Hunger Challenge - Vegan Style

Several months ago, my friend Colleen approached my husband and I and asked if we'd like to be members of a new board she was putting together for Food Outreach. The Board, called, Friends of Food Outreach (AKA: FOFO) was to be made up of just a handful of people who believe in the mission of FO and have a desire to get out there and spread the word by creating events, or a buzz about the organization. Colleen knows about my background and has a firm understanding of how I feel about food as it relates to health, so of course this was an easy and very enthusiastic "YES!" for us both to hop on board.

This year the FOFOs have started to really create a name for ourselves and it has been a lot of fun to meet and interact (read: party) with our fellow board members. However, it was not until recently that we really got a taste of the struggle that lies within the clients of Food Outreach. September is Hunger Action Month and during this month Food Outreach has challenged all those who are willing to participate to spend only $29 per person for all of the food you will eat in a seven day period. The days do not have to be in a row (mine have not been), but you do have to stick to only the foods you purchase with in that allotted dollar figure. Why only $29? Because on average, a Food Outreach client is eligible for a $29/week “food stamp” allotment, certainly not enough to purchase the nutritious foods that can improve their treatment outcomes- which by the way absolutely sucks.

I teach vegan cooking classes and I started down this plant-based way of eating after the big C made two appearance in my family IN ONE YEAR just three years ago. Food Outreach provides nutritional meals to help support for those individuals who have been hit by said 'C' and HIV/AIDS. I am all for prevention, but these folks who have compromised immune systems and really are in need of nutritionally dense fare may not be getting what they need because "healthy food" is too expensive. At least that's what the consensus is.

Being on a plant-based (vegan) diet, I thought this would be an interesting challenge.

September has been a bit of a maddening time, as we have been in and out of town, I am prepping for cooking classes, etc...ya know, just life stuff, but you've got to eat- so I took a half hour last week and just ran to the store to spend our $58 (2 people).
This is our food for seven random days throughout the next couple of weeks. We have completed two days and I am now kicking myself for not putting together a menu and planning a bit more carefully. On the other hand, FO never really knows what will be donated and in what quantity, so perhaps making sense out of my mish mash of food is what they have to deal with on a regular basis, ours is just on a significantly smaller scale. I only have to figure out meals for two people, not 200.

I of course did not purchase any animal products and those can be costly, but I did pick up some veggie burgers, crumbles, organic tofu and that nice roll of basil and garlic polenta. Splurges. It killed me to not grab more fresh produce, but knowing that our challenge days would not be consistent, I didn't want to run the risk of buying and having something go bad. Normally, that would just really irritate me, now the stakes are higher. So, instead I bought a lot of frozen vegs and really saved $$$ with the beans. I have soaked (and sprouted) and cooked them all. I'm happy to have my staple of hummus (sans the tahini) in the fridge, though I am eating it by the spoonful since I could not afford pita and didn't even think about grabbing a cuke.

Here is a picture of one of our first meals and as look at everything I bought I see a theme: red/green/tan. I have a feeling that a lot of my pictures will look similar as I bought a ton of canned tomatoes, an extra large bag of frozen broccoli ($2.99 - holla!) and enough beans to last us through the year - or so I say that now.


I didn't feel like being too creative for the first meal, so I just grabbed what I had the most of and got to work. Sauteed an onion, added a few cloves of minced garlic, threw in the broccoli, and added a can of chopped chili-style tomatoes. Later on I popped a handful of garbanzo beans to round out the protein element, but all in all, not a bad start. Most definitely NOT gourmet and not the most well thought out meal, but it was quick and somewhat nutritious. I say somewhat because fresh and local tomatoes would have been a better choice- but let's not split hairs.

Every Little Thing's Challenge Wrap-Up

I wanted to recap the Hunger Challenge before I moved on with new recipes. It was a rough week but enlightening in its own right.  I am one person that was able to chooseto eat on a food stamp budget and for that I am grateful.  I truly hope this challenge didn’t offend anyone .  The point was not to mock or imitate those in need, but to force people to step outside their comfort zone and spark thoughts about hunger in our country.  With those goals in mind, I certainly succeeded with the challenge.

