FS Challenge

I agreed to do this challenge because it may help to focus attention within the Yale community on both the type and amount of food stamp benefits. More broadly, the challenge highlights issues of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition that are too often ignored.

However, I have a number of reservations about "food stamp challenges" in general, mainly for the reasons already expressed this blog. What is a week, or any defined period of deprivation? The artificial nature of the challenge struck home as I was checking my carefully selected groceries out of the store yesterday. As I stood in line planning my meals for the week, the man in front of me warned the clerk that he may not have enough to pay for everything and that he wanted to ring up each item in a specific order. He was not able to purchase the bottle of generic soda and looked both distressed about the lack of the soda and slightly embarassed about not being able to afford it. I felt embarassed about what I was doing, about how much care I had just spent selecting food items, when I could have purchased all of them. He did get to purchase toilet paper, chips, a loaf of white bread, deli meat and ramen noodles. Although I could quibble about the nutritional value of his purchases, I know that he was getting a very good value per calorie. If I were doing this every week, I might be buying the same things that he did.

Also as noted in the set-up, my other concern with this challenge is that it changes the nature of the problem by using $21 per week instead of the value of the thrifty food plan (TFP), which for my age and gender is about $36. Even Americans who are suffering from hunger (about 3.3 percent of the population) are spending closer to the amount estimated in the TFP. If I were spending closer to $36, my choices would more clearly reflect the very serious nutritional challenges facing people on food stamps.

All of that aside, I hope that this challenge will help me and others to learn about food insecurity and nutrition in the United States. So, for the week I was able to purchase for $20.80
-2 lbs Macoun Apples: $1.38
-1 lb carrots: $.99
-2 lbs yellow onions: $1.50
-1 lb sweet potato: $0.99
-2 lb butternut squash: $1.18
-1 package frozen broccoli: $0.99
-1 package frozen spinach: $0.99
-1 lb canned pureed tomatoes: $1.19
-10 corn tortillas: $0.99
-1 lb dry black beans: $0.99
-1 lb dry navy beans: $0.99
-2 lb dry yellow split peas: $1.34
-18 large eggs: $2.50
-4 lbs brown rice: $4.78

During the shopping experience I noticed a few things:

Mood: I usually enjoy grocery shopping a great deal. I found myself anxious throughout most of the trip and taking far longer to make decisions that I usually skip over completely.

Produce: Buying seasonally was the only thing that made this even possible. Local produce ended up being cheaper for teh apples. I usually buy Granny Smith apples from Washington State or even South America, but they were $1.79 vs. the $.69 deal on the local apples. I was worried that the apples I bought would be soft; why else would they be THAT cheap? They are soft. I also purchased onions in a bag, which were half as much as the onions that I could pick. Although I tried to find the best bag, I am not very excited about all of the onions. The butternut squash turned out to be a great deal, and much cheaper by weight than either the peeled squash or the peeled and chopped squash. I often buy more expensive pre-cut vegetables to save time, but not this time. I debated about buying a cabbage, which seemed to be another value. I wasn't even looking at lettuce, herbs, mushrooms, summer squash, green onions, fresh ginger, fresh garlic, tofu, veggie sausage, peppers, fresh tomatoes, berries, avocados, oranges or any of the many other things I usually buy in the produce section. I ended up purchasing relatively starchy vegetables in the section and am short on green things.

Green stuff: There wasn't a huge difference in price at Shaws between frozen and canned greens, but the frozen vegetables are much better nutritionally and are much more appealing to cook (taste/look better to me). I was also thinking that if I had to travel by bus for a long distance (I live close by and could walk), that getting frozen produce home could be difficult. I have noticed that a number of small delis stock canned produce, but don't have the freezer case for frozen vegetables. I wonder if the city or state could provide funding and marketing support for frozen produce in small stores.

Rice and Beans: I never eat this many beans and often buy canned beans so that I don't have to plan ahead. As a vegetarian who grew up eating lots of meat, I usually buy things made out of beans and flavored and marketed to remind me of meat. After the first day, my stomach is hurting a bit from all of the beans. It works out that I will eat about 1.5 cups of dry rice and 1.25 cups of dry beans every day, which is six times as much rice and five times as many beans as I eat on a normal day. Brown rice is also much more expensive than white rice, but I wanted to spend on this staple. If I were doing this for real, I would try to find bulk brown rice. However, I have noticed that most large bags of rice (over 5 lbs.) I have seen in New Haven are white rice.

Oil: I did not include cooking oil in the budget, counting it as a condiment, but I probably should have. Vegetable oil is significantly cheaper than olive oil and cheaper than Canola oil as well. Although there are potential health benefits to using these oils instead, they are not substantial enough to make me want to switch to them if my budget is as tight as it is here. After I got home and ran the calories on all the food, I realized that I would have to use a great deal of oil if I wanted to maintain my weight during this week. I remembered eating at a friend's house who has recently arrived from Mexico and is sending most of his money to family at home. I thought it was strange that the rice we were eating for dinner was gleaming with oil (I never add oil to my rice). Now it makes more sense.

Dairy: Didn't have the money. I usually spend a third of my grocery on dairy items.

Eggs: I had to ignore the cage-free eggs this time. $2.50 for 18 eggs is a great deal. The cage-free hens still get killed in the end anyway, right? Being forced into this position makes me feel defensive, which makes me feel like opposing animal rights campaigns, both to protect my cheap eggs and because I don't like being judged for something I would not choose if I had the extra money to spend. Marion Nestle spoke at Yale today about the mainstreaming of animal rights issues in American culture. I was thinking about how my food budget was defining my animal rights attitudes and how my egg purchases would shape my animal rights perspective in domains unrelated to food. Who's mainstream?

Time: When people get more money to spend on food, they often spend it out of the house. I usually eat at Subway a couple of times a week. Two meals would set me back $15. But I am spending time now cooking and cleaning dishes that I would have had to spend on other things, like working. The irony is that most of the meals I will eat this week are actually healthier than the things I buy when I eat fast food.

So, I was trying to balance nutrition and taste and was thoroughly unsatisfied with the mix of foods. If I was spending the additional $15 to get me up to the TFP budget, I would probably add more frozen vegetables, oil, cottage cheese, shredded cheese and soda. If I weren't vegetarian I would spend most of that money on meat.

First day I had:
Breakfast:
3 scrambled eggs
Lunch: Brown rice and yellow split peas with spinach, onions, carrots, dried oregano, garlic powder, salt, canola oil and pepper.


Snack: Apple
Dinner: Brown rice, black beans and two tortillas

I'm hungry.