This will be a long first post, but I have a lot to share. I’m three days into my Food Stamp Challenge. I started at an advantage. I don’t have to worry about getting to a store that has a wide variety of products including fresh fruits and vegetables or relying on public transportation or impromptu hacker services that charge up to $40 for a trip to the store. I have a car. I have a huge choice of supermarket options.

One access that faces people on food stamps is the lack of access to food retail outlets.

In D.C.’s Ward 7 and 8—an area with 140,000— there are only two chain grocery stores. Thankfully, a Giant is about to open in Ward 8 but even so Ward 8 will only have one supermarket for nearly 71,000 people. In Wards 2 and 3 (which includes my ward), there are twelve grocery stores – one store for every 11,882 residents.

When I started my food stamp diet challenge, I decided to use an online delivery service. First of all, I am not a list maker so I was worried about getting enough food on $21 if I did not plan ahead. Second, I thought I might be able to do better selection-wise if I was able to effortlessly click my food in and out of my cart. Third, I wanted to see if online services could help address some of the unequal access to food.

Online services could be helpful to customers who live in “food deserts” if the food retail companies would waive the delivery fee – people on tight food stamp budget simply do not have an extra $8 to spend. Or perhaps, food could be delivered to a community center like a church, school, etc. where people could pick-up their orders on a convenient day. Another issue is the need to have access to a computer and a comfort level with the online ordering.

So far, my meals have looked like this:

• June 3: Breakfast – egg and chicken frank; Lunch – cottage cheese and tuna mixed together (do not recommend); Dinner – rice, lentils and two thin slices of cooked chicken tenderloins
• June 2: Breakfast – egg and chicken frank; Lunch – banana; Dinner – hard boil egg, carrot, cottage cheese and garbanzo beans
• June 1: Breakfast – a banana; Lunch – a hard boiled egg; Dinner – garbanzo beans, pasta, canned tuna

I’ve definitely noticed feeling more tired. On Sunday, I took a 90 minute nap and still went to bed at 9:00 pm. My typical run felt like a marathon. I also made some mistakes in my e-mails about when a grant was due – said COB today when I meant COB on Monday. My colleague rushed to review it on what was supposed to be a relaxing Sunday afternoon. Whoops. On Saturday, I almost fell asleep at the wheel. I had to cheat and get some coffee.