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www.jfscinti.org
Wed
26
Oct
2011
Food Stamp Challenge 2011
Can you eat for a week on $31.50? Jewish Family Service Executive Director Beth Schwartz and her 14 year old daughter are going to try when they take the Food Pantry Challenge. Click on comments below. And see how Jewish Family Service helps your neighbors who live with this real challenge every day.
Comments: 20
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#1
I will be starting the Food Stamp Challenge on Sunday. I've started to gear up for the task by reading helpful hints for eating well on a tight budget as provided by SNAP (Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program, formerly Food Stamps). The last time I took the Challenge, I was harshly criticized for my food choices. I will try to make healthier choices this time but find it hard to accept that a SNAP budget should require an "all beans all the time" diet.
The official start of the Challenge is Thursday, but I am beginning later on Sunday as my husband scheduled meals out with his family this weekend. Instead of not participating or tagging along but not eating, I am choosing to begin my Challenge a few days later than the scheduled start. In reflecting on this decision, I am reminded how embarrassingly often we eat out as a family. As a busy full-time working mom who also chaffeurs kids for soccer, basketball, and drum lessons, planning and preparing meals falls low on my priority list. And while I consider how much money I could save if I showed greater discipline toward meal preparation, I simply would rather put my energies elsewhere. But I am acutely aware that I am blessed enough that for me this is a choice. Starting the Challenge late so that I can indulge in a few restaurant meals this weekend is another reminder that for me this exercise is just that--an exercise. Not so for the millions of people for whom SNAP is their daily budget reality.
My 14 year-old daughter Monica asked to join me in the Challenge. I was delighted to hear of her interest. My first task is to talk with her high school principal about seeing if she can receive subsidized lunches for the week of our Challenge. I'll let you know how that goes in my next post.
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#2
Monica and I are preparing for our Challenge. I spoke with her school administration yesterday about "enrolling" her for the week in the free/reduced lunch program. The school (Indian Hill High School) and food services provided by Aramark are excited and supportive of her decision to join me in the Challenge. I was impressed by what I learned about the Free/Reduced meal program as implemented by Aramark at her school. Kids on this program go through the food line just like all others and there's no distinction. They buy their meals using the school-issued ID card and nobody knows the difference between a student paying full-freight and the student with a voucher. However, the free/reduced program will not allow a student to purchase any supplemental snack items such as baked chips, cookies, or frozen yogurt. So there are restrictions placed on choice. The motivation behind the restrictions (government rule, not school rule) is to ensure healthy consumption. But the value judgment implied by restricting choice bothers me somehow. I recall from the last time I took the challenge how observers were so judgmental about my food choices, as if people in poverty shouldn't have the right to make their own food choices.
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#3
Monica and I begin the Challenge tomorrow. We went to the grocery today to prepare and buy our food for the week. I typically buy the bulk of my groceries at Trader Joe's but thought I might have an easier time at Kroger so we went there. We ended up at Trader Joe's too, buying some items at both stores. We spent just under our entire week's allocation of $63.00 and I'm already anxious that we won't make it through the week. Here's what we bought:
Frozen Spinach $1.00
Frozen Green Beans $1.00
Frozen Peas $1.00
Frozen Corn $1.00
Eggs $2.49
Cannned Pears $1.09
Peanut Butter $2.49
Tomato Sauce (2)$1.20
Canned Mandarin Oranges $1.00
Bread $1.99
Ramen Noodles (5) $0.96
Tuna (4) $2.76
Bananas (3) $0.65
Apples (10) $3.49
Poptarts $2.59
Milk $3.69
Tortilla Chips $2.99
Tomato Soup $2.29
Chicken Broth $1.99
Fresh Spinach $2.49
Cheese $3.99
Organic Chicken Drumsticks $6.26
Meatballs $3.99
Strawberry Preserves $2.99
Spaghetti (2) $1.98
marinara sauce $1.98
Coffee $2.90
TOTAL $62.25
I am very aware that beginning tomorrow I will not have any options outside of the purchases we made today. I have only $.75 to spare! I am also very aware of the how few fresh items we have for the week. The fresh veggie bin is virtually empty save for a bag of spinach. In terms of fresh fruit, we have 10 apples and 3 bananas for both of us, which does not even equal one piece of fresh fruit daily. Monica usually packs her lunch, but this week she will be taking the reduced/free lunch option at school. I don't think we would have had enough from our purchases today to cover her lunches too.
