Casey said...
With fear and trepidation, I have signed up for the challenge. I do not know about others but I needed to really think this out. So here is my plan I am wondering what others are thinking. I box of oatmeal(plain rolled oats) should be about $1.00 and last the week, cheap bread 1.50 for the week, peanut butter small jar 2.50, pickles yeah I know I like them on my peanut butter sandwiches, bag of brown rice and 5 sweet potatoes. If I still have money a can of beans to go with the rice. I will eat the same thing everyday and carry a water bottle. What are other peoples plans??
Paula said...
Casey...a challenge to my students is a challenge to myself right!?...SO - I wonder about where a garden fits into this challenge? I have one-along with a CSA food share. But I'm sure that is cheating a bit(deep thought about the use of community garden space in this community though.) Anyway- I plan to figure out how much of my CSA food share I can dip into on this budget and use some of that. I will supplement it with eggs and beans (I don't do well without protein) and rice of course. The oatmeal is a great idea. My biggest concern is coffee! I'm sure that fair trade doesn't fit in the budget so already having insight about being able to afford to live within my values this week. Organic?? Doubt it.
Casey said...
Paula, glad to see you on board with the challenge. I to have garden produce on the counter but I guess I will have to give it away.
All this planning of food is reminding me of the time when we lived in low income housing with 3 kids and one on the way. My mom sent me 25.00 a month and I received government surplus foods mostly white rice, cheese and butter. I feed us and many of the neighborhood kids. My kids will still not eat lentils they call them poor food because we ate so much of them while they were little.
I am spoiled now and do not think much about food like I did then. I am privileged because I get to decide between organic or not...back then I would never of considered organic....Looking forward to the week as a good reality check for how many still have to struggle and put so much energy into planning food.
Doug Bowen-Bailey said...
September 23
I am taking this challenge in part, because of my work organizing the CROP Walk on September 30. It makes very personal the work of addressing issues of poverty on both a global and local level. With that, I plan on sharing reflections on this experience here. Glad that Casey and Paula have already started the conversation. Forgive me if go on too long.
--
The Food stamp challenge begins tomorrow, but the first challenge really came today: shopping. In doing this, I decided to continue with my routine of primarily shopping for organic foods at Whole Foods Coop. After all, the challenge wasn’t just to eat for $15 this week, but to eat healthfully.
So, I went down to the Coop this afternoon with my list of things to buy. Very atypical of how I usually go. I spent most of my time in the bulk aisle weighing out my purchases and punching in the price/pound so I could see how much I was really spending, then writing it on my list to add up. When I got to buying produce, I even took my carrot, bananas, and apple back over to the scales which let me figure out the exact prices so I would know whether or not I was going to go over my limit.
I have to admit to being rather nervous about exceeding my limit – and felt very self-conscious about it. I can only imagine how much more self-counscious I would have been if this were my weekly reality – and I was paying with Food Stamps or an EBT card, rather than with cash.
I ended up actually only spending $12.09 which is good because I wanted to give myself a cushion – and may use it like Paula to allow for using some of the produce from the CSA share that we have. Part of my plan is a couple of lunches at the Damiano Soup Kitchen. Here’s what I bought. We’ll see whether this gets me through the week.
Oatmeal – Organic 1.17 lbs $.88
Organic Diced Tomatoes 14 oz can $1.85 – .50 coupon = $1.35
Organic Red Beans - .66 lbs - $.65
Organic Black Beans - 1.07 lbs - $1.07
2 sale bananas $.73
Raisins .24 lbs $.77
Organic Flour 1.75 lbs $1.21
Carrot 1 - .36 lbs $.54
Brown Sugar .43 lbs $.43
Skim Milk - Half Gallon $1.99
1 Yellow Onion - .32 lbs $.41
Organic Brown Basmati Rice 1.46 lbs 1.83
1 Organic Apple (Local) - .25 lbs $.42
Bag Refunds - 6 reused bags -$.18
Total 12.09
Money left in the Accout - $2.91
PastorTonyClark said...
