Day 7

Saturday night I got to enjoy my last SNAP meal of gallo pinto with a friend who brought over some Chinese food for himself. I have 2 eggs, 3 carrots, some corn flakes, a little milk, a serving of sleek, and $1.85 left over. My friend asked me, having done this for a week, to imagine what it would be like if I had to do this week in and week out, without a choice in the matter. My first thought was that it would be exhausting. After all the careful planning, extra shopping to find bargains, and extra cooking time to turn those foods into the healthiest meals I could make, I am certain I could not sustain that effort week to week. I would have to opt for more processed foods in busy weeks and be hungrier and less nourished as a result.

I am aware that there are some who would look at my leftover food and conclude that current levels of SNAP funding are sufficient. But what does it mean to make it through, to get by?  I have lost approximately 4 pounds over the week, a function of not having enough Calories to maintain weight despite having foregone all of my usual exercise. (Eating the leftover food wouldn't come close to closing that deficit.) I felt at different times hungry, spaced out, emotionally sensitive, depressed, head-achy and tired, all of which I attribute to my food intake. I know that $32.14 in DC added up to less than enough this week.  I know that living on this food budget long term would be a severe detriment to my health and well being.  Could I do it? Yes. Could I do it without suffering? No way.

Justice demands more - a better national food policy, a stronger safety net, and more from all of us to advocate with vigilance to end hunger and poverty.

Day 6: Keepin' On

Today I continued to walk this walk, one foot in the front of the other. My meals lost their appeal a while ago, and really only apples and eggs tasted good today. Where I was so mindful of muesli on day 2, now I found it helped to distract myself while trying to get food in me at each meal. It would have been a good day to spend that $1.85 I have left on a treat, but I had trouble finding something that I could afford and that seemed worth spending the rest of my budget on.

I wondered what I could possibly be accomplishing here, but I faithfully continued, reminded of a quote from the folk singer Phil Ochs: "It is wrong to expect a reward for your struggles. The reward is the act of struggle itself, not what you win. Even though you can't defeat the absurdity of the world you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life."

I know my being hungry this week will not end hunger. But it is right to try to live into that hope.

Day 5: M&Ms and Oranges

Anything but gallo pinto tonight:
scrambled egg and a sweet potato 

Work has been stressful lately and I woke up this morning feeling like I had lost my protective shell, like an insect's exoskeleton or the coating on an m&m. I normally consume a good amount of sugar in my diet and it wasn't lost on me that exoskeletons and m&m shells are in fact made of sugars. Perhaps I had lost my ability to produce whatever it is that keeps me from turning into a quivering blob. Later on in the day I learned from my neuroscientist coworkers that in fact the brain runs on glucose, so my imaginings weren't too far off from my depleted reality. 

Bolstered by the encouragement of several facebook friends, I pressed on through the morning. I was and am so grateful for that boost of support at just the right time.  At lunch I caught up with a friend who didn't know that I was taking the SNAP challenge, and she offered me an orange, just sharing some of her food as we talked. I declined and explained about the SNAP Challenge. We spoke for a while about the Farm Bill and economic injustice.  I told her about the bill being in conference now. She had been sitting in front of her laptop and had during the course of our conversation  found a link to contact her representative who is on the conference committee as well as others in her delegation, and sent them a quick note about opposing SNAP cuts. Maybe you would like to do this too. As she left she commented, "to think this was all because of an orange you didn't eat." 

As I have declined more and more free food from friends this week, I am reminded that this challenge is in part a test of my own resolve. What am I willing to do to end hunger? I hope this practice strengthens my commitment  and prepares me to engage more fully in future action. And as my friends practice compassion with me, I hope their exercise better prepares us all to practice compassion with others. 

What am I willing to do? What are you willing to do? This matters immensely. As J. Herbert Nelson pointed out earlier this week, "our neighbors' plight is connected to our willingness to love our brothers, sisters, and their children enough to become advocates for food justice." Earlier this fall I had a conversation with an old friend who has worked in hunger advocacy for decades. I asked him why, when it is so inexpensive to end hunger, when it is not exactly a controversial idea that the hungry should be fed, that the US cannot seem to get it done? His answer: political will. And he didn't just mean the politicians; he meant each one of us.  What are we willing to do?