The psychology of scarcity kicked in this morning. Knowing that my choices will be predetermined and limited beginning tomorrow, I've been eating lots of treats today---ice cream, leftover pizza, and pancakes for breakfast. We'll have dinner at a restaurant tonite and then tomorrow all meals from home. Check back in tomorrow--I'll log all my food consumption in this blog. -
#4
I am so proud of you and Monica.... maybe next year I will join you. And what about the fresh veggies in your garden?
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#5
Today's consumption:
Breakfast: Banana, coffee
Lunch: Ramen noodles with spinach added, tortilla chips
Dinner: Eggs with cheese and spinach (only Beth ate the spinach), apple slices
Okay, so poverty is really gripping. I am stunned by how much I feel like a prisoner to the items that were purchased via my Challenge budget, and the rest of the items in my pantry (that I can't eat). I felt hungry all day, but I honestly think it was "phantom hunger." I ate as much as I often do. It's truly more the psychology of knowing I only have so much to make it through the week and I'm rationing the food accordingly. The loaf of bread I bought has 15 slices in it. That's enough for 7 sandwiches and 1 piece of toast. I usually waste the heels (I'm not proud of the waster but I do feed them to the birds), but tomorrow's breakfast is a PB and J sandwich and one slice of bread is the heel.
Doing this with Monica has added a whole new element into my anxiety. I'm concerned that she won't have enough to eat. She has basketball practice each afternoon and expends alot of energy. I want to make sure that she eats enough to keep her going. She chose pop-tarts for breakfast (they're organic and have no high fructose corn syrup, but more about that in tomorrow's blog entry) because she usually has to grab and go and pop-tarts are easy enough to make sure she doesn't miss the bus. There would have been many other better choices, but convenience needs to be a part of our lifestyle. Convenience wasn't designed for the poor. I spent 30 minutes tonight preparing my lunch and breakfast for tomorrow. I am accustomed to eating breakfast at home if I have time, but more often just grabbing something on my way to work. I don't ever think about it in advance--I just do whatever makes sense at that moment. This lifestlye requires significantly more planning.
Thanks to my friend Deborah Eckert for her supportive comment above. She asked about the vegetables from our garden (for which she served as mentor and inspiration)...the garden has been retired for the season. We ate plenty of fresh vegetables (with no chemicals) all summer, but sadly didn't plant for late fall harvest. But we have a few pumpkins still that might be small enough for eating. Hmmmm...I'll have to give that some thought toward the end of the week. -
#6
I am so amazed that Monica is participating with you! You go, girls!
Beth, worrying about Monica is wonderful - that you can. Just think; many impoverished families in these permanent situations usually don't have breakfast for their kids, maybe not even a Pop-Tart. And without the free/reduced lunch program, just think how they eat on the weekends. We are so blessed to live with convenience, treats, and freedom of choice as to what to eat when!
Ann and I were talking at work today about bringing in some food to "boost" your week. But then I realized: many of the families that qualify for this assistance due to their low income probably don't have jobs with potlucks and the sort (maybe a temp job?). It's quite overwhelming to take in all at once.
Keep it up, ladies!!! -
#7
Today's eats:
Breakfast: coffee, 1/2 PB and J sandwich (made with the heel!)
Lunch: worked through lunch so at 2:20 ate the other 1/2 sandwich (so now I have today's lunch for tomorrow)
Dinner: made soup with chicken broth, chicken legs, and frozen veggies (corn, green beans, spinach, peas); mandarin oranges for a sweet treat
It's pretty typical for me to skip lunch. But doing that this week has several implications. On the plus side, I saved today's lunch for tomorrow so I've stretched my pantry some. On the less than positive side I came home hungry and could only rely on what I had planned for dinner and not a morsel extra. Usually when I skip lunch I nibble and nosh while I'm making dinner. Problem this week is that I have no nosh. I was afraid to take a banana or apple because then we'll run out. That's called food insecurity. So, it's really not about whether or not eating on $31.50 for the week is achievable--of course it is. It's tough but certainly achievable. The real issue is the fact that strict budget, scarcity, and necessary rationing lead to a preoccupation about consumption. Both Monica and I think and overthink about what we're eating next way more than we ever have before. We're overcome by this weird psychology that is playing with us and it's truly unsettling.
Thanks to my colleague Carrie who posted above. My Jewish Family Service co-workers have been very sensitive to my hunger issues and have generously offered "boosts" as Carrie called it. I've declined as has Monica. I've had offers for lunch or breakfast, but truth is people affected by poverty live in a community of poverty. Their friends and neighbors are not in a position to take them out to eat. I'm trying to tow the same line as the people who daily what is for me a week's experiment. -
#8
I just want to say that my sister and others in her community eat great on a very low budget. How? They grow their own gardens and they CAN all the excess fruits and veggies for the winter. Of course, they plant their fall crops as well. When I was there last July a neighbor had a really full cherry tree. They allowed us to pick what ever was above the high branches. We got out a ladder and started picking. We spend the next hours canning the cherries that we didn't eat. They have jars and jars of cherries for the winter months.