So, I figure after just getting out of seminary, I can live on $15.00/wk. this morning (my day off) I got up and started a load of laundry--and thanked God for middle class appliances, for already having toilet paper (not covered by food stamps). Then I began to look at what I already have. What would a person living in poverty have? I made the list of my food. A lot of stuff I have amassed over months (flour, yeast, ketchup, beer/wine, pocorn, etc); if I had been living for months or years on $3.00/day what would be left? So I called Meg at the CHUM Food Shelf and asked, "As a single man, what would the food shelf give me for a week?" (thank you God for middle class connections) With that list, I began to decide (wow, what a middle class luxury) what out of my stuff would be in the bag from CHUM. Then I went shopping to fill out the bag from CHUM, since there are some things I just don't regularly eat (Like Hormel Chili), and to spend my $15.00 for the week. I figured I actually spent about $13.60 at CUB (some of my own food I put in the pile, but checked the prices at Cub)
Here is my list of food (FS= assume might be food shelf item):
1 can tomato sauce (29 oz)(FS)
1 onion ($0.68)
1# lentils ($0.67)
1 can spam (FS)
1 cup sugar (FS)
12 oz Macaroni (FS--one box mac/cheese, but I will not use the cheese powder--use the macaroni in other things)
1 can tuna (FS)
3 cans soup (FS)
1 can hormel chili (FS)
1 can mixed veggies (FS)
1 can kidney beans (FS--would give Baked beans, but I had kidneys at home)
2 cups old fashioned oatmeal (FS gives one box cereal)
5 fresh beets (FS--in summer may have fresh veggies from Prison Camp)
6 fresh baby carrots (FS)
1 loaf bread (FS)
1# potatoes
18 oz P. Butter (FS)
1 stick butter (FS gives margarine, I had butter)
3/4 cup yogurt (FS--I know other food shelfs that may give dairy prods if avail. it will not last in my fridge through the week--I'm already bargaining)
1/2 head cabbage rotting (FS--when I worked for a food shelf in St. Louis, the veggies were often at the end of their lifespans, donated by local grocery stores because they could not sell them. Figure can make Borshch with the beets and potatoes)
3 radishes, rotting (FS)
2/3 # cheddar cheese ($2.83)
fresh tomato (FS)
1/2 zuchini (FS--again, will not last the week)
16 eggs (4 from FS, 12 I "bought")
1 head romaine lettuce ($1.29)
bag of apples, (4.5# $0.68/# = appr $3.00)
11.5 oz coffee ($3.13)--no one wants to see me without coffee.
2# rice ($1.09)
lunch today: chili--kidney beans, 1/4 onion, tomato sauce, hormel chili for flavor, 1/3 cup macaroni. Would I have chili powder or spices? Would I have hot sauce? I decided NO. (uggh)
Paula P. said...
I forgot my password so had to create a new identity – from paula to Paula P. (same persons)
Planning! The biggest challenge of all here. My partner and I have been home with a bad cold so shopping did not happen. I am "cheating" today by borrowing from my pantry for today's allotment. So far...oatmeal and tea. I am also finding a whole new appreciation for my pantry/fridge – appreciating the food I have right here and can’t access this week. Before – it would often go unappreciated (or even unnoticed) as I rush around and grab food on the run or buy food out. I have several lunch meetings this week – it will be difficult to go and not take for granted the privilege of eating at a restaurant. Even coffee or tea will take too much of my budget.
I did figure out that my portion of our CSA food share for the week costs $5.00! It includes a beautiful selection of potatoes, spinach, brussel sprouts, squash, onions. I'm not sure if that is cheating or not (a theme for me you can tell!) but glad to hear Doug is using his also. SO...what do we need to do to allow CSA shares on food stamps?? Until this challenge I did not realize how inexpensive my weekly bounty really was!! THAT and the community gardens are on my list of insights so far (along with more then $3.00 a day of course.)