Day 4: An APPLE! and a letter from my Congressman

Today I woke up hungrier than than the day before. I had my muesli and went to a meeting from 9-11:30. Didn't get to have my banana until after (it was that kind of meeting). I ate lunch at noon, and fried an egg up with my gallo pinto since I was extra hungry and since I wanted to change things up a bit. The parts with the egg on it tasted ok, but the parts without the egg were not appetizing, hungry as I was. I think I have reached saturation with the gallo pinto. Maybe more sriracha will help next time.

I threw an apple and a carrot into my purse and headed out to my 1pm meeting. At 3pm I snuck out of the room because I was really zoning out. Then I tasted something new for the first time in four days: an apple. I didn't expect it to taste THAT good!

And it was the last thing I ate until 8:30 PM because I had another meeting at 5 that ran into another at 7:30...turned down three different offers of food from people so I could come home and eat my sleek.

I checked my email after dinner and found the most awesome letter from my Congressman Rep. Jim McGovern waiting for me. It is his standard letter on the Farm Bill, but it provides powerful details including his own story of taking the SNAP Challenge and how it has strengthened his resolve to fight cuts to this and other programs for the poor. I knew he was a strong advocate on this issue, so I was not surprised to receive a swift response with a clear position, but the letter spoke to me deeply with his genuine passion for this struggle. And such good timing!  It also came with an attachment. Western Mass people, write him today to see for yourself what I am talking about.  I am so glad he is on the conference committee right now to reconcile the House and Senate bills, and hopefully to fight off the SNAP cuts in the House version of the bill.

What actions have you taken to oppose the SNAP cuts?

Ultimately I am doing this to raise awareness and hopefully inspire action from some of you, dear readers. Have you written Congress lately/yet about the pending Farm Bill? A second round of SNAP cuts (beyond those that went in effect Nov 1) are currently being debated in conference committee. Our representatives need to hear from us whether or not they are members of the Conference Committee. Western Mass folks take note: our Rep. Jim McGovern is on the Conference Committee. He needs to hear from us, if for no other reason than to thank him for his leadership!

One easy way to do this is through the Presbyterian Church Washington Office here (you can edit text to say whatever you want); if you don't want to use the PCUSA conduit try FRAC here (it doesn't supply sample text).  Please let me know what actions you have taken; I would find that news very encouraging.

Day 3: A New Normal

Lunch, Day 3 (with mid-morning snack)

Settling in to my new routine today. Curveball came in a string of meetings that kept me from my 10:30 snack. I had to just push through to lunch. Upside: got to enhance my gallo pinto with some banana, Cuban style... sorta. It added a little variety.

Throughout the afternoon I found it hard to concentrate, and I kept losing my train of thought. I am facing a long and growing to do list at work and at home without the energy to do it all.
I have foregone my normal exercise routine this week because I just don't know whether my body is up to it.

Some of my coworkers know I am taking the SNAP Challenge and they are very supportive. I felt safe enough to share with them because of the seriousness with which they took our organization's food drive a few months ago. One coworker shared with me her own experiences growing up on food stamps - a conversation I am grateful for and would probably not have had with her if I weren't taking the SNAP Challenge this week.

Mindfulness

Over the years I have struggled to be more mindful at mealtimes, taking time to slow down, to eat and drink deliberately, to take a moment to be grateful for what is before me. I typically and frequently fail this challenge, caught up in the whirlwind of a life lived at breakneck speed. This fall when Church of the Pilgrims issued a challenge to the congregation as part of its fall series on food and faith to slow down, to reflect, to give thanks, I redoubled my efforts. But as before I didn't last a week trying to form these new habits of awareness and gratitude.

