Did you know that in L.A. County, certain “restaurants” accept food stamps? It is part of their Restaurant Meals Program that has been running since 2005.

For those that don’t know, food stamps (aka EBT) is generally only allowed for food products that must be prepared. So allowing benefits to be used at restaurants is a pretty radical shift in the program’s scope.

I put the word “restaurants” in quotation marks above because the participating restaurants in the program are almost all fast food chains — Domino’s, Jack in the Box, El Pollo Loco, and Subway are the most prevalent participants.

At first glance, I found the program to be pretty ridiculous. Since the only options were unhealthy foods, what good does this program do aside from promoting obesity? However, my opinion changed slightly after I read their FAQ.

The Restaurant Meals Program is only available to the homeless, disabled, and elderly (over 60). For these groups, cooking is difficult if not impossible. So even with food stamps, their options are limited and usually unhealthy. I mean, what can someone experiencing homelessness buy at a grocery store that will be warm and nutritious?

So while eating pizza is not ideal , if it’s the only option for someone to be able to get a hot meal, then I understand.

I still think that some healthier, affordable restaurants need to get on the program but I’m less critical of it now that I know all the facts.

[Fire roasted tomato and bleu cheese soup with a bacon apple and caramelized onion grilled cheese panini]

Candi Wilvang participated in the United Way Hunger Challenge with her family of three – Mom, Dad and ten year old son (with some help from her 20 year old son). Read about their experience below.

The challenge was an awesome experience for our family to take. I am the mother of two son’s ages 20 and 10. My oldest son Shattuck lives in his own apartment so we took the challenge as mom, dad, and 10 year old son, MacKenna. At first I thought $18 was pretty reasonable because I do not think we spend that much as it is. We utilize our neighborhood food banks. I was quickly reminded by dad that we can’t use anything we already have. He looked frightened after we hid all our food, condiments, spices etc… I, on the other hand, was very excited about learning from this.

We decided we wanted to price compare at 5 different grocery stores and so we would spend $18 a day, for 5 days, at 5 different stores. We spent $15.63 at QFC the first day of shopping. We went there on Sunday and we decided we would just get the basics.

By Monday we realized we had no dinner items and no coffee! “That’s ok, we will spend our next $18 tonight on dinner and a few missed luxury items” I tried to reassure dad. That night we went to Whole Foods loaded with coupons. Mondays dinner was creative, chicken breast with spinach and melted white cheddar on maple waffles and a side of fresh Mango and steamed broccoli.

Tuesday we went to Safeway and spent $17.13 Tuesdays dinner was Feta, pineapple, broccoli manicotti with fresh spinach pesto cheese sauce.

My oldest son works at Seattle Art Museum, Taste Restaurant, and wanted to come with me on Wednesday and buy ingredients so he could cook homemade fire roasted tomato and bleu cheese soup with a bacon apple and caramelized onion grilled cheese panini for us. Somebody suggested we try Grocery Outlet this time and we walked out with almost everything we needed for the amount of $17.04. My son was missing some important ingredients but it turned out fantastic!

With 4 shopping sprees behind us, I realized Thursday was our last chance to buy food. It meant we had to make the food last through to Fridays dinner. The soup went a long way for leftovers. I also used it as flavoring in Fridays “Cheeseburger Cupcakes”. Trader Joes was our final destination and we did our shopping for $19.31 It was the first time we went over budget, but still under budget over all! We deserved that ice-cream sandwich!

I was able to share this experience on Facebook and Flickr which made it all the more inspiring to make creative dishes and photograph it! I think I will continue to post recipes and cook with my children more often. Thank you for this great opportunity. It was empowering.

This week, over 250 community members are participating in the United Way of King County Hunger Challenge. We have been lucky enough to hear from some participants about how their first day went and some initial thoughts and reflections on the challenge. Read about Lauren Lutz’s first day below and sign up to take the Hunger Challenge:  

“Today is my first day starting the United Way Hunger Challenge and I can already tell this is going to more difficult than I had mentally prepared myself for.  For breakfast, I had a banana (which I bought as a bunch for $2.50, one for each morning). I normally get a Chai tea on my way to work but considering that would be half of my daily allowance I had to sacrifice that luxury.  For lunch, I brought an Eating Right frozen squash ravioli meal that I purchased for $2. Looking at the nutrition facts, I’m actually pretty impressed, although I don’t know if I could do a frozen meal for too long a period. After eating the frozen entrée, I’m still pretty hungry because the proportion is smaller than I normally eat for lunch. This left me $4 for dinner, which I was stumped on until my mom suggested a can of soup. I purchased a can of Tortilla soup for $3 but was unable to afford the Frito chips and cheddar cheese that I normally add for flavor. I had planned to buy a small candy bar for desert but with tax I was already at $6.83. So you may ask, did you get enough to eat? Well the answer  is no. Without my morning chai, my normal afternoon snack, and a large dinner I’m going to bed still craving more!  I’m already planning what I will get to eat tomorrow; food will be in my dreams tonight!”

We’d love to hear from you too! How did your first day go? Did you have enough to eat, or did you go to bed less than satisfied like Lauren? Post your thoughts in the comments section of this entry.

United Way of King County’s Hunger Challenge is an exercise of empathy—to live in someone else’s shoes for one week and learn how you can help fight hunger in our community. You can choose to do the challenge with your partner or family.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, KOMO radio host Brian Calvert and the following food bloggers are already signed up to take the Hunger Challenge. Please sign up now to join them!

• Big City Hippie
• A Conscious Feast
• Kathleen Flinn
• Eric Rivera’s Cooking Blog
• Family Friendly Food
• Foodista
• Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef
• Mirch Masala
• Savory Sweet Life

UPDATE: Since this post, more food bloggers have signed on to participate!  You can see the full list here on our blogroll.