Other thoughts/insights...how does vitamins and cold remedies fit here? Seems they would blow my budget right along with my nose!!
Tomorrow I have guests coming for dinner. I emailed and told them it would need to be a pot luck because I could not feed 4 people on $3.00. I will however, cook up my daily (or more) allotment to offer up. Hhmm...
Catherine said...
I decided to do this challenge as a way to open my eyes to poverty. When I was younger and lived with my mom we went to food shelves and were on food stamps but since I was so young I don't remember the challenges of it. When my dad got custody of me I never had to worry about not being able to eat. So the goal of this is to find out how I used to live and how my mom still lives. She still is unable to hold a job for a long period of time because of her mental illness and whenever I ask her what she has eaten that day its slim to nothing.
Now it's the first day of the challenge and I already feel like I won't be able to go on for the rest of the week. Shopping was definetely the hardest part. I've never had to shop on a budget before so doing that was very difficult. I've tried to buy things that are filling and can be used for more than one meal. Pasta and potatoes will hopefully last me awhile. I'm sure I will have a lot more to say about the experience by the end of the week.
Anonymous said...
I think it is great what you are doing but what about the people I see in lines at the grocery store buying soda and cuts of meat that I can't afford to buy for myself and using food stamps to pay for them? I think it is just as important to teach people cooking methods and how to eat properly. Stop buying the candy and sweetened cereal with food stamps and buy fruits and healthy snacks
Abby said...
Today was the first day for the food stamp challenge and I am already struggling. I keep telling myself that I only have four more days, and then I realize how terrible this sounds. I have four days to endure, but other people have their whole lives depended on $3 a day. I love snacking and sweets, but there is absolutely no money for anything like that. I bought oatmeal for breakfast, cans of soup for dinner, a loaf of bread for pb and j's for lunch, and cans of vegetables to go with my dinner. I never realized how expensive it is to eat healthy. There is no money for fresh fruit, or even any meat. It seems like an endless cycle for anyone in poverty, you can't afford any healthy foods, you become sick, but you can't afford any medicine or health care, have to take off work for sickness, and there you are stuck in a rut that never ends.
roger said...
FOOD STAMPS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE TEMPERARY, YOU SHOULD GET A JOB....
E. Torch said...
Roger, the sad truth today is that working doesn't equate with earning enough to cover your expenses. Increasing at places like the Damiano Center, where I work, we find more and more working families who need our services. They have one and sometimes two jobs, and can't make it. With low wages and the high cost of living, getting by is increasing hard.
PastorTonyClark said...
day two. I worry, like Paula and Doug about "cheating". I surfed on line for food stamp info yesterday (good news is that the legislators who took the challenge see the difficulty, bad news is there is lots of info on how to apply, but little on how to stretch the dollars, and the menus are laughable--like I have enough rice and milk to sacrifice for rice pudding!) However, for Paula and others: food stamps covers seeds to plant--so growing your own food, even in a community garden, would be a good use of food stamps for the future. What would you sacrifice in the spring to buy seeds for the fall?
I find myself thinking more about the future. Choices today effect tomorrow in radical ways. How much coffee can I drink today to still have some left by Saturday? I added vinegar to my stock pile last night, since I forgot about salad dressing. I assumed that at some point I sacrificed something else to stockpile some vinegar. However, I started with less than 1/2 cup, and wonder whether next week I would sacrifice my coffee for vinegar (about $1.00) and oil ($2.00).
And, yes, Anonymous, I have to confess it has bothered me that food stamps can buy potato chips and sugared cereals. I grew up with those as special treats. However, why should poor people be denied pleasure, especially when they are denied so much pleasure? They are bombarded, like the rest of us, with advertising that makes products seem like the best thing since sliced bread (by the way, I have 10 pieces of bread left for the rest of the week.) And they have taste buds like the rest of us, so why shouldn't they enjoy an occasional treat. Nutrition is an issue, as you can see from our lists of food. Peanut Butter is not organic if you get it from the Food Shelf, which means it has high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils in it. Grains are highly processed (the box of cereal I would have gotten might have been generic corn flakes, not organic granola). Macaroni and Cheese and Ramen noodles have some of the highest sodium counts around, and quite frankly, don't taste as good as a bag of potato chips. Much of my budget this week went to fresh food and produce (onion, eggs, lentils, apples, lettuce) and I added other produce that I was given by gardener friends, but this is probably not totally realistic.