I had a rough day yesterday in which I felt hungry most of the afternoon and went to bed early (at 6:30PM, having eaten dinner at 5) because I felt exhausted and didn't want to stay up only to feel more hungry. I found myself at breakfast this morning contemplating my homemade muesli.  I knew I needed to slow down, to really savor my breakfast. I found myself feeling thankful in a different way now for the sustenance it provides. Perhaps I am able to focus on it better because it is not just one more thing that provides energy and nutrients for my morning, it is THE thing. I can't grab a granola bar on the way out the door or plan to get something with the latte I'm going to buy once I get to work. I have to make time, sit down, and eat what is before me, now. 

A free beignet

Today went much better in part thanks to the Willie's Po'Boy truck handing out free beignets on the street right outside my office. I thought long and hard about whether to accept this handout. It met the requirements of the challenge in that it was free to anyone on the street. It really did help me get through the day. And yesterday was definitely an experience of not having enough food to get through the day.

But I am left still wondering about how my own privilege plays into my access to this free food. Where I work there are a lot of food trucks that congregate, and someone living and working in a different part of the city would not have this kind of access. The vendor is giving food away as a promotion, because they believe the recipients are going to come back next week and buy this new item they are offering; I'm part of a community that they know will support their business with our disposable income. Those who have enough food are getting free food on top of it. And while I am certain there were people in the neighborhood going for the free beignet to deal with a reality of not having enough to eat for the day, that was not the norm in this neighborhood, which is why the truck was there in the first place.

SNAP Challenge from an LGBTQ perspective

One of the ways I come to the SNAP Challenge is as a member of the LGBTQ community. We are as a group disproportionately affected by poverty compared to our straight/cisgender counterparts, and we are  disproportionately reliant on SNAP and other programs.

Consider the data from the Williams Institute study released earlier this year:

* 14.1% of lesbian couples and 7.7% of gay male couples receive food stamps, compared to 6.5% of different-sex married couples.

* African American same-sex couples have poverty rates more than twice the rate of different-sex married African Americans.


• Almost one in four children living with a male same-sex couple and 19.2% of children living with a female same-sex couple are in poverty, compared to 12.1% of children living with married different-sex couples. African American children in gay male households have the highest poverty rate (52.3%) of any children in any household type.

Then consider this from the National Center for Transgender Equality:

“black transgender people live in extreme poverty with 34 percent reporting a household income of less than $10,000 a year. This is more than twice the rate for transgender people of all races (15 percent), four times the general black population rate (9 percent), and over eight times the general U.S. population rate (4 percent).”


The better we understand poverty and hunger as an LGBTQ issue, the better we can respond to this crisis in our midst.

Early afternoon snack

I ate lunch around 12:45, sleek and a carrot, but by 2:30 I felt really hungry and couldn't stand it anymore. I had to move my snack time up. I ate my second banana of the day because I realized the bananas will ripen too fast to spread them over seven days. I will eat my apples later in the week. I have some leftover corn flakes from the muesli and just ate about 1/2 cup dry. Very glad I invested in tea because I will rely on it to get me through to dinner.

I think part of the problem is my sleek recipe serves 4-6 and I stretched it to 7. I think the gallo pinto has a lot more per portion, so I may switch them tomorrow to get more sustenance during the day.

I will also go buy some eggs. $2.19/dozen, leaving me with $1.85 the rest of the week. 

Not even close to enough Calories

The US recommended Caloric intake for an active woman is between 2000-4000 Calories/day, depending on activity levels. My SNAP Challenge menu provides about 1250 Calories/day.  It provides 51 g of protein, when the RDA is 50. It provides 291g of carbs, when the RDA is 300. I have 41g of fiber when the RDA is 25 (this was by design so I would feel fuller longer), and 8g of fat when the RDA is 65. I could exchange high-fiber foods for high fat foods and come closer to the recommended Caloric intake, but my guess is that I would feel hungrier doing so. I bought nonfat milk out of habit, but I am wondering if I would have been better off with whole this week. Still it wouldn't come close to meeting the Caloric requirements. And there is no way I could use my leftover cash to find another 750 Cal/day. 

The night before.... fancy food?

