I actually stumbled upon your blog earlier and was going to comment on it. But since you commented here, I might as well respond here.

I think that while $7/day is not the worst thing ever (I think Basic Food is a great program and it really helps families and individuals), it is by no means easy to survive with.

People who are extremely low-income (and thus qualifying for the maximum food benefits) usually have a number of other hardships to face. Working two jobs, not having food preparation skills, disability, not having any form of private transportation, living in “food deserts”, etc. are all factors that most of us don’t have to deal with.

If you work two jobs, it becomes a lot harder to sit down, create a budget, and make everything from scratch. If you don’t have food preparation skills, you won’t be able to make a wide variety of nutritious meals (which makes things like Solid Ground’s Frontline program so awesome). If you have to take a bus to the supermarket, you won’t be able to carry bulk items.

I think the people taking the challenge know that they’ll never know what going hungry feels like. The challenge is made so that people can think about the affect hunger has in their daily lives. It’s a different way to help raise hunger awareness.

I could go on, but I probably should save some of this for a post :P

In the end, I disagree that food benefits are inflated. $7/day for me — and I would guess most people — isn’t the easiest and really constrains your options.

I really appreciate the comment and I’d love to talk more to about this. Because really, Hunger Action Week and the Hunger Challenge was designed precisely for this reason: to get people thinking about, talking about, and taking action around hunger.

- Yuri Kim, United Way of King County