On Saturday, I skipped breakfast.  We held a press conference at the Discount Grocery in Berkeley, which is one of the few places where people on a low budget can get some nutritious food.  I bought a small container of chicken and dumplings, an apple, a can of tuna, a box of macaroni and cheese and a can of turnip greens (total $2.25).  I had the chicken and dumplings for lunch and skipped dinner.

Sunday I skipped breakfast and lunch and made a macaroni and tuna casserole, with greens on the side, for dinner and half a can of peaches for dessert.

Monday morning I finished the peaches and had an apple raisin and carrot bar (purchased Sunday $1.40) on the plane back to DC.  For dinner it was two bean burritos.

When I finished the challenge it was a relief, but not as much as I had imagined at first.  As the days went on, I found that I became less hungry, or maybe more accustomed to being hungry.  My first meal after the challenge ended was a tuna sandwich, which was good, but I found I was not all that hungry.  The same is true with other things, like coffee.  During the first few days, I missed my regular lattes (I even got headaches from the caffeine withdrawal), but by the end of the week I had completely forgotten about it.

One thing I have noticed, however, is how conscious of the price of food I have become.  I bought a plate of fruit at the cafeteria, and I ended up paying $3.50 for 14 little piece of fruit, which is outrageous!  I am definitely more conscious of how much food costs and how much money is wasted on food by those not on a limited budget.

I know I mentioned before that, having had this experience I can see how people forced to eat on such a budget could develop health problems, but I am certain that the stress of worrying about how to afford to eat is part of it.  I have no problem imagining that people on food stamps could get high blood pressure just worrying about how to budget their food expenses.

In closing, I want to thank everyone who tuned in to read about my experience.  Obviously, this isn’t about me, it’s about raising awareness about hunger in the richest country in the world, and it is about building support for a Farm Bill and a Food Stamp Program that reaches more of the people in this country who are hungry and provides them with more than just $1 per meal.

This is such an unhealthy diet.  I am trying to eat the most healthy food I can afford, but I have no problem imagining how someone eating like this could quickly develop diabetes or high cholesterol.  And with all these carbs, I can see how easy it would be to gain a fair amount of weight.

Last night I chopped up the last of my chicken thighs and mixed it with some rice.  I added some hot sauce from Taco Bell and it tasted pretty good.  I should also say that I have never, in my entire life, eaten an entire can of peas, but I did last night.  So much sodium!  It was more food than I needed, but with my travel schedule I’m going to have to go a long time between meals.  I saved my last banana and the remainder of the crackers for lunch on the plane this afternoon.

It’s hard to concentrate for any length of time on anything except food.  I don’t know how people with no money for decent meals do anything - study, work, exercise, read, have fun, etc.  It’s all about just making it through the day.  I don’t have to worry about my kids like I did when I was in college and on food stamps and like so many women do now.  I only have four more days to go, and there are millions of people with no end in sight, who are permanently in this survival mode.

I have been thinking about green vegetables all day, and I wanted to get a taco, because it would have lettuce and cheese.  I was in a meeting and by the time I was able to eat my taco, it was cold.  I can’t stand cold food, but let me tell you, even cold it tasted good.
I can’t wait to get back to California.  A friend told me that he knew a place where I can get greens for $.88 a bunch.  If I am lucky I can find a ham hock to cook with them if I budget these last dollars right.

My first lesson was in the power of the dollar. I went grocery shopping, with a goal to spend no more than $3.00 on some type of small foods. I didn’t have a shopping list planned for the week, I just planned to spend as I go while staying within the $21/week budget. I went to Wal-Mart for my first round of shopping. This act in itself was already a testament to my financial limitations. I personally do not like shopping at Wal-Mart due to a lot of the negative news they have received over the last few years. (You can do a simple google search on Wal-Mart law suits to see a slew of articles on their gender discrimination and worker exploitation lawsuits) But, how could I opt for Giant Food or CVS over a cheaper retail store as such?