Sunchokes with garlic, thyme and lemon

It's the night before the SNAP Challenge and I am eating my last meal that costs more than $1.50 for the next week. I didn't plan this one ahead. I bought some sunchokes at the Farmers' Market today and am roasting them with olive oil, garlic, thyme, and lemon zest. The rest of the meal was determined by what was in the house.  I pulled some frozen seafood out of the freezer - it seemed like such a deal at Trader Joe's a few weeks back, but would be unthinkable this week. It's going "fra diavolo" style over pasta, with a sauce made from some canned tomatoes that were in the pantry. For dessert I need to rid my house of a couple of grapefruit I bought on sale last week, so I am not tempted by them this week. I will broil them, sprinkled with anise sugar.

Total cost:

Sunchokes, 1 lb: $3.50
Frozen Seafood, $8.99
Canned Organic Tomatoes, $2.39
High fiber pasta, $2.69
Grapefruit, $2

Total: $19.57

This will be eaten by 2 people and there will probably be some leftovers. But even if you say this makes four servings (it probably won't), and substitute a cheaper protein, it would be at least twice the SNAP allocation of about $1.50 per person per meal. 

Breakfast: Muesli

Here's how I made muesli at home for the SNAP Challenge. Makes 7 servings.  Proportions need not be precise - change to your liking. Some people prefer a 50-50 ratio of oats to flakes. I like mine flakier with a 2:1 ratio...

3.5 c. oats
7 c. corn flakes
9 oz raisins

Dish 2: Gallo Pinto

Gallo pinto, or specked rooster, refers to the appearance of the dish when the black beans and white rice mingle.

1 lb black beans, dried  (or start with 3-4 c. canned)
1 lb  rice
2 c. onion, diced
1 T.  garlic, minced or pressed.
1 serrano chile, diced
1 c. tomato, diced
1-2 c. green pepper, diced
1 c. liquid (bean cooking liquid, water, or broth)
As desired: oregano, cumin, coriander
a little cooking oil as needed

1. Soak black beans overnight (or you can bring to a boil and let sit for 2 hours). Drain beans and cover with fresh water. Add about 2 t. salt and bring to a boil then simmer for at least an hour, until they seem done. This varies a lot with dried beans, so you just have to taste and see.

2. Cook rice according to instructions for the type of rice you have.

3. Saute onions in a little oil. When glassy, add spices you are using and wait until fragrant. Add garlic, tomato, green pepper, and chile. Stir in, then add beans and liquid. Cook for about 20 minutes.

Serve the beans over the rice.

Gallo pinto is great topped with cilantro or salsa, or  served with tortillas, an egg, or fried ripe plantains or bananas (maduros). (Not going to be part of my SNAP challenge, but I can dream.)

Dish 1: Sleek

Sleek is not a terribly well known dish, which is a shame. I first tasted it at Ali Baba in Pittsburgh and spent years trying to find a recipe in a cookbook. I reverse engineered the thing in the end. I have lately found a couple of recipes online, but none I like better than my own:

1 15-oz can black eyed peas
1 bunch chard or kale, chopped
6 c. onions, sweet, sliced
1.5 c. bulgur wheat
2 T. lemon juice
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
24 oz (or so) water or broth
1 t. salt (less if using broth)
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil as needed for skillet

Carmelize 6 c. onions in a little olive oil in a big skillet. This takes 30-45 minutes. Toward the end, when the onions are looking brown and delicious, add garlic and brown it too. Add the greens and lemon juice, and cover. Cook just until wilted. Add bulgur, salt, and your broth/water. Cover and simmer until cooked, about 15 minutes. Add black eyed peas and heat through. Add black pepper and any additional salt to taste, maybe additional lemon juice to liven it up.

Forgot a Lemon!

Glad I left some money for contingencies. While making my sleek, I realized the recipe calls for the juice of 1/2 a lemon. Oops! Add $0.69 to my total to make $28.10 spent, and $4.04 is what I have left for the rest of the week.

Sleek, aka lunch for the next 7 days....