Some final thoughts:

• Eating on $29 a week per person is doable.  It’s not fun, nor is it easy.  But doable? Yes.
• Time is a key component to eating foods that are healthy, natural, and filling on a limited budget.  I spent days researching sale prices and simple yet filling recipes.  I grocery-shopped for two hours.  I cooked full meals almost every night.  This week took time that I’m confident most on food stamps don’t have.
• There is no room for error when you have no extra food.  Burn your dinner? Eat it anyway.  Goopy cottage cheese?  Sorry, down the hatch.
• Eating isn’t fun. Sure, our meals were tasty and filling.  But were they fun?  Meh, not really.  I couldn’t get creative.  I couldn’t try a new recipe.  I couldn’t experiment.  There wasn’t that enjoyment in the cooking process that I’ve come to love in the last year.  I cooked because we couldn’t afford not to, and that was that.
• Forget your social life.  No money, no restaurants.  That’s all there is to it.

My goal was to attempt a natural and healthy diet on a limited budget, and I think I succeeded.  I would never expect a mother working two jobs to pay rent for her two children to cook the way I did last week.  That said, planning ahead just one meal can spark a change and make this kind of budget doable over time.

I also wanted to point out that I went to three stores for this challenge.  I wanted to stay as close to home as possible, so I chose two grocery stores within 3 miles of my house, and the local farmer’s market.  Again, most on food stamps aren’t going to three different stores, but I wanted to show the variety of food I was able to purchase, and what was the cheapest at each store, in this area.

I purposely chose to shop at the farmer’s market because many are now accepting food stamps – in fact, in Detroit and the surrounding area, farmer’s markets are doubling the worth of food stamps!  Obviously not everyone has access to farmer’s markets, especially those living in inner cities and more urban areas, but I wanted to at least showcase the possibility for those with one nearby.

All in all, I thought it was a successful challenge.  Maybe not realistic, but it certainly pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me think about my food and those in our country that go without.  After all, wasn’t that the point?

Check out my blog for my final Hunger Challenge recipe - a basic black bean soup that was pretty tasty, if I do say so myself!

Every Little Thing's Challenge Day 6

It’s officially Day 6 of the Hunger Challenge – can’t believe it’s almost over! If you’re looking to catch up on the other posts…

• Hunger Challenge Original Post
• Hunger Challenge Prep
• Hunger Challenge Day 1
• Hunger Challenge Day 3
• Hunger Challenge Day 4

I’ve noticed a craving for sugar. I haven’t kept track but I know I’m eating less sugar. How did I notice the craving, you ask? Well, a coworker brought in donut holes this morning specifically for me and my partner at work. She literally plopped them down on my desk and told me to eat them. And do you know what I did?

I ate them.

A lot of them.

I’m normally not a donut person and I was shoving these down like my stomach was bottomless – I had this intense need for more sugar! Obviously this doesn’t excuse my cheating on the Challenge but I had to fess up and wanted to describe how I was feeling.

Otherwise, we’ve been doing well, though I notice how empty our designated shelf is getting and it makes me nervous.

On Wednesday night, we had stuffed peppers for dinner, based on my original quinoa-stuffed pepper dinner.

It was affordable and a good mix of leftover bits of food in the fridge. The only problem was that we were still hungry after! We each had a bowl of cereal and called it a night. Our peppers were small, so make yourself two peppers!

Check out my blog for the recipe!

I filled our peppers with a mix of quinoa (here’s how to rinse/cook quinoa), leftover pinto beans from the chili, onion, leftover chopped poblano, and topped with pepperjack (I was going to use corn but got lazy).
 
The quinoa takes about 15-20 minutes to cook, then two small-to-medium peppers stuffed with the quinoa mixture take about 45 minutes to bake in the oven, at 400 degrees.