I think it would be great to create community gardens for those with low income. I can't think of anything better to do with our tax dollars than to teach people to garden for sustenance. Fresh veggies go a long way with brown rice and fresh fruits and berries are delicious.
That being said, I am proud of Beth and Monica. They have me thinking about what we can do to help those less fortunate. -
#9
Yesterday (Wednesday)'s Consumption:
Breakfast: coffee, 1 slice of toast with piece of cheese
Lunch: spinach with 1 can of tuna, oil and vinegar
Dinner: Spaghetti with meatballs with marinara sauce (with spinach added)
Okay, I cheated. Well, sort-of. In my haste to get out of the house this morning (my fault for not allowing myself enough time) I knew I had to grab something so that I might eat. I took an apple but my hungry tummy told me that that the apple along with some peanut butter would be more sustaining and fulfilling. Instead of opening the jar, finding a container to transfer a serving into, getting out a spoon or knife to make the transition (all in all probably a three minute transaction), instead I grabbed a "Jif To Go" prepackaged single serving peanut butter cup (20 seconds). Eve was still a minute late for school. So while peanut butter is in my $31.50 pantry and I have plenty of it left in the jar, technically I'm eating the "wrong" peanut butter for breakfast. This just illustrates the inconvenience of poverty. On a typical rushed day I’ll fly out of the house knowing that breakfast and lunch are commodities easily purchased when and where I choose. These days if I don’t have lunch in hand when I arrive at work, I’ll go hungry.
Now about the apple…I took two this morning, and I’m rethinking my strategy. Monica and I started our week with 10 apples. We’ve eaten two so far. I have a spreadsheet that helps me monitor my consumption and plots out the food to be eaten through the rest of the week. I thought an apple for breakfast and one for lunch might work for me today. But when I look at the second apple, which seems like a luxury to me, the food insecurity and preoccupation kicks right in. What if we need it later in the week? Can you believe what you are reading? I’m counting apples and bread slices and rationing them out using a spreadsheet. Who does that craziness? For me this week, this seems like a necessity. I feel hungry much of the time and always completely anxious that I’m going to run out of food. Is this the norm for people living in poverty? This will all end for me after Sunday—I cannot imagine this being my norm. As with the last time I took this Challenge, I am humbled by the experience and have greater compassion for the people who come to us at Jewish Family Service for assistance and for whom this is what life is like day-in and day-out.
I appreciate the thought of Deborah who chimed in yesterday about farming. Not only would more urban agricultural programs help feed poor people, they would help feed poor people healthy food. I could have doubled my vegetable purchases if I had bought canned instead of frozen veggies, but I’d lack the nutrients. I bought organic chicken legs and organic milk knowing that these choices would set me behind in my budget, but I won’t give my daughter food that has hormones in it. Study after study is showing what food is doing to our developing children. Besides making us obese, the junk in our food is causing our children’s bodies, in particular our girls’ bodies, to develop early and overproduce hormonally. All people, regardless of socioeconomic status should have access to healthy foods free of harmful additives.
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#10
Today’s Consumption:
Breakfast: Apple with peanut butter, coffee
Lunch: Leftover soup (from Tuesday’s dinner)
Dinner: Leftover Spaghetti and Meatballs
By the end of day 4, I am bored and dissatisfied. I realize how much I rely on the enjoyment of food and look forward to meals and treats. Not so much this week. Everything this week is prescribed down to the exact meal of each day in order to meet budget. There is no room for a change of taste, a treat after a hard day of work, or any depth of variety. Monica and I have been watching the Food Network and eating vicariously though Chopped and Cupcake Wars. I have lost some weight (a welcome change) but I never feel any sense of satisfaction when I eat. A colleague likened this Challenge to being on a diet. The difference is that you can always break a diet if you choose to. With poverty there is no choice.
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#11
The food stamp challenge that Beth & Monica are doing is really making me think about my own consumption of food & the waste that I am guilty of. I work with people on a daily basis and see it first hand but have never known what it feels like to be hungry or where your next meal will come from. I have the option to eat out or to grab lunch out. People who are low income and living in poverty don't have that choice. $31.50 a week is such a small amount to live on but is a reality for a lot of people. It just makes me think what could I be doing or what could be done to end the issue of hunger in our community because it does exist.
