Missing meals...

I, too, - like SPFB CEO David Weaver - am taking the Texas "SNAP" (formerly known as food stamps) Challenge. It has been a challenge that has brought back LOTS of feelings and emotions...

Just this past July, I ended 18 months of myself and my son relying on SNAP benefits. I am not that far off from the panic and anxiety that I lived with day in and day out - worrying that my son was going to have enough to eat. That kind of fear and worry does something to you... no one should have to live on that kind of emotional roller coaster.

So here I am again, living on a food stamp budget... and again - we are doing with out lots.

When I first shopped, I didn't include my 2 1/2 year-old son in my budget - but my housemate jumped on board.

Then after much discussion we decided to include Connor because we face a reality that many on SNAP probably face...(more on that in a moment) and so we went back to the drawing board and "reshopped!"

So now, we are not only dealing with a very limited budget for two adults and a toddler - but also have to budget for the special dietary needs for Connor, my toddler son, who is a type 1 diabetic.

Now a whole new ball game, but most likely a reality that some SNAP families face!

With $62.70 - cash and not a penny more - we headed to the stores...

We shopped for Connor first; making sure we had the specialty items we felt he should and has to have for these five days... a little bit of real juice to treat low sugars; then a no sugar flavored drink for everyday drinking. Then his snacks, because he has to have snacks between meals and before bed to keep his sugars stable. Next breakfast... we had to go with his usual TLC breakfast bars instead of less expensive off-brands because the TLC bars have no added high fructose corn syrup, which drives his sugars up along with other breakfast foods for him. Anyway, the list goes on...

We figured about half of our budget would go for Connor's special needs. We paid for all of that first and then took it to the car so that we would know exactly to the penny how much we had left for the two of us...

$21.77 - for two adults for five days.

But then we decided to stash $10 - just in case Connor ran out of something or we needed something for him in an emergency.

$11.77 - for two adults for five days.

Bottom line...

We are missing meals.

Not eating what I want but probably what I need on the Texas Food Stamp Challenge

I've taken up the Texas Food Stamp Challenge to see if I can make it five days eating on the average daily “benefit” of someone receiving food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. For the first three days, I have a daily budget of $4.50/day. Because Congress is considering cutting the benefit when they reconvene after the election, my “benefit” reduces to $3.70/day for the last two days. 

After consulting numerous experts – my wife,Keren, who loves to cook, and Jerry, my friend who makes a habit of eating strange things (he's fanatic Irishman, a running fanatic, a fanatic mathematician, and a vegetarian) – about good nutrition on a limited budget, I headed to the grocery store Sunday and purchased the following items spending a mere $15.26 of my $20.90 budget for the week.

Organic Soy Milk (½ gal) $1.98

Peter Pan Peanut Butter (1 lb.) $1.58 (cheaper than the store brand!)

100% Whole Wheat Bread $1.48

Cabbage Head (2.6 lb.) $1.41

Cilantro (a bunch) $0.48

3 Bananas (1.25 lb.) $0.49 (on sale!)

1 Pound bulk rice $0.78

1 Pound Lentils $0.98

1 Pound Pinto Beans $0.68

1 Pound Garden Rotini $1.00

Oatmeal (18 oz) $1.18

Dozen Eggs $0.94

Coffee (11 oz. Grnd) $2.28

At Jerry's suggestion, I spent another $2.78 to buy broccoli, zucchini, some limes and a couple of apples. Apparently he thought a steady diet of beans, rice, and oatmeal might get a little boring.

So far, so good. The biggest problem has been my daughter, Grace, poaching off my plate. Breakfast and lunch have been pretty easy. Either oatmeal and banana (only a half though) or scrambled eggs and dry toast (Keren made some Mixed Berry Jam that I keep eying though.) Lunch has been a peanut butter and banana sandwich. (Today I made a fried egg sandwich... yum.) Add a little coffee and maybe some soy milk, and my meal cost for breakfast and lunch has been less than a dollar a day. Not bad.

Dinners have been fun. First day was lentils and rice topped with sauteed cabbage and onions. Sounds gross but it was actually pretty good. Grace said I should have done more cabbage. (Keren had a different opinion.) Last night was pasta with sauteed broccoli, zucchini and onions topped with some lime juice and some beans. (Is this the same as Cincinnati Chili?)