Top with cheese during the last five minutes and throw under the broiler for supreme meltiness!

Rice would work just as well but quinoa provides a lot of protein! You can also mix in meat if you have it – sausage works well.
I’ll have a wrap-up post on Sunday – have a great weekend!

Every Little Thing's Challenge (almost) Day 5

**Be sure to check out my blog for photos of my delicious dinner from last night!**

Almost day 5! Wow, I can’t believe the Hunger Challenge is over halfway done. It’s going well so far, but I see our dwindling piles of food and worry about days 6 and 7, which I’m sure is a common feeling for those on food stamps.

One thing I’ve noticed is how many people at work offer me food after I explain the Challenge to them. I’m not even sure they’re doing it consciously, but I’ve had more food offered to me this week than ever before! Cookies, pie (on which I relented Day 3), BBQ sandwich, chips, soda, you name it, I’ve been offered. It makes it difficult to turn it down but I feel fortunate that I have these food options, whereas plenty of people have zero free food options, or aren’t willing to take any.

It was yesterday afternoon that I really started to hit my wall with the Hunger Challenge. Last night was my fourth night of cooking in a row and while I cook often, I normally mix in leftovers, take out, or something so easy it doesn’t qualify as cooking (poor man’s nachos, anyone?). I didn’t have that luxury this week. I sat at work just dreading cooking tonight, wanting so badly to order Chinese food or make a box of Annie’s Mac & Cheese. But sesame chicken doesn’t fit into a $60/week budget, so I cooked. Again.

When you’re on such a limited food budget, every piece of food matters and you often have no choice in the matter. I’ve eaten goopy cottage cheese, cereal with nuts in it (I hate them in my cereal), and more popcorn than I care to think about because that was all I had. I couldn’t throw the cottage cheese away because it was goopy. I couldn’t buy a new box of cereal. I ate it. I survived. I moved on.

I’m hoping this will translate into post-challenge menu planning. Basically, I’m hoping to get over myself and eat what I have in the house instead of ordering Chinese because something in my fridge is too “goopy” to eat.

Anyway, here’s our dinner from two nights ago – baked pasta! It was delicious and made excellent leftovers.

I was planning to use cottage cheese but at the last minute found a half-filled container of ricotta in the back of my fridge. Half the container would have cost about the same as the cottage cheese and in the name of not wasting, I used that instead. If that’s cheating, so be it.

I kind of…winged it.

One box of $1 pasta (100% whole wheat, all natural).
One box of $1.39 sauce (100% all natural tomato puree)
Chopped onion, garlic, leftover poblano, and the other 1/4 lb of beef.
Dollops of ricotta or cottage cheese.
Shredded pepperjack.

Boil the pasta. Brown the meat. Mix about 3/4 of the pasta with all the ingredients in a casserole dish. Bake until bubble (15-20 minutes).

It was honestly really tasty and just your basic, hearty, Italian dinner. It filled our bellies, gave us some fiber, protein, and veggies, and made a delicious lunch the next day.

We’re getting low on food. Breakfast for dinner is planned again for tonight, with only one more work lunch to pack tomorrow (thank goodness). I’ll keep you posted – likely making black bean soup for Saturday!

Question: Do the store-brand items at your grocery store stack up to their name brand counterparts?

Every Little Thing's Hunger Challenge Day 3 (already?!)

(Just FYI: meal photos will also be posted on my facebook page!)

It’s the dawn of day three of the Hunger Challenge and things are going well! Our two dinners so far have been outstanding – on the other hand, lunches and snacks have been quite underwhelming. I really miss having snacks throughout the day and a variety of food in my lunchbox. I also miss sparkling water that I drink during the day (I know, cry me a river right?).  That said, it hasn’t been horrible by any means.

I have cheated once. I was offered a small piece of pie at work yesterday and I took it. I felt guilty about it but the craving for sweetness to end my meal was overwhelming. I realize that many people on limited budgets and food stamps don’t have access to these kinds of freebies – it was my own weakness that pushed me to take it.