Shopping Trip #3 and some totals

Got back from my third shopping trip and came in under budget for

Supermarket shopping: $20.99

my food for the week. I was able to afford my serrano chile, some tea, a sweet potato, and some carrots, and I feel a little better about the nutritional reality with some orange vegetables in the mix. I am keeping the $4.73 leftover to see how I want to spend it to supplement what I have. I might buy some eggs to enhance the gallo pinto later in the week, or I might save it for some kind of treat. Tortillas are not out of the question.

Folks from the South may recognize that I shopped at a Harris Teeter, a supermarket that is thought of generally as being more upscale and more expensive. But my other options were Whole Foods and two different Safeway stores. DC nicknames its Safeways and my options are the Soviet Safeway known for its limited selection and bare shelves, and the Sandinista Safeway known for catering to Central Americans in the neighborhood. Sounds promising for someone trying to make gallo pinto, but in fact based on my online exploration (and in keeping with earlier in-person experiences) it was actually much more expensive for what I needed to buy (1 lb bag of black beans was $1.99 there as opposed to $1.29; and they did not have one-pound bags of rice, effectively pricing me out). Your mileage may vary.

At Harris Teeter, I weighed everything, when I would have approximated before. I bought only what I needed, when I would have gotten a little extra to be sure I had enough. I could not be tempted by weekly specials on pineapple or stock up on staples.

When I went to pick up my milk I noticed I could have switched from lactose free milk to soymilk to save a dollar; I pondered it for a long time, but stuck with the milk. Similarly I pondered for a long time between my ginger root and packaged tea; in the end my need to take teabags to work pushed me toward the more expensive item.

As I put the items on the conveyor I recounted everything in my head to make sure I was on budget. Nervous as the clerk rang me up, she said the total, $20.99, and I felt a wave of relief. Then the question came, I've heard it before but it sounded so different today: would you like to make a donation to the food bank?

Why yes, yes, I would. Perhaps you would too.
And that was my privilege as a SNAP Challenge participant rather than a SNAP recipient.

After all this, I still have the cooking ahead of me today, then the challenge actually begins tomorrow. I hope I am up to it.


Here's how the shopping worked out across my three trips overall:

Miles walked to do the shopping: 2.8
Time spent: about 2 hours
Money: $20.99+$6.13+$2.74=$27.41
Leftover (for now): $4.73

My SNAP Challenge Shopping List

                                                       Estimated  Actual

Breakfast : Homemade muesli  

2 qt generic fat free lactose free milk   3.79        3.79

Box generic corn flakes                        2.49        1.97 (on sale this week)

2 c generic oats                                   1.99        1.35 (bulk food at organic market; 3.5 c)

Raisins                                                1.99        1.97 

Dish 1: Sleek

Blackeyed Peas                                    0.77          0.77

Collards                                               1.99          1.25 (farmers' market double dollars)

Bulgur Wheat (1.5 c)                            2.99          1.39 (bulk food at organic market)

Onion (3 lb bag)                                   2.47          2.47

Garlic                                                  0.50          0.50 (farmers' market double dollars)

Dish 2: Gallo Pinto

Black Beans  (1 lb)                                1.29          1.29

Rice (11b)                                            1.29          1.29

Green Bell Pepper                                 1.49          0.75 (farmers' market double dollars)

Tomatoes                                            1.00          0.88

Onion and Garlic (see above)

Bonus: Serrano chile!                                            0.21

Snacks:

7 bananas                                             2.42          2.23

7 apples                                                5.01          3.63 (farmers' market double dollars)

Bonus: 7 carrots!                                                   1.02                          

Bonus: Sweet potato!                                             0.65

Total                                                  $31.48       $27.41

Shopping Expedition #2

With SNAP dollars doubled at my local farmers's market,
this bounty cost $6.13

I have returned from the farmers' market with some good savings. My original strategy was as follows:

Savings strategy #2: Farmers’ Market!  

Thanks to local food activists, SNAP dollars go twice as far at my Farmers' Market to encourage fresh local organic produce consumption and its nutritional benefits. However they only double the first $10. Still, if I can buy $20 worth of produce at the farmers' market, I can stretch my total allotment to as much as $42.14.