To Roger: we all have jobs, that's the point of this study, to see what it might be like if we had no jobs or if we worked at minimum wage or even twice minimum wage, which is not a living wage. For the last five years, I managed to live on about $18,000/yr (student loans) approximately 2x the minimum wage; my taxes are a mess, I have spent down my IRAs and savings (luckily I had some), and I have huge student loan payments now. I had to pay for my own health insurance (approximately $4000/yr), I lived in the slums of St. Louis in order to stretch housing dollars (approximately $4000/yr), made a car payment (about $2000/yr, had car/home insurance ($2000/yr), utilities (phone, gas, water/sewage, electric, AOL dial up--I was in grad school so needed the internet-- total about $3000/year). That left about $200-300 per month for food, travel, oil changes, clothing. I was not eligible for food stamps.
I went to bed hungry last night, afraid to eat too much on the first day. I woke up hungry this morning. I dread the afternoon when I really don't get a snack. And I have lunch meetings scheduled all week, and will have to show up with my packed lunch.
Doug: what are you doing about Wednesday night meal? (Church has a meal that suggested donation is $4. While it is a perk of my job, I will probably not eat it, and instead bring my own).
Has any of you thought about a "Stone soup" meal to make our meager food staples morph into something bigger than just one of us? The conversation might be a spiritual collection of our experiences!
Anonymous said...
i & family use toget foodstamp for a family of three the county only gave of sum of $2.00 we choose to not have the anymore becuase i got told i had no choise but to get a job and i am court order to stay at home so w4e use the food shelf and the salavtoin army alot
Doug Bowen-bailey said...
In the middle of day three... yesterday was a bit of a strange one for me.
I started with a cup of oats and about 1/8 cup of raisins for my breakfast with a little milk and brown sugar. Made my kids eggs and turkey bacon. They, at least, were more conscientious about eating their food… knowing that Dad wouldn’t just eat all the leftovers. This process, even though the rest of my family is not taking part, has definitely raised their consciousness. Frost, while walking up to school, asked me, “What can we do about all the people who are hungry?”
What can we do indeed?
I had my lunch at the Damiano Soup Kitchen and was very grateful for the hot meal with plentiful portions. And two cookies - one for their and one to add to my stash - perhaps for a treat for this afternoon.
I have decided to not dip into my CSA produce, but rely instead on lunches at the Soup Kitchen and CHUM Drop-in when I can. I went to the Drop today, which was interesting. For those of you non-TV watchers, I ended up being on the TV news yesterday after getting a call from Dave Benson at the Damiano Center looking for someone willing to be a part of a story for KBJR.
It turns out that a couple of the men who I was sitting with at the Drop recognized me from the story the night before. One even knew I had spent $12 so far. He spent some time helping me with strategies of how to make it through the week.
These brief conversations made me realize that while in some ways I am being asked to pull away from the social networks that uphold my middle class life, there are other networks that I can hook into.
And so I am grateful for places like CHUM and the Damiano Center - aware that there is a need for both works of charity in the short-term - and justice to make a difference in the long-term.
And I have been thinking about Roger's questions - wondering if on the amount of food I am eating this week, I would have the energy necessary to find and keep a job. At this point, I have been lucky that my schedule allowed me to make it for lunch. Tomorrow it won't. I wonder if the supports we provide are enough to put people in the best place so they can get work. And what of all the people who are working and still not able to make it?
What can we do indeed?
