I am thinking of participating in the food stamp challenge. You know - you feed your family only on what your state would give you if you were on public assistance. I have mixed feelings about this, so I haven't made up my mind.
Some of my concerns:
- What the state offers in the form of food stamps is supposed to assist you in feeding your family, not be your entire food budget. Sadly, that isn't the case for most people.
- I possess knowledge, equipment and ability that many people do not. Not bragging or talking down to anyone. These are just facts. My husband is a Chef and I have the stocked kitchen of a Chef. Also, as a result of my many food "issues", I have also spent a good bit of time studying nutrition and would have a better chance of getting the nutrients that I needed than the average person. I have to. When you remove something from your diet, you need to make sure you make up for what you are missing with other foods. It is a great idea to make a frittata with some potatoes, a few eggs and some leftover meat and vegetables, but you don't have a pan big enough to cook it in, a stove to cook it on or even a refrigerator to store your food in, it just isn't going to happen.
- It is easy to do something for a short amount time, knowing that you will eventually go back to your comfortable life. This was one of my complaints about the book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. In fact, my review of the book was simply "I like what she tried to accomplish with this book but she came across as smug. It is hard to take the whole experiment seriously when she always has her cushioned life to fall back on."
- I have a pretty stocked pantry and in a week will have 150 lbs of beef that I purchased for $2.13lb. Someone on food stamps would probably not be able to do this and if they wanted the same cuts of beef, would pay anywhere from $2.50 (ground beef) to $13 (ribeye steak) a pound. I don't know how I would account for it.
- How do I say this? One thing I have never mentioned here is that I am quite familiar with the culture. When I was young, I lived for a few years in the projects. The real projects, not the touchy-feely income based housing that is available now. The real, people get stabbed, apartments get broken in to, prostitutes on the corner, the cops won't go in to the neighborhood by themselves projects of the 1970s. I also have family members who continue to receive public assistance, live in the neighborhoods where you are more likely to see food stamps being used, and are or surround themselves with "career" welfare recipients. I guess what I am trying to say is that I know how many (but by no means all) of the food stamp recipients live, think and eat. I can tell you that some dumb ass blogger doing a food stamp challenge for a month isn't going to help them. It also isn't going to help feed kids if the food stamps are being sold to buy drugs, alcohol or cigarettes or pay the electric bill. For the record- if you think this doesn't happen, you are naive and should really spend some time in the real world. I have witnessed it more times than I care to remember.
- I am pretty judgmental. I really am. I can usually guess how you are paying for your food by what is in your cart. It is a skill I picked up at a young age and perfected at the Save-a-Lot down the street from our house in Detroit. The cashiers made a game out of it, and if I was there I joined in. I am sad to report that I was right 90 out of 100 times.
- Many people who are trying to feed their family on public assistance do not have access to decent food. The Food Desert idea is very real and when you are working your ass off to try to pay your bills, hopping on a bus and going three neighborhoods over to pick up a few day's worth of groceries is just not an option. You end up buying overpriced foods at the corner store.
- One thing that is often overlooked when someone does a food stamp challenge is the other ways people who receive food stamps qualify for food. If you receive food stamps and have a child of school age, they qualify for free breakfast and lunch, making you responsible for feeding them one meal a day for five days of the week during the school year. If your child is under school age (5), you will automatically meet WIC income guidelines, which according to Wikipedia gives you "juice (single strength), milk, breakfast cereal, cheese, eggs, fruits and vegetables, whole wheat bread, whole grain items including brown rice and tortillas, fish (canned), legumes (dry), and peanut butter." According to the handout for the state of Mississippi WIC program, WIC will supply a family with $38-40 worth of food monthly. Also, it occurs to me that if you have a child under school age who qualifies for WIC, they may also participate in a Head Start type program which would also supply two meals a day in addition to the WIC supplement.
- There are four adults in my house, as well as a 16 year old who eats like an adult. Feeding a toddler is a lot cheaper than feeding a teenager, but the amount of benefits is the same.
Some reasons I think I should do it:
- I know that I can do it. I have done it. I have never mentioned it here before, but at one time, I received food stamps. I was 8 months pregnant with Ethan and Marty got hurt on the job and was supposed to be off work for quite some time. After two months, he said fuck-it and found another job (his other job would not let him go back to work without a medical release.) We received food stamps for those two months. We lived off of the food we bought with those food stamps for many, many months.
- Maybe, just maybe, it will help someone out there in cyberspace?
- In Mississippi, a family of my size would receive $616.45. That is honestly not much less than what we currently spend. We budget $400 for two weeks of groceries and toiletries. The $183.55 difference could easily be accounted for with the toiletries and K-Cups we purchase.
- I have some pretty crazy food restrictions that immediately eliminate the three best known ways to eat cheap - pasta, rice and potatoes. I guess depending on how you look at it, that could be a help or a hindrance. It is easier to eat for less when the majority of your meals are starch based, but what if the majority of what you have to eat is meat, fresh vegetables and a small amount of fruit?
Maybe it will make me realize that I am a judgmental ass hole and I will be a little more compassionate?Nah, I take that back. I am pretty damn compassionate. I give cash and food donations regularly to food banks and other charities who directly help the poor. I used to give every Saturday to feeding the poor - literally making and handing out the food. I may still be judgmental, but I am compassionately judgmental. Yeah, that's a thing. Just go with it.