		Price to beat	Need	Up to
collards		$4/bunch	1 bunch	$4
Pepper		$3/ea	1 pepper	$3
Onion		$1.64/lb	3 lbs	$5
Apples		$5/lb	7 (2-3 lb)	$10
Garlic		$1.00/ea	1 fist	$1
				$23

The onion was too expensive at $3/lb, and the garlic came in right on target.  I got good savings with the pepper ($1.49 for 2), the apples (2.8 lbs for $7.25), and the collards ($2.50/bunch). I spent $12.25 in all, but  because my SNAP dollars were doubled at the farmers' market, my total came in at just $6.13.  

I realized on my way to the farmers' market that I had forgotten to check for bulk tea options at the organic market yesterday. I went back there, and found they don't have bulk spices at all. I need a new option, and I am thinking about buying ginger root for ginger tea. Stay tuned as I see what my supermarket has to offer. 

My total spent so far is $8.87.  If I am able to find everything I need at the supermarket within my price estimate, I will have over $5 left. if it goes well, I will pick up some carrots to enhance my snacking, and the ginger root. More soon...stay tuned. 

Shopping Report #1

3.5 c oats and 1.5 c bulgur wheat: $2.74 at Yes! Organic Market

Last night I went for my first shopping trip in keeping with one of my strategies: bulk foods. As I posted earlier:

Savings Strategy #1: Bulk Foods

I will go to my local organic market to see if I can save money on some items. I am not sure they will be cheaper than the supermarket, but I know what to look for in the bins: 

Bulk Foods		Price to beat
rice (1 lb)		1.29/lb
black beans (1 lb)		1.29/lb
bulgur (1.5 c)		3.00/lb
oats (2 c)		2.00/lb

   

Especially with the oats and bulgur, where I don’t need to buy a whole pound, I might find some savings over supermarket packaging that starts at one pound. If I save money here, I might be able to afford a small amount of bulk tea costing much less than the $3 the supermarket will charge.

The organic market involved walking 1.2 mi. round trip, for four items. In my day to day life I would have paid more for these items at my regular grocer for convenience.  It was exactly as I predicted: rice and beans were each substantially more than $1.29/pound ($1.99/lb for beans; cheapest rice was $1.49/lb but the kind I want to use for gallo pinto is $1.99).

The good news is that I was able to obtain my 1.5c of bulgur wheat for $1.39. The even better news is that I nearly doubled my oats purchase and bought 3.5 c for $1.35. This should help me feel more full in the mornings before lunch. I spent $2.74 of my $32.14. I have saved $2.24 over my original spending plan, which gives me a little breathing room. 

But I am anxious that my grocery store won't have a 1-pound package of rice to sell me, or that prices will be higher than posted online. I can go back to the organic market if need be for the rice and beans, but other items don't have cheaper alternatives. More later from me as I head to the farmers' market and the grocery store with my $29.40. 

The SNAP Challenge in STEM Education

I am taking the SNAP Challenge this week – pledging to live on the average per person SNAP benefit for my state (not a state, actually -- DC), which comes to $32.14 per week. I do this in part because I work in the area of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, and I want to raise awareness in this community about the effects of racial and economic inequality on minority and low income student access to STEM education and STEM careers. 

For decades well-intended STEM educators have sincerely wondered why the participation numbers for minorities have been so low and moved so little. We are just beginning to ask the same questions about socioeconomic status and the under-representation of poor students in STEM at the baccalaureate level and higher. At the same time, effects of poverty in K-12 education are well known; a recent article in the Washington Post  documents how poor children have become the majority in schools in the South and in the West, and how we need to shift our focus from No Child Left Behind or Race to the Top to really meeting students' needs. One of those needs, increasingly, is hunger. The data are staggering. With 15 percent of the country living below the poverty line, 50 million Americans, or 1 in 6, is food insecure – meaning they do not know where their next meal is coming from at some point during the year.  Nearly 1 in 4 children lives in a food insecure family, and more than a quarter of children under age 5 live in poverty.