Breakfast: Small bowl of cereal and a hard-boiled egg.  This does the trick until at least mid-morning - it mimics what I typically have, though the cereal I eat is more filling (more fiber and protein).

Lunch: Yesterday, leftovers (chili and cornbread…and pie). Today, PB&J, slice of cheese, leftover cornbread.

Snack: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, though I haven’t eaten it yet because it’s on the goopy side. Evening snack has been popcorn with a little salt and butter. I’ve also had a spoonful of peanut butter and peanut butter toast with milk.

Dinner on Sunday night (and Monday’s lunch) was a very basic chili recipe – I say basic but there’s a little twist that hit this chili out of the park. It starts with a P and ends with “oblano.” You can usually get miscellaneous peppers for a decent price at the grocery store or the farmer’s market. My market has jalapeno’s for a quarter! Also, keep the seeds in if you want plenty of spice! Even without the seeds, the chili had quite a bite to it.

I used dry beans so I got to soaking early in the day. I did the “quick soak” method, which involved putting the beans in a large pot with enough water to cover by a couple inches, bringing the pot to boil, then cover, take off heat, and let sit for two hours.

After soaking the beans, rinse with clean water, then add back to the pan with fresh water (3 cups water to every 1 cup beans). Bring the new bean/water mix to a boil then simmer, partially covered, for 60-90 minutes. Mine only took 60! You can also boil in broth with spices for extra tasty beans. There are a lot of fun ways to cook beans and I’m a bean newb so check around for great recipes!

For the full chili recipe, check out my blog! It's excellent, I promise. 

Our dinner last night was a pepper, onion, and pepperjack frittata, potatoes, and toast (photos on my Facebook page!). It was delicious and something we have often, actually. I used 5 eggs for the frittata, meaning we have 7 left for one more “breakfast-for-dinner” night, plus one weekend breakfast (egg sammies!). Tonight I’m making baked pasta, tomorrow quinoa-stuffed peppers. Black bean soup is thrown in there somewhere as well!

Question: Does your local farmer’s market accept food stamps?

(Not all of ours do, but I wanted to show what you could get at the market. Many around the country do!)

Rhubarb and Honey's Hunger Challenge Concludes

On Friday, our participation in the Food Outreach Hunger Challenge concluded. I had planned to spend the evening blogging about the final days of challenge, but after some initial attempts at this post, I decided I needed to take a step back and truly think about the lessons I learned over the past five days.

When I agreed to participate in the hunger challenge, I hoped that I would be able to show that a person living on food stamps could eat well-balanced, nutritional meals comprised of good, clean foods ... and be satisfied, both physically (ie, not hungry) and mentally (ie, happy with the variety and content of their diet). Boy, was I in for a rude awakening.

If you've read my previous posts (here and here), you'll know that the first day on the hunger challenge was a huge struggle for both The Chef and I. In one short day, we were both incredibly hungry ... and we became quite anxious about our ability to live on the minimal amount of food we were able to purchase with our allotted budget for the week. It was at this moment we knew just how hard the challenge would be.

The next two days were a bit better on the hunger front, but we were both left unsatisfied. We found ourselves with limited meal choices, which meant we were eating the same things over and over ... and we were only flavoring our food with salt and pepper since we didn't have any money to buy spices. In a word ... boring.

The last two days have been much of the same. Our breakfast choices were the same as those we had the other days of the challenge. Our lunches continued to consist of leftovers. Our dinners were actually a bit bleaker than the two previous days. We made another soup that, although inexpensive, didn't hold a flavor candle to the one we made on Wednesday. While we didn't go hungry, the fun we've always had cooking and eating just wasn't there anymore.

So, what are all the lessons we've learned over the last five days?