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#12
I run a food pantry at Jewish Family Service and I know our clients well. I can tell you what they eat and why. Many have physical and mental health disabilities. Many do not drive or have accessible transportation (Cincinnati mass transit is not the best). Many do not know how to cook some of the nutritious offerings from the pantry. Some may eat to combat their depression, some may binge eat during manic episodes. Some live on a $675 a month disability subsidy from the government and their inability to work need not be questioned. Most are estranged from family and their friends are likewise poor. We are a fast food society and those 99 cent hamburgers stretch the budget a long way making us feel full but actually addicting our bodies to empty carbohydrates. The cycle then continues as the craving sends us back for more because it's cheap and available. You and I are truly fortunate to be educated and have the means to manage our budgets and food intake. The freezer section at the grocery has some cheap offerings that look nutritious but in reality aren't the same as whole food. Beth is attempting to walk a mile in the shoes of someone who has very little. In the richest country in the world it saddens me to see what we spend our money on when we are a nation that could feed everyone in this country. If all the money spent on the next presidential campaign went to feed those who are poor, the battle against hunger would be over. I hope others see the Food Stamp Challenge and ask their legislatures to consider the needs of those who struggle when they make food subsidy decisions.
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#13
Wonderful illustration of the constant calculations that our clients are forced to make every day.
I am a case manager at JFS. One of the challenges for my clients is those household items which are not allowed to be purchased with food stamps; "alcohol, tobacco, pet food, soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, non-prescription drugs, or any other non-food item cannot be purchased with food stamps. You are also not allowed to buy heated foods."
Of course, gas or bus tokens or other transportation expenses are not allowed either.
Most of my clients are on SSDI and food stamps. Typically they are paying up to 50% of their income in rent, and after rent and utilities they have maybe $100 left for the month. Think of all the incidentals you buy at retail stores to take care of yourself and / or your family. Now think of a budget of $25 a week to cover all of those non-food expenses, including transportation.
We forget, in our comfort, that not all are comfortable. We forget in our busy-ness and the angst that goes with that, that others are stressed just to survive with the essentials - food and shelter.
Thank you Beth, for reminding us.
May we keep this reminder in mind when we are asked to donate, when we are asked to share our comfort. -
#14
I am a social worker at JFS and work with older adults. I grew up on a farm where nothing went to waste. I was not old enough to appreciate the time, energy and hard work that went ito this. Beth and Monica.....you inspire me.
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#15
Dear Beth
Your mother and I are(as always)so very proud of you and all your hard work and the wonderful things you do. We love you so very,very much.
Dad -
#16
Part I
Beth, looks like you and Monica did a great job of getting a lot of diverse nutritious food for the week. Thank you for sharing your menus with us.
The spreadsheet may seem a bit over the top on the surface, but it’s a good idea to insure that you have essential ingredients later in the week. For people that were well off before they landed on food stamps, they could likely use computer software they had previously. People that have been struggling continuously can make a table on a sheet of paper. It works best to make the grid in pen and to fill it out in pencil if they have both. One especially good thing is that you can trust your family to stick with eating each day’s allotment. In other families parents report that a frequent challenge is returning from work and discovering that a hungry child (usually a very hungry teenage boy) ate 3 dinners as an after school snack.
In considering your groceries and menu and your thoughts about the constraints for the week, I spent some time brainstorming additional strategies that might help out in future challenges.
***Chicken stock:
If you bake, roast, or boil the chicken you got and remove it from the bone before adding it to the dish, it would give you the skin and bones to make your own chicken stock with. The bones could be roasted to increase flavor. The resulting broth could be chilled and the fat skimmed. The fat could be used to flavor other items such as a toast spread, or on noodles, etc. The cooled broth and chicken skin could be blended to add more flavor to the broth.
The money previously used to get the chicken stock could then be used for something else. I’d hope for a sale on 5 or 10 pounds of potatoes for 1.99, but carrots, more apples, or fresh fall greens could be real assets as well.
***Fruit juice or syrup from the cans:
Half a banana sliced with a tablespoon of the fruit liquid is tasty.
Ditto with the apple.
If you heat a cup of water to coffee temperature and add a tablespoon of the fruit liquid, it makes a tasty warm drink.
If you pour a tablespoon of fruit liquid over crushed or shaved ice or blend it into a smoothie, it makes a dessert sort of like an Italian ice.
The fruit liquid is good added to warm or cold tea if you choose tea for your caffeine in a future challenge. My guess is the pear would be good in the coffee, but I have doubts about the orange. :-)
Neither fruit liquid is good in the milk, but others such as cherry could be.