As I ventured down the food aisle, I realized things would be harder than I thought. Already, I was passing cereal sales that read $2.34 and more. This didn’t even include milk! How would I find a meal on $3.00 that was tasty and nutritious? I wouldn’t. I found some reasonably priced whole grain pasta noodles for a little over $1.00, but then I saw that the Ragu pasta sauce was not on sale. The sauce alone would have driven the $3.00 over, so I placed the pasta back on its shelf. I came across good old Ramen (sarasm) for 14 cents a pack. How could I resist? Though the sodium read over 700 mg, it was well within my budget, a bit tasty, and quick. I bought two packs of chicken flavored Ramen, and store brand peanut butter for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The cheapest bread was the white, store brand bread which I refused to buy (no need to add all that bleached sugar with the sodium from the Ramen!). I purchased the cheapest whole grain wheat bread I could fine which was $2.34.

My total came to $4.09, alas, I still went over budget! And actually, as I blogged about this and looked at my receipt, I saw that the cashier forgot to charge me for tax, so I actually owed more. It was becoming more easy to see how someone on food stamps might have a pretty bland and unhealthy food regime. The things that are affordable are usually unhealthy and not too nice on the taste palate either.

The power of the dollar…not much on $21.00 a week.

In DC, a few farmers’ markets accept food stamps – the Anacostia and RFK markets do. However, most markets do not accept food stamps b/c of the start-up costs, the paperwork, and the need to have a dedicated staffer on hand to work the machine.
Lunch today was a chicken frank and pasta. I am down to my last two eggs.

Today I ate a bowl of grits and a slice of toast for breakfast, a chicken sandwhich for lunch (made at home) and 4 crackers around 5pm. Tonight, I will eat another chicken thigh, some rice and some peas.

Before I decided what to cook or eat or freeze last night I spent a long time thinking about making this food last for a week and how not to run out of food and money. I was literally counting crackers! It sounds funny, but honestly it was very stressful trying to figure out how to stretch this food. It is very painful to think of all the people in U.S. who have to live like this - so much time and energy is taken up just thinking about how to survive. It’s no way to live in the wealthiest country in the world.

According to D.C. Hunger Solutions, one out of 10 households in the District of Columbia experience food insecurity, meaning they experience difficulty buying nutritionally adequate and safe food. One out of three D.C. children lives on the edge of hunger. Norton is a cosponsor of H.R. 2129, the Feeding America’s Families Act of 2007, to increase food stamp benefits and support working families in other ways.

*After her news conference, Norton will join the luncheon tribute to Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy, her predecessor in Congress, who is being honored by the United Black Fund and the Calvin and Wilhelmina Rolark Scholarship Committee, on which the Congresswoman is an Honorary Member.

My name is Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and I represent California’s Ninth Congressional District, and today I began the Food Stamp Challenge. Over the next seven days, I will live on $21 worth of food, the average weekly benefit for a food stamp recipient.

In my district, there are approximately 65,000 people enrolled in the food stamp program, which is a lot of people, but less than half of all who are eligible. Nationally, the program helps more than 26 million low-income people purchase food for themselves and their families. It’s designed as a safety net to help ensure people have access to food during difficult times, and the majority of people leave the program within nine months.

There are several things participants in the challenge hope to achieve. We want to raise the visibility of hunger in the United States. There are approximately 35 million people in our country for whom food insecurity is a daily reality. We want to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by low income people in obtaining a healthy diet (I will describe some of my experiences with this at the supermarket today below). Finally, we want to build support for improving benefits and access to the food stamp program, which is due to be reauthorized this year as part of the Farm Bill.

Today, I went to the store to buy groceries, and this is what I ended up
buying:

• 2 cans of beans
• 1 can of peas
• 1 box of crackers
• 1 bag of brown rice
• 1 package of chicken thighs
• 1 package of tortillas
• 1 loaf of wheat bread
• 1 box of grits
• 2 bananas
• Total: $13.37

I was struck by how hard it is to eat in a healthy manner on a tight budget. I had to put the apples back because they were too expensive. Whole wheat tortillas were twice as expensive as flour. I got grits instead of oatmeal, and I could not afford to get some of the things I eat every day, like nuts, juice or coffee (even instant coffee was $4 per container!).

My gameplan for today was to skip breakfast and go to McDonalds for lunch, where I got a McChicken sandwich for $1.10 and picked up some free condiments.

So far, so good, although I am already ready for a snack. I will continue to update you on my progress.

My husband commented that he would be glad when the challenge was over since I was not my usual happy self.

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.