1. First and foremost, we will never know exactly what it's like to live on a food stamp budget. Many people living on food stamps don't have cars and rely on public transportation. In addition, many people living on food stamps work at least two jobs, leaving limited time to shop. For them, just getting to a grocery store is difficult. For the clients of Food Outreach, who in addition to living on food stamps are also living with HIV/AIDS or cancer, getting to a grocery store is sometimes impossible.

2. The weekly food stamp budget ($29 here in Missouri) is not enough to have a complete diet comprised of good, clean, organic foods ... and not go hungry. As evidenced by how little food we were able to purchase with our allotted budget, it just isn't possible to "eat well" and not be hungry. I'm certain people living on food stamps want to eat better. I'm certain they want to feed their children better. There just isn't money to do so ... and since being hungry is horrible in so many ways, I can understand why some people living on food stamps choose cheap processed foods (usually with little nutritional value, which is extremely detrimental to persons living with HIV/AIDS or cancer) to make their food dollars go farther.

3. There are ways to stretch a food stamp budget ... but they require significant planning and time. The "to use coupons or not use coupons" on the hunger challenge was debated among many of my food blogger friends. Some chose to use them, some didn't. For those that did, they found that they spent a significant amount of time obtaining the coupons and then closely checking the items they purchased to make sure the coupon would work, which made their shopping trips longer. Coupons can be great and will help stretch a food stamp budget, but unfortunately, time isn't on the side of someone living on food stamps.

4. The pleasure of eating—something so important to the pleasure of life—can easily be lost. As I mentioned above, the fun we've always had cooking and eating wasn't there. I think the fact that we always knew that our next meal would be one we'd just eaten made everything less appealing. One of the great powers food has is to bring people together and bring enjoyment to your day, and it makes me sad that this is so easily lost when one only has limited food to eat.

5. There is no "typical person living on food stamps" ... it could be your friends, your neighbors, or even someone in your family. Some of the more eye-opening revelations that occurred during the hunger challenge came when reading the comments that were elicited from readers of my blog and my fellow food bloggers participating in the hunger challenge. So many people commented on their experiences as current or former food stamp recipients, and not one story was the same. Never assume you know what someone living on food stamps looks like.

6. Never, never, never take food for granted. We all know it's easy to take everyday things, especially good food, for granted, and our experience with the hunger challenge drove that home for both The Chef and I. So, it's simple. If you're lucky enough to be able to eat good, clean food on a regular basis, enjoy it ... and perhaps share some with those around you.

There's an old proverb that says, "An empty belly hears nobody." Normally when I'm hungry, I grab a snack and fill the hole in my belly. But when there isn't anything to snack on, that hole gets bigger and eventually develops a voice of its own ... one that constantly whispers in your ear, "You're hungry" ... over and over until it's all you can think about. It's no surprise it drowns everything else out.

As I mentioned above, I will never know exactly what it's like to be a person living on a food stamp budget ... but I do know though that I've learned a little bit more about their struggles, and because of that, I will never take my ability to make carefree food choices for granted ever again.

~Kimberly
Rhubarb and Honey

Every Little Thing's Hunger Challenge Day 1

Today, Sunday September 18, is day one of my Hunger Challenge. All the groceries have been purchased. All the meals have been planned. It’s now up to execution and mind over matter.

For photos of my purchases, check out my blog post here.

My first challenge was truly grocery shopping. I typically love to grocery shop but today I was almost dreading the trip. I’m typically a pretty budget-minded shopper but this time, I had to be extra careful, and it wasn’t as fun as my usual grocery store romps. I added prices up as I went along, careful not to go above the magic number: $60. I sacrificed when I had planned to splurge (if by splurge, you mean spending an extra $.50 for name brand), to ensure we’d have enough food for the week.