The food bloggers who participated in last year’s Hunger Challenge came up with many delicious, low-cost recipes, and I can’t wait to see what is whipped up this time.

Everyone who completes the Hunger Challenge will be eligible to receive a free ticket to Disneyland! Just go to the “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” site to register. Under “Search for an activity,” type in your zip code and choose “Hunger & Homelessness” for your volunteer opportunity interest area.

Fill out the form below to sign up for the Hunger Challenge!

Learn more about Hunger Action Week >>

We’ve written a good deal about food stamps on this blog,  especially with regard to our new Bridge to Basics program (which incidentally has just wrapped a highly successful pilot run). But I thought it worth highlighting this article for several reasons, as it chronicles national trends we’ve been seeing in Seattle since the recession hit in 2007.

For  data geeks like myself, it also has this sweet infographic, which is a handy tool not only for avoiding your Outlook inbox but also for comparing King County food stamp usage to other major metropolitan counties across the country.

Perhaps the most important stat to remember is this one: 90% of food stamp recipients have incomes below the federal poverty line.  For a family of four, that’s only $22,050.

The families and children utilizing SNAP truly need the help, and thankfully the stigma attached to the program is succumbing to the harsh reality of the recession. It’s not a positive sign that people who were once financially self-sufficient are now on food stamps.  However, it is important to remember that the program is working, and that without it our goal of alleviating hunger in King County would be nearly impossible to reach.

So, what to do?  First off, don’t toss out all the traditions of the past…it’s still important to celebrate the spirit in your own special way.  And if you’re really stuck on how best to do that, might I suggest doing something special for yourself this holiday season by doing something special for someone else?  Instead of waiting for things to ‘get back to normal’, why not make a new ‘normal’?  Let’s face it, this has been a horribly depressing year for a lot of us.  But I’ve managed to discover that you can fight back the blahs (even the holiday ones) by connecting…so, connect.

And then plan on continuing all year!  You can try this, or this.  Maybe even that!

About 420,000 families receive food stamps in Washington, up 30 percent from a year ago.

Before the New York pilots, Costco execs were skeptical that any of their customers would use food stamps. However, the tests showed that they would if given the opportunity.

“The rules are different today,” CEO Jim Sinegal said. “People who were in good shape financially all of the sudden are needing some assistance.”

(Click for a full-size view)

I am a sucker for infographics and boy does GOOD Magazine produce solid infographics.  They consistently take data and make it look awesome.

They recently graphed out the number of people who are using food stamps with interesting results.

(Aside: “Food Stamps” is a colloquialism. Nationally, the program is called SNAP and in Washington it’s known as Basic Food.  For the sake of simplicity, I’ll be calling it Food Stamps)

Why More People Are Signing Up…

The data shows that people have been signing up for food stamps at record-setting rates.  And while the weakened economy has a lot to do with it, there are other factors in play.

For one, states have broadened their income rules, making more people eligible for the program.  In Washington, the income limit increased from 130% federal poverty level to 200% federal poverty level.

Second, the stimulus package increased the amount of benefits people receive which made the program more appealing to folks.

…And Why It’s A Good Thing

All the news articles talking about food stamp increases frame the issue around how it’s a sign of how bad our economy is.  Yes, there is some truth to that angle.  However, by  focusing on that, they end up disparaging a great program.  I love the food stamp program!

I love it because it helps families and individuals during tough times.  They aren’t forced to choose between paying rent and eating a meal.

Plus, the program acts as a tremendous local stimulus.  People are able to go to their grocery stores and buy food they normally wouldn’t be able to.  In turn, the grocery stores become busier and can hire more staff.  And this isn’t just theoretical either; here’s a quote from a recent CBS article:

“The Department of Agriculture estimates that every $5 of food stamp spending results in $9.20 worth of economic activity.

That’s why the food stamp boost is also helping this in New York City, where one supermarket manager says his sales are up 10 percent since the stimulus program started.

“We’re actually thinking of hiring more people,” said Jose Almonte, the manager of an Associated Supermarket.”

We Want Participation Rates Up

Food stamps help those in need and also help local economy.  That’s why we launched our Bridge to Basics program to get more people enrolled.  In King County, about 33% of those who can get food stamps aren’t even signed up!  While getting more people in the program will made the graph bars grow longer and the news stories continue, it’s worth it because families will have food on their tables.

For their “Food Stamp Challenge”, they are trying to go through 7 days with only spending $3.50 a day(!).  Why did they choose $3.50 a day as a their guide for the challenge?  According to their website, it is to:

• Show that the buying power of food stamps is not what it used to be;
• Open up a discussion about the struggles families are facing to meet the costs of living;
• Show the difficulty in eating healthy on such a tight budget;
• Generate understanding and awareness of hunger and food insecurity in our community; and
• Encourage you to give, advocate, and volunteer in the community to end hunger.

They also have a blog where one of the challenge takers is writing their thoughts throughout the week.  It’s already a pretty interesting read so you should check it out!

It looks like Costco, seller of (sometimes ridiculously large) bulk products, is finally taking steps towards accepting food stamps.

They are testing food stamp acceptance in two New York City stores, which ideally will then carry over to the rest of the chain.

One of the reasons that Costco is making this shift is because other wholesale stores like BJ’s have already begun accepting food stamps at their stores.

Well, that and the fact that tons more people are on food assistance and it just makes good business sense for the company and for the consumers.

It seems like a win-win for everyone. Let’s hope that this plan rolls out nationally soon!

[via Consumerist]