These are averages across the population. Within the African American community, 38.8 percent of children under age 18 and 42.7 percent of children under age 5 live below the poverty line. A quarter of African American households and just under a quarter of Latino households are food insecure, compared to about 1 in 10 Caucasian households.  1 in 3 American Indian children are food insecure. The STEM meritocracy pretends this is of no consequence. With double or triple poverty and food insecurity rates in Black, Latino, and Native American communities compared with non-Hispanic whites, we must begin to imagine differently the challenges of minority participation in STEM, develop a deeper understanding of the life contexts of 25-40% of the students we seek to welcome from under-represented groups, and incorporate into our strategies an analysis of how social inequality is reproduced within the education system to limit access to STEM fields and other pathways to economic security.

Overpreparing for the SNAP Challenge

With three days to go before the SNAP Challenge, I find myself bringing all my privileged resources of education and technology to bear on this problem. I am an engineer, and it seems I just can't help myself; I created a spreadsheet. I used online shopping data to gather price information and optimize among various healthy recipe options. I also have the experience of having been a graduate student, when I lived on a limited budget but always with the safety net of family. I definitely had low grocery store bills then compared to now, where low meant around $50/week for two people, but that was 20 years ago. $25 per person then went easily twice and probably three times as far as my $32.14 will this week, in today’s dollars, for a household of one in Washington DC.   I bring a privileged knowledge of cooking and nutrition, and  access to a full kitchen, stocked with condiments I am allowed to use as part of the challenge.

I know the limitations of my analysis: I have based my spreadsheet off a grocery store in Arlington, VA, the same chain that is within walking distance of my home in DC, but the prices are probably higher here, and my local store does not have online ordering, so I can’t get information on local pricing. I can’t go to suburban stores with lower prices because I do not have a car and already plan to invest weekend time in shopping and cooking for the week. This Herculean effort is possible because I know it is a one time thing, something I could not sustain on a regular basis. 

Even with all these tools and resources, and all the strategies of people who have taken the SNAP challenge before and blogged about it, all my spreadsheet solutions fail in some way.  I know there are many strategies: Ramen. Peanut Butter and Jelly. Eggs. Canned tuna. Mac and Cheese. I chose the beans and rice strategy, prioritizing high fiber so I feel full, and complete protein so I can hopefully sustain brain power at work.  One of my problems is there are no economies of scale for a household of one. I have to buy at least a can of beans, a bunch of collards, a pound of rice. It is not cheaper for me to buy individualized packs of processed food except for ramen, on sale this week for 12 cents a packet, but which I consider a last resort nutritionally.So here is what I worked out:

My SNAP Challenge Shopping List

Breakfast : Homemade muesli  

2 qt generic fat free lactose free milk   3.79  

Box generic corn flakes                      2.49

2 c generic oats                                  1.99

Raisins                                               1.99

Dish 1: Sleek

Blackeyed Peas                                  0.77

Collards                                             1.99

Bulgur Wheat (1.5 c)                          2.99

Onion (3 lb bag)                                 2.47

Garlic                                                 0.50

Dish 2: Gallo Pinto

Black Beans  (1 lb)                             1.29

Rice (11b)                                          1.29

Green Bell Pepper                              1.49 (yes this is the outrageous price of a single pepper in DC)

Tomatoes                                           1.00

Onion and Garlic (see above)

Snacks:

7 bananas                                           2.42

7 apples                                              5.01

Total                                                  $31.48

Now there are two important things missing: a serrano chile for the gallo pinto and tea. The chile I might be able to afford, but not the tea unless something changes. I will really miss drinking tea. I worry about my own hydration, as I am bad at drinking cold water in cold weather. I know, cry me a river.  Still, it is important to me, but it costs at minimum $3 in my grocery store and can't possibly be worth 10% of my budget. I'm not trading my apple a day for tea. So I think about other shopping venues near me. There is an organic market that accepts SNAP as well as a weekly farmers' market. I am eager to see what I can do there, and develop my strategies. 

