickly that it $26/day did not allow for well balanced meals.
A larger realization was that it is nearly impossible to abide by this allowance without a lot of pre-planning, and eating in the home. Work and school schedules made it very difficult to manage to. Between school, work, soccer practice and play practices, our very busy kids (and parents) did not always have the opportunity to return home to participate in the planned dinner meal for the day. There was, admittedly, at least one trip to Subway, and we dutifully subtracted these dollar amounts out of our total grocery area at home.
We also realized that we are very fortunate and lucky to have what we have. An important lesson to our children was that no one chooses to go without food, and it is not an expectation to have food. Rather we are lucky to be employed, and therefore able to provide for our family.
Tomorrow is our last day, and we will make it. A great experience for our family. We now have another perspective of what it’s like to have limits. I appreciated the “team approach” we had from the first shopping day, up to tonight and tomorrow. Thanks for this valuable exercise!
I was so amazed at how little food and variety I could purchase. What was even more amazing was that on one side of my cart I shopped for my family and the other side I shopped for myself with $7 for each day. I picked up a bag of rice puffs for snacks for my kids lunch and realized that this one item for my family’s pile was equal to half of my daily allowance. I found myself thrilled to find really good sale items on the basics. There was no room for extras. No chips, no pop, very little variety. I was able to purchase fruit but not the amount I like to eat.
I felt like I was on a diet. I was so aware of portioning out my food so I would have enough for the week.
I was also aware that I missed and envied what others were eating. I never realized how difficult feeling full and satisfied would be. I can’t imagine an average man having enough food. This experience has opened my eyes to the need for food banks to supplement food stamps. I would like to get involved in helping at one of these in the future.
Linda James
The United Way of King County Hunger Challenge is a must do for every family. This is an experience that my family will never forget. Did we win the challenge? You bet we did! Was it a challenge? Absolutely!
My husband, Bill and I, decided that we would include our children in every step of the Hunger Challenge. On Sunday afternoon, the day before the Challenge started, we headed to the grocery store to shop for the food we would use for the week. As many parents know, just the grocery shopping experience with children in tow, can be a challenge. Our twelve year old, Alexa, was the first to voice a complaint, “Why can’t we have cheese sticks? I don’t like to take regular cheese in my lunch?” Not to be out done, Andrea, our 8 year old daughter, had to do some complaining of her own, “Why can’t I have this yogurt, I like it better?” Of course the reason to both of their objections was money. The budget we had to live with for the Hunger Challenge was much less than what we would normally spend. As a family of four we only had $22.00 a day or $110.00 for the week to spend on food. As my husband said, “This doesn’t seem like it will be alot of fun.”
One of our main food staples for the week was ham. This seems like an expensive food item, but it goes a long way, as my family found out. The first day of the Hunger Challenge was great. For dinner we had ham, baked potatoes, green beans and rolls. Wow! Pretty good for being on such a tight budget, right? As the week progressed, we were all got pretty tired of ham. Ham sandwiches for lunch – for three days; ham & egg scramble for dinner on the second night; ham and bean soup for dinner – two nights in a row and for lunches one day; sure can make you wish you would never see a pig again. I gave the family a reason to cheer and made tator tot casserole for dinner Friday night. We even had a treat with chocolate pudding (the cook and serve kind) for dessert that evening.
If anybody does this Challenge with children, I would suggest getting all snack foods, purchased prior to the Challenge Week, out of the house. The kids were caught cheating once. I took $2.00 away from our money we had left, for things like milk and bread, plus I told them if they cheated again there would be no treat on Friday night and the money left for that would be donated to the food bank – they didn’t cheat again!
Our family discussed the lessons learned from this experience: The kids do not ever want to be on food stamps and feel bad for those who are; Alexa said she needs to study hard and go to college to help her get a good job (she wants to head up Disney Hawaii’s Sea Life programs). Thank you United Way of King County for the real life experience.
I think that the key to feeding one person for $7 a day is to plan your meals around the weekly supermarket ads that come in the mail, and to prepare your food from scratch. Being raised by parents, who experienced the depression of the 1930s, the children in our family were taught that already prepared foods or packaged foods (unless purchased at an extreme discount) were an unnecessary luxury. We also waited for sales to buy many items, and did without some things until they went on sale again. This type of instruction was also provided by the typical home economics class in the 1960′s. I still use these principles to plan our meals.
I buy what is on sale and I shop with store coupons and only buy prepared foods when the combination of store sales and mfg coupons make them less expensive than preparing from scratch. I rely on what is on special for the week and plan my shopping around that. Leftovers are a staple around here. I am fortunate to have a shopping district that has 3 major supermarkets in a 6 to 8 block stretch of road.
Last week you could buy small packages of fresh, split, bone-in, Washington grown chicken breasts from Safeway for 99 cents a pound. A bag of washed spinach which provided 3 generous cooked servings was a dollar. A bag of Fresh Express salad mix with extra carrots was also one dollar. A neighboring store had a dozen large eggs for 88 cents. Last week 10 lbs of potatoes were $1. These are just a few examples of what has been sale lately, and these specials lasted for 7 days. A gallon of milk in my south-sound location can be purchased for $1.99 to $2.50 at all times. On Sunday nighto one local Safeway consistently marks 50% off the beef and pork that is pull dated.