So let me think out loud for a bit: I haven't decided on any rules - for example, do I shop at the Farmer's Market or local fruit/veggie stand, if they don't accept the EBT Card? Do I just shop wherever I would shop and add up the total? How do I count the things I already have, which were most likely bought in bulk - something that someone on food stamps may not be able to do? Would the weather affect my ability to buy within my budget? Maybe I should do it once in the colder months and once in the warmer months? Maybe I should just start posting what we spend and eat here and do the best we can? Should I stay truthful to what someone on food stamps would have to provide during the school year and only count one meal a day for five days a week and 3 meals a day for two days of the week? Should I add $38-40 to my total budget to accommodate what WIC would give me? Like I said before, me sticking to a strict $616.45 a month would not be a matter of life and death. I could buy more food if I ran out and that might make me less strict than if that was really all there was.
Even if I decide to not do a challenge, it gives me some things to think about.
7 comments:
I can't say whether you should do it or not, but I will offer this input: Most of the people who work for me right now at my restaurant receive some kind of assistance. One of the women works full time at a minimum wage job and is a single mom of 3 (children's father died, no benefits). I think one thing you will have to consider is the amount of time you can put into planning, shopping, and preparing food. You have to assume that you work a low paying job for some hours each week, up to 40. Travel to and from that job takes time, getting kids ready for school and taking them there, and then the day to day house stuff. This woman has children ages 12,10 and 8. Their ability to help around the house is limited by their age/ability etc. The other thing is that "free lunch" . There comes an age about middle school where the kids would rather not eat than get in the line for the free lunch. Really. It's a stigma and pride is bigger than the empty stomach. The other thing is that it is impossible to emulate the stress of being poor when you aren't. Food is only one of the many things this woman has to worry about that you and I don't. She worries about her kids next pair of shoes, paying the light bill, if they can afford the heat to go on, whether she has enough gas to get to work in her only car (and whether it will keep working since it is a junker), and if she has enough gas to get to work does she have enough to go get food too? They don't have cable, cell phones or internet at home, so they borrow from friends or use the library for that because she can't afford them. The realities are the same for any of us, many times stress causes us to make "easy" decisions about food because we just don't have the energy to deal with it. (why people eat out or just "grab anything"). I think you can replicate the food purchasing and preparing experience, but I think you will really struggle to recreate the experience that is poverty. Anyway.. good luck with your challenge. I hope you learn something, and sharing it will help someone. You may do more good to those who need help, if you can, by sharing what you learn in a flyer or something at a food pantry, church or other community based organization so that those who can't read your blog can benefit. Have fun!
You expressed my points much better than I could, as usual.
The reason that I haven't done it yet is because 1) it wouldn't be accurate and 2) it wouldn't do any good.
One of the things that prompted me to write this was that I was reading the results of someone doing the food stamp challenge. They were quite successful at it and didn't seem to think that there was an issue. They bought mostly organics, and couldn't understand how anyone was not able to have the same level of success. She shopped 4-5 different stores a week to get the absolute best price on everything, has a pretty large garden and fruit trees in her yard.
What this person said pissed me off, because I know why many people can't have the same successes, but then I was pissed because I know that the programs in place to help really don't. I was on WIC, and the nutritional counseling was a joke. My step-sister lived in the projects where they would bring in trucks of crappy processed food to give out to people, instead of giving them real food that would have cost less. I was also aware that part of the reason that people run out of food stamps by the end of the month is buying habits. I have been to the store with a mutual friend who spent 30% of her allotted benefits on nothing but junk food and soda. I also was there when it was the 12th of the month and the benefits ran out. It is a very broken system, but I don't know how to fix it. One thing that I suspect is that a bunch of bloggers who have hours to devote to it and money to fall back on if their little social experiment fails, won't do much - other than to maybe reinforce the notion that the food stamp amount does not need to be raised, because "they can do it, so why can't you?"
It may not help the people you are intending people. It may help people that are just a tad above the guidelines for being approved for foodstamps though. Our family is right on the brink of it, we do get by though. However, I was raised on food stamps so I really have a hard time getting away from the mentality that my household had when I was growing up on what you buy when you go grocery shopping. Eh, just something to think about.
I really think that the "living high on the hog" mentality is partially responsible for the struggles people have. I know that my family members eat steak, and even lobster (!!) the first week of the month. As the month goes on, they end up making less nutritious choices out of necessity. I completely understand it, though. After a few weeks of eating crap, you want a damn steak, you know? I mean, I know that in the past when we have done grocery challenges or eat out of the pantry challenges, I usually add a bit extra to the budget for the first week after it is over to compensate.
I have decided that I am going to see if there is a way to teach menu planning/budgeting and cooking skills to people who may need it. Not sure how, but I am going to try.
Oh also might be worth considering that in the summer food stamps amounts don't change but kids don't get the free meals that they were getting while at school.
Hello. Yes I receive benefits. And I do not know what I would do with out them. This may be greedy of me but there are a few things I wish they would change about the program Like allow you to buy beef from a local butcher and allow you to buy produce from local farmer markets. Wic does allow you to buy from farmers markets. I recieve $6 a month from wic for produce so the rest I have to buy from the grocery store. My suggestion for if you do this challange would be to do only what people with food stamps are allowed to do. So no farmers markets, no butcher. As far as the things you have stocked up now, I know we did not hhave any food whhen we applied and I think most people have been laid off or broke for a while before applying or getting approved ( can be a very long wait) And with the tools people have available, I use craigslist, thrift stores, free cycle and gifts from family to get my cooking tools. Not everyone does this but not everyone has a passion for cooking healthy food for their family. Just wish I could afford to, still on food stamps I do not feed my family crap but I also do not live the high life off of the state. 75% Of my cart are fruits and veggies a lot are frozen so they keep longer and I try to make things from scratch as cheap as I can. So anyway that is my ramble about this. Thanks to anyone who reads this.
Sorry I did not take the time to use spell check and when writing I just typed fast and loose. lol Planning on going back and correcting. Dont want anyone to think any worse about people on food stamps than they already do.
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