Someone asked me if I have been eating what I wanted on the Texas Food Stamp Challenge. I replied I had been getting everything I needed but not necessarily what I wanted. Since I'm preparing my meals at home, I'm probably eating a more balanced and healthier diet than I normally do. (Potato chips in my mind fit in nicely with a vegetarian diet, but I can't afford them on the challenge.) I've also cut out between meal snacks and desserts. Extravagances I want but can't afford. Maybe what I want really isn't what I need. I 'm feeling pretty good.

This evening it was beans and rice garnished with cilantro and a side dish of sweet and sour cabbage wedges. My after dinner snack was 8 oz of Soy Milk. I need the calories and protein. 

Grace and Keren decided to go to Thai Pepper (my favorite Thai food place in Lubbock) and bring their meal back so we could eat as a family. Their real motivation I suspect was to see if they could tempt me to cheat by eating off their plates. I offered them some of my cabbage instead.

David Weaver

South Plains Food Bank

Taking the Texas Food Bank Challenge

Vangelia Perryman, our SPFB e-communicator, called me today with an innocent question: “Hey David, I have a question...  Are you going to do the ‘Texas Food Bank Challenge?’” I said sure... what is it? 

The idea of the challenge is feed yourself for five days using the average daily amount available to people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps). The current benefit is $4.50 per day.

Of course there is a twist. Congress is currently considering cutting SNAP benefits to “pay” for the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill and some Medicaid funding.( I guess the idea is that hungry people won’t mind going a little hungerier to feed the poor.) So for two days, the benefit is reduced to $3.70  a day to reflect the impact of the Congressional Cuts. It didn’t take me long to realize that I would have $20.90 for food for five days.

“OK,” I thought. I can do that. Seventy-five percent of the people we serve at the South Plains Food Bank also receive SNAP benefits. I thought of the resources they tap into ranging from food boxes from our agencies, meals at soup kitchens, produce we give away from our farm and orchard. It shouldn’t be too hard.

Then Vangelia hit me with the “rules.” I can’t accept “charity” from friends, family, or even kind strangers. And I can only use food I purchase with my food stamp “allocation.” The real rules for people receiving food stamps are 1) you earn less than 130% of the federal poverty guidelines,  2) you have very limited assets, 3) you have been a U. S. citizen or legal immigrant for a least five years.

I protested that if charity is available to help food stamp recipients it should be available to me as well! Then she pointed out that I only qualify to receive food stamps on one point, I’ve been a US citizen for more than five years! “Use up your retirement account ,” she said,”sell your car get rid of your house and we can talk. Oh, and expect a pay cut!” Give me a break.

So now I’m planning my menu for the challenge. The reality of my spur of the moment decision is starting to sink in.  I won’t be stopping by Starbucks for a cup of Pikes Place this week. That’s nearly half my daily allocation. I might stop by McDonald’s because they give me the senior coffee special. (It’s irritating that they just assume I qualify... but that’s another story.) When the Congressional cuts come into play, I won’t even be able to do that. I may be pretty cranky by the end of the week.

I love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how I should plan for the challenge. I’m a vegetarian, I love chocolate (I even like chocolate drizzled on vegetables), and I like to run. If you were in my running shoes, how should I be planning to make it through the week on my Food Stamp Diet?

David Weaver

South Plains Food Bank

One in Six

Feeding America projects that one in six Americans are food insecure and may need assistance from Food Banks this year. That’s an incredible number… one that surely has to be wrong until I think about the increase in the number of people we have been serving in the past couple of years. Then I wonder if one in six is too conservative.
Recently I met a young professional volunteering at the food bank. Looking at him you would never think Mike had ever had a problem in his life. Handsome, confident, married with two beautiful young children. We talked about this and that and then I asked him why he was volunteering at the food bank. He got quiet… and began to tell his story.
 Mike’s parents divorced when he was in grade school. Although child support payments were few and far between, he never realized he was growing up “poor.” Mike told me he knew he had the “best” Mom in the world. She would let him and his brother eat oatmeal at dinner and sometimes popcorn for breakfast.
He didn’t understand that was all they had in their pantry.  He never noticed that his Mom didn't eat the oatmeal or popcorn. Later he would find out that his Mom would go two or three days skipping meals to make sure her children ate. He wished there had been a food bank to help when he was growing up.
One in six is unbelievable until you start talking with your neighbors who have been one of the “ones.”