Savings Strategy #1: Bulk Foods

I will go to my local organic market to see if I can save money on some items. I am not sure they will be cheaper than the supermarket, but I know what to look for in the bins: 

Bulk Foods		Price to beat
rice (1 lb)		1.29/lb
black beans (1 lb)		1.29/lb
bulgur (1.5 c)		3.00/lb
oats (2 c)		2.00/lb

   

Especially with the oats and bulgur, where I don’t need to buy a whole pound, I might find some savings over supermarket packaging that starts at one pound. If I save money here, I might be able to afford a small amount of bulk tea costing much less than the $3 the supermarket will charge.

Savings strategy #2: Farmers’ Market!  

Thanks to local food activists, SNAP dollars go twice as far at my Farmers' Market to encourage fresh local organic produce consumption and its nutritional benefits. However they only double the first $10. Still, if I can buy $20 worth of produce at the farmers' market, I can stretch my total allotment to as much as $42.14.

		Price to beat	Need	Up to
collards		$4/bunch	1 bunch	$4
Pepper		$3/ea	1 pepper	$3
Onion		$1.64/lb	3 lbs	$5
Apples		$5/lb	7 (2-3 lb)	$10
Garlic		$1.00/ea	1 fist	$1
				$23

This adds up to $23, not $20, so I am hoping for additional savings somewhere in here that bring my total down to $20.

I am feeling pretty good about this optimization, even as I am aware how close to the edge this takes me. It is just barely there. I think about the recent cuts, about what it would mean to go down thirty cents a day, $2.10 less for the week. What would I give up? Probably the corn flakes, leaving me with oatmeal (cold or hot) for breakfast.

I am satisfied with my plan, until I  lay it out as a week's menu:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Breakfast	Muesli	Muesli	Muesli	Muesli	Muesli	Muesli	Muesli
Snack	Banana	Banana	Banana	Banana	Banana	Banana	Banana
Lunch	Gallo Pinto	Gallo Pinto	Gallo Pinto	Gallo Pinto	Gallo Pinto	Gallo Pinto	Gallo Pinto
Snack	Apple	Apple	Apple	Apple	Apple	Apple	Apple
Dinner	Sleek	Sleek	Sleek	Sleek	Sleek	Sleek	Sleek

NO VARIETY. Yeah, I can switch the banana and the apple, or the sleek and the gallo pinto, but…this is going to get very old very fast. Maybe I can dress up the gallo pinto with a banana, ersatz maduros, but now the second guessing begins....

Why did I spend so much on breakfast? It is the most important meal of the day! And this is where my variety will be for the week: I can have hot oatmeal, or corn flakes some days for a change.  If I have any left over it might make a kind of dessert one night. 

Maybe I will sub in a pear or two for a couple of apples, but apples travel better to work. If only I had money for an egg, or a sweet potato, or a mango. Mangoes cost a dollar each, but bananas are much cheaper at about 35 cents!   I could trade a banana for a mango, but I would rather have tea and a fresh chile.  The cheapest I can get an egg is a half dozen for $1.69. The debate in my head rages on. I had an alternative meal I considered instead of the sleek that involved a dozen eggs ($2.19) and frozen O'Brien potatoes with onions and peppers ($3.75). With various arrangements of omelets, frittata, and hash I could liven things up a bit, but I realized that eating 2 eggs 6 nights in a row was really not very healthy, and I would still need one more meal to round out the week when I finished the dozen.While not as bad as eating eggs every day, I am sure my monotonous diet is still nutritionally deficient long term. I realize there are no orange fruits and veggies, and I may buy a carrot or two if I have money leftover.  My half serving of dairy a day doesn't come close to meeting my nutritional needs, but being lactose intolerant I can't see being able to afford any more lactose-free or soy products. 

These are my tradeoffs to make. While I can afford some fresh veggies with planning, hustle, and determination, I still can't afford the variety nutrition demands. There is only one of me, and it is very hard to beat the monotony on $32.14. I imagine with a second mouth to feed and $64.28, I could have more variety and mix things up more. But that is someone else’s SNAP Challenge, not mine.