My food came from three sources: the local farmer’s market, Schnuck’s, and Dierberg’s. All items purchased are all natural or organic, even store-brand items, with the exception of the Cracker Jacks and Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix. Here’s what I purchased from each store:

Farmer’s Market:

• Bell peppers (5) - $2
• Onions (1 lb) - $2
• Red potatoes (6) - $2
• Green beans (1/2 lb) - $1
• Sweet corn (2) - $1
• Jalapeno and poblano peppers – $1
• Eggs (2 dozen) - $6
• 1/2 head garlic – $.50
• Grass-fed ground beef (not pictured – 1/2 lb) - $2.50

Notes: The ground beef was already in our freezer, purchased at $5/lb. Similar prices could be found for regular beef at the Dierberg’s and Schnuck’s butcher, where you could purchase however much you needed. Eggs were another food option I wasn’t bending on, and I got great deals on the peppers and other misc veggies!

Schnuck’s:

• Organic diced tomatoes (2) - $2.26
• Organic tomato sauce (1) – $.68
• Organic crushed tomatoes (1) - $2.26
• Nature’s Pride bread (1) plus 1/2 loaf already purchased - $3.09
• Schnuck’s brand whole wheat pasta (1) - $1.00
• Schnuck’s brand pasta sauce (1) - $1.39
• Schnuck’s brand creamy peanut butter (1) - $1.67
• Organic strawberry jelly (1) - $2.69
• Organic chicken broth cans (2) – $.86 (grocery distressed!)
• Schnuck’s brand whipped butter (1) - $1.78
• Prairie Farms sour cream (1) - $1.18
• Cracker Jacks (1) - $1.00

Notes: All Schnuck’s brand items are all natural and contain no artificial anything. I wanted to buy all organic dairy but it just wasn’t possible. I would have preferred organic peanut butter and pasta sauce as well but again, not possible on this budget. The Cracker Jacks were on sale and something sweet for after dinner, and the clearance organic broth was a lifesaver!

Dierberg’s:

• Borden block cheese (2) - $4
• Daisy cottage cheese (1) - $2
• Heritage Organic milk (1) - $5.59
• Jiffy corn muffin mix (1) – $.50
• Mom’s Best Honey O’s (1) - $1.75
• Mom’s Best Oats and Honey (1) - $1.75
• Bananas (4) – $.93
• Bulk organic black beans (1 lb) - $1.70
• Bulk organic pinto beans (1/2 lb) - $1.05
• Bulk organic popcorn (1 lb) – $.92 (cheap snack!)
• Bulk organic quinoa (1/4 lb) – $.92

Notes: The bulk bin really saved my budget! Also, this Mother’s Best brand of cereal is always a really great price and 100% all natural. I splurged on the milk – found out when I got home that it’s not even a full gallon! More like 3/4 of a gallon. Expensive but something I didn’t want to bend on.

Grand total: $58.97

Under budget (remember, I live in Illinois, where people receive $35/week instead of $29, so I'm compromising!! The $1.03 leftover will be used to cover any emergency bread/PB/pasta purchases towards the end of the week.

I was proud that 98% of my purchases were all natural. I have told people from the beginning – all natural is first and foremost. If you can afford organic, more power to you, but all natural should be a priority! I think I did well keeping that in mind.

Tonight we’re having a basic chili recipe for dinner (posted tomorrow). We’ll see how the rest of the week goes! I do have to admit we have one change of plans for the week – weeks ago, I inadvertently bought St. Louis Cardinals tickets for Friday night, and had planned to visit Taste of St. Louis beforehand for dinner. We are still planning to do so, but will add an extra dinner likely Sunday evening.

I’ll keep you posted!

Question: Do you think this challenge can be misconstrued as offensive? Why or why not?

(See some of my thoughts on this in my last post)

Hunger Challenge – Final Thoughts

We successfully completed the hunger challenge. We were never hungry as we predicted, but we did not expect the monotony we experienced with what we did have to eat, admittedly a small price to pay if you have few food dollars.

We mostly heard astonishment from people when we shared we were doing the challenge. “You can’t eat for $4 a day,” and not surprising it was new news that $29 is all that is allotted per person weekly for food while on SNAP (food stamps). Someone suggested eating from the McDonald’s dollar menu, which is not possible since SNAP cannot be used for prepared foods. People asked if we were eating a lot of pasta and rice, which may be a fill-up-you-belly option, but one that lacks vegetables, is higher calorie, and is hard if you are living with a disease like diabetes, prevalent with many Food Outreach clients.