(Tony: in terms of Wednesday night at Church, I only have $2.91 left. So, I'll have to figure out another meal option for Wed. I'll probably eat in advance of coming there.)
Anonymous said...
I still understand what you people are trying to prove but you missed my point. I think instead of just handing out food stamps there should be mandatory classes to teach people how to cook and how to shop. I supported myself and 3 kids on a minimum wage job and no help from anyone and sure it was tight but we made it. There has to be a way to make people more independent and be willing to work even at a minimum wage job and some help from the system. Welfare and social programs have become a way of life for to many able bodied people. Go to bed at night and get yourself up in the morning and get a job. Between working and food stamps you will be able to make it. Lets start teaching people to stand on their own two feet and not depend on the rest of us that do work and are struggling to make ends meet and don't get any help!
Catherine said...
The second night wasn't much better than the first. I bought two mass produced meals that I thought could be used for a total of four meals. Problem is they taste gross to me. My mom will give away food that the food shelves give her sometimes and I always have told her that she can't afford to be picky. I now realize that even though you might not be able to afford good healthy food you can still be picky. It's hard to swallow something that doesn't taste good.
PastorTonyClark said...
To anonymous: I agree, we probably are not getting your point. I learned this motto: "give a person a fish, and he/she will eat for a day; teach a person to fish and he/she will eat for a lifetime." We should be teaching people how to fish. And I'm glad you knew how to do that. Let's teach the rest to fish, instead of testing them to death on No Child Left Behind. Is it better to know how to read at a grade-appropriate level or to know how to shop and cook on food stamps and stay in a job long enough to climb out of minimum wage?
The American attitude is generally what anonymous wrote, "Lets start teaching people to stand on their own two feet and not depend on the rest of us..." which seems to follow the motto: "God helps those who help themselves." This attitude is not found in the Bible, but is an American idea attributed to Benjamin Franklin and other colonial leaders (if you question this, check out www.bartleby.com, type in the quote). While the Bible has much to say about individuals who are on the outskirts of community, in the Bible, these individuals are not to stand on their own but become fully part of God's community. So what is the best way to bring into community those who struggle, who cannot get a job, who are disabled?
I have thought a lot this week about I Corinthians 11: 17-33. Here, the Apostle Paul scolds the Corinthians for not sharing their food. His solution is to eat at home, so that there is not jealousy among the community, so that communion (Lord's Supper/Eucharist) can be shared in purity. This is Doug's solution to our community meal tonight, and a Biblically sound one; but not mine. I will be taking a can of soup, a slice of bread, and an apple, just to have the conversation.
I have found that this week is more difficult for my friends and colleagues to accept, than for me. At a clergy luncheon yesterday, which had a suggested donation of $5.00, i insisted on eating the lunch I brought, even though they all told me they would pay. One colleague said that "I was doing it because the poor are often not invited." My prophetic act gave even pastors pause to think.
I have a job in which food is part of deal--I eat a people's houses, eat in community meals at church, eat during meetings. This is a luxury. We believe that eating together is a spiritual event. As Catherine put it, "It's hard to swallow something that doesn't taste good," and over time, I believe poor quality food doesn's just make the body sick, it also makes the soul sick. What does it say to our souls, when food stamps do not buy good tasting food?
On my food store: I am feeling guilty that I have much food left. I e-mailed Meg at CHUM, and she said that the food shelf is an emergency stop-gap, and one can only use it monthly. So although the food is intended to last 5 days, it actually must last 31. Now I must decide what I would save for next week and the week after and the week after.....
Anonymous said...
yeah it's really harded to live on food stamps but i try to make it and ends meet but i dont buy candy or soda or any junk food on it . all i do is get it for my son needs not mine. things he would eat. everyone is having a hard time making ends meet and when gas prices are to high ..
PastorTonyClark said...
to anonymous:
thank you very much for sharing your story here. The rest of us may be playing at being poor, but you are living it day in and day out. You are, from what I can tell, doing a great job at maintaining normalcy. I continue to keep you in my prayers.
