Food stamp challenge day one

Today is the first day of the Food Stamp Challenge organized by Maryland Hunger Solutions. I and nearly 100 other participants have committed to use only the amount that a typical Food Stamp recipient gets on all of our food for the week October 9 -15.

When I went shopping, I had a list of all the food I thought I would need for the week. In last year's Food Stamp Challenge, I ended up without any green vegetables. This time, I wanted to get some. I went for two cans of vegetables (1 of mixed, 1 of green beans).

However, I could not afford everything on my list. I put back yogurt (I have a quart of milk for my dairy), a $1 bag of “Super Value” cookies (I’ll have toast with brown sugar and cinnamon for my snacks), 1 of my three cans of tuna. I had planned on a banana every day, but at the end of my shopping trip I was 18 cents over. I paid $30.18 and donated one banana to my family when I got home. If I was really depending on food stamps, I would have had to suffer the indignity of removing the extra banana from my groceries at the check-out.

I’ve mapped out all of my meals for the week. Breakfast today: oatmeal and ½ banana. Lunch: PBJ and the other half of the banana. As I write this, I have eaten the sandwich, and I’m saving the banana half for the afternoon munchies. 

I also brought some of my oatmeal to the office. I can make a bowl of oatmeal in the microwave if I get too hungry at some point at work.

Dinner will be a turkey burger and half the can of mixed vegetables. I’ll need to get 5 meals out of the package of ground turkey I bought: 2 turkey burgers, 2 servings of mac and cheese with ground turkey, and 1 serving of rice and beans with ground turkey. If I run out, I’ll need to have my rice and beans next Monday without any meat.

On Saturday, I’m going to cheat because we have tickets to a dinner theater performance at my son’s school. I will eat my dinner the day after the official end of the challenge (next Tuesday October 16) from my remaining food stamp food (so that I go through all 21 meals to equal a full week). I should have an egg or 2, some bread, PBJ and probably some rice.

So, clearly, I can do this for a week, and so could you. It’s kind of fun, like planning food for a backpacking trip. To eat this way for an extended and indefinite person would be grindingly depressing. And unhealthy. My early assessment – the food stamp benefit is much too low. 

I’ll check in again later in the week.