The most arrogant, rude, and ignorant comment we heard was from someone who said that if people would just get a job they wouldn’t need food stamps. WRONG. An August 2011 USDA report stated 60% of those who receive SNAP DO have earnings, granted they have to earn below 130% of the Federal poverty line. For a family of four that’s a monthly gross income of $2,748. Trying to actually LIVE on that would make the hunger challenge look like child’s play!

We’ve posted some lessons learned in prior posts, but to recap:

• You shop somewhere inexpensive, close to your home, and infrequently. Most SNAP recipients shop monthly and then run the risk of not having enough food at month’s end. Hopefully they have access to other resources such as Food Outreach or a pantry that gets food from Operation Food Search.

• Coupons are helpful in keeping food costs down, but a SNAP recipient may not have access to newspapers or the Internet/printer.

• You eat inexpensive foods and have limited choices. Fresh fruits and vegetables are infrequent. Ditto for low fat meats and fish (other than canned, fish is not likely in your food budget at all). And forget about a pantry of spices, which is an easy way to jazz up bland foods without a lot of added sodium (key for someone with hypertension, another secondary condition of some diseases such as HIV/AIDS).

• Healthy eating is very doable, but it requires a lot of planning, time (e.g., dried beans are much cheaper than canned, lower sodium too, but must be soaked and take a while to cook), and discipline (you make your meal plan for the week and you stick to it).

• Your social life does not revolve around food like ours does. Likely you eat to survive. Period. But it’s not joyful or celebratory. Certainly no nice dinners out – because you don’t feel like cooking (you don’t eat then!) – or even to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, or graduation.

• The simplest things, like a pot of freshly brewed coffee (or a second pot if you want more) or a mid-afternoon snack like an apple to combat a bit of hunger fatigue, ARE luxuries.

These few days have been a miniscule view of what it’s like to eat the way those reliant on SNAP do. An eye-opening experience for sure. We’re blessed that we have the choice to go back to our normal routine. The night after we ended our challenge, we had grilled grass-fed tenderloin filets, and organic red potatoes and corn on the cob (from our CSA box) with basil butter. Did we think twice about how lavish our meal was? YES. I really struggled in writing this post. We are so fortunate, and it was hard for me to really capture how this experience has impacted us. We already know we are doing the challenge for a full week next September.

We did end up finding a new black bean chili we really enjoyed and it can be found on my blog.

Denise and Craig Evans 

Johnna52's Hunger Challenge planning and shopping

Hi there!  I'm Johnna, a gluten-free, vegetarian food blogger from KC.  Inspired by friends and family in St. Louis, my husband and I area participating in the Hunger Challenge this week.  I'll be blogging here and also at Johnna52 about my experience. Inspired by my husband's Aunt Judy and Stefani of the Cupcake Project, we will attempt to eat nutritious vegetarian and gluten-free meals for $29 per person for the entire week.

I've followed along as other bloggers share their Hunger Challenge stories.  I'm broadening my shoulders and stiffening my backbone for the backlash of negative comments, from folks telling me I don't get it, that I don't really understand hunger.  They are right.  I'm blessed with an ample food budget and while I've experienced financially lean times, I've never been on food stamps or gone to bed hungry.  I'm participating in the Hunger Challenge to learn, to gain understanding.  I also hope to prove to myself it is possible to eat gluten-free on a very tight budget.

As I planned the week's menu, I decided to make use of coupons and a Living Social deal to Whole Foods.  I thought I would use public transportation to get across town to Whole Foods and had my first eye-opening experience.  To get from where I live, on the north end of Kansas City, to Whole Foods in the south part of the city, would require me to ride my bicycle 6 miles, transfer 3 times on the bus and spend a whole lot of time waiting on said buses.  The