***Mandarin oranges:
If sometime you are doing this challenge when there is sale of fresh 6-12 oranges/tangerines/clementines for $1, wash and zest the fruit. Use the zest in warm or cold water drinks or to sprinkle on other fruits, mix with jam, etc.
***Bread heels:
If you turn the heal to the inside of the sandwich, you are less apt to notice it. In the case of PBJ, it helps to put the PB on the inside heel and the jelly on the regular slice.
Heels can make good croutons or bread crumbs.
***Apples:
If you cut slices off the apple, save the core (minus the seeds and stem). Dice this up and cook in a small amount of water until soft. Mash and you have applesauce. Do this when you are in the kitchen and can watch it to add more water as needed. Otherwise it’s likely to burn.
Apple slices with cheese slices are good.
Core and slice apple into eighths and spread on plate like petals on a flower. Microwave for one minute. Good as is or sprinkle with cinnamon if challenge allows.
***Same ingredients but different meals:
One of the most common frustrations in this type of food challenge or food reality is the repetitiveness of the dishes. One way to overcome this is to turn a set of ingredients into 2 or more very different dishes. For example have the spaghetti dinner once as described. For another dinner, add some water to the marinara sauce to make a soup base. Cut up the meat balls and simmer in the soup base. Break the spaghetti into 2 inch lengths (or get penne pasta instead if it’s the same price) and cook in the soup base just before serving. Cook the spinach separately, chop and stir in just before serving. Now you have beef vegetable noodle soup.
Other meals that could be made from the ingredients you have include
Asian vegetable-chicken noodle dishes
Vegetable enhanced egg drop soup
Egg drop ramen noodle soup
Indonesian noodle dishes with peanut sauce
Mac and cheese
Spinach, chicken, and mandarin orange salad
Spinach and cheese omelet
***Vegetable waters
Drink the vegetable broth from cooking vegetables in water for additional nutrition. Add a bit of pepper, salt, or ramen spice as desired.
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#17
Part II
***Ramen noodles:
Small amounts of other foods can be used to make the ramen noodles different each time. In general mince or shred the items. Examples:
--Chicken broth instead of water, 1t chicken, ¼ cup green beans
--1 meat ball minced, ¼ cup peas
--1 meat ball minced, 1 serving spinach
--1T shredded omelet, 1T peas
Usually about ¼ to ½ of the spice packet is enough for the ramen noodles. The rest can be used to make:
--A hot broth to drink
--Broth bases for other soups
--Spicing for eggs
--Spicing for roasted or fried chicken
--Spicing for tuna
--Spicing for green beans
***Cheese:
If you have a toaster oven you can toast the cheese on the bread for a delicious melty cheese toast.
Add thin slices of apple to cheese toast.
If the marinara sauce is meat free, you can put it on the bread, and then some of the cheese cut up and bake it for a sort of bread pizza.
If you put tortilla chips on a microwave safe plate, then carefully place cut up cheese on the tortillas, you can melt the cheese in the microwave for nachos. With processed cheese slices it’s safer to use a plate shield and go in 15 second increments.
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#18
I just wanted to add one comment. What if you or your daughter had diabetes, hypoglycemia, or some other medical condition requiring specific foods? Wouldn't that be challenging as a poor person?
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#19
I write this on Sunday morning, what should have been the final day for us. We ended last night instead. And the change for me was remarkable. Midweek, the kids told me that I was “testy.” By the end of the week I would describe my demeanor as truly awful. I was short-tempered, void of even a modicum of patience, selfish, and mean. I yelled at my kids for no good reason and didn’t even like to be around myself. When I have the resources to eat what I want I rarely think about food. But this past week, living in scarcity and prescription, food was all I thought about. And the lack of variety, the inability for spontaneity, and the absence of snacks or treats was gripping. We ran out of apples on Saturday and I took this as a weirdly profound loss. When I made the decision to quit the challenge at dinner Saturday night, my entire psyche shifted. I felt calm and relaxed for the first time all week. I understand fully now that the true test of poverty isn't about doing without, but it's about the constant nagging worry and anxiety, the burden of which plagues people and challenges them daily. I feel very in tune with how truly lucky I am; and it is nothing more than luck and providence that separates my life from my impoverished neighbor. There but for the grace of God go I means more to me now than ever before. I will continue to fight and advocate for the change needed in our society so that perhaps one day far fewer people will need to know the dis-ease of poverty.
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#20
Beth's experience was publicized in local papers. You can read the follow up article by downloading http://www.jfscinti.org/app/download/4775994766/Food+Stamp+Challenge+2011+follow+up.pdf?t=1323200753
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