This week one store has Western Family canned veggies for 38 cents a can and Albertson’s has Skippy peanut butter for $1 a jar, among other things. Each 15 oz can of veggies is probably 2 generous servings, so for $3.80 a person could purchase 20 servings of decent veggies.
If a person has freezer space available, they could have purchased an extra pack or more of the chicken breast, and still stayed with in the $35 for the week for one person.
As I said at the beginning, I think that planning meals around the weekly store ‘loss leaders’ is the key. Anyone who has done comparison shopping also knows that prices can vary widely for exactly the same items from store to store. I try to patronize the stores with the lower prices.
Of course, all of this takes a lot of time and effort, and with a family, that has two working parents, finding time to shop the sales and cook from scratch is most likely difficult.
Friday, January 29th – Day 5
Wow, I have to say that this was very hard. Over the course of the week, I had to give up my two cups of coffee in the morning. My husband could not have a beer in the evening. I started dreaming about all the things I was going to cook and bake after this was over. I found it very hard to provide nutritious and interesting varieties. We seemed to eat a lot of starches – potatoes, rice, beans. It was hard to find meats that would not break the budget. I went with fattier cuts of meat and thighs and drumsticks for chicken rather than breasts.
Breakfast was scrambled eggs with toast. Lunch was chicken noodle soup and an apple. For dinner, I think we cheated, I took the kids to McDonald’s and ordered off the dollar menu.
All in all, I am happy we did this as a family. It was interesting to try and make it work. However, I am very thankful that we do not have to do this on a regular basis.
[...] Our blog and Facebook continues to recieve tons of great thoughts on their experiences and what they’ve taken away from Hunger Action Week. Just like the bloggers above, they are all well worth the read. [...]
When I first approached my family of four with the intention of registering the family as a group to participate in Hunger Action Week the level of excitement was absent. My husband was willing to step into whatever I presented. He saw the reduction in the grocery bill as an advantage. My girls 11 and 9 were a bit apprehensive the oldest feared she may be hungry. The youngest had visions of her Hot Cheetos supply drying up.
During the past two years my oldest daughter has spent a fair amount of time volunteering at food banks and has been made aware of hunger and homelessness. She expressed her eagerness to help in any way she could but she did not want to risk being hungry. I explained that I would not allow her or her younger sister be hungry; even if that meant that I gave her my meal. An emotional child her eyes watered, I hugged her and told her that if other mothers could go hungry in order to feed their families I would too.
My youngest daughter asked, “Mom, how can we do something about the hunger issue?” I told her to participate in Hunger Action Week and talk about it at school, talk about it at church and keep talking about it. Volunteer when and were you can and talk about it some more. As a family, we will continue to work when and where can to end hunger and homelessness.
…How it went – well Days 1 -3 we basically stuck with what we have been doing for breakfast. Lunches were changed a bit. We added a veggie/fruit combination in place of the sugary sweets my girls grown accustomed to enjoying. I made a dinner that allowed for leftovers and supplemented lunch for my husband and I as usual.
Day 4 saw me craving a Starbucks Tall White Chocolate Mocha; which I could not have because it is not a purchasable item on the food benefit card. I bake a yellow cake frosted with chocolate sour cream pretended I was drinking it. I hoped that cured my craving, it was good but not really convincing.
Day 5 I am excited with my lunch and still craving my Mocha but the reality now is that if I made it this far I can keep going. I wonder how many more days I can go and to tell the truth I am actually enjoying the extra change. I did not spend the entire amount I was allotted. My husband is pleased to see the change in the grocery bill.
As for my youngest she was a trooper and I was able to get her coveted Hot Cheetos, 3 bags – snack size for one dollar at Thriftway!
…The reality, my 5 day awareness is nowhere equal to the reality food benefit average of $254 a month. The 28 day month is a blessing as opposed to the 31 reality.
I shopped like this:
5 frozen dinners (Healthy Choice) for 1.88 each
loaf of 100% whole wheat bread 2.00
peanut butter and jelly 2.00 each
gallon of milk 1.99
dozen eggs .99
sandwich meat (roasted turkey)3.00
head of letttuce 1.00
pound of butter 3.00
box of cereal 2.00
I bought these at the dollar store: small jar of mayo and mustard; 1.00 ea
5 bananas 2.00
4 apples 2.00
Total about 34.00
I thought I did pretty good, but I’ve had a lot of practice. I grew up on food stamps and learned how to “low income shop” No frills or extras that’s for sure…No variation or straying from the bare necessities and making every dollar count. No wasting food either…use everything… For those lucky enough to have the time or a way to get to the food bank, you can get extras that you can’t get with your food stamps. It’s really a disciplined way to live, and you can’t always get what you want, but if you take the time it can be managed. It’s just tough to always walk the straight and narrow path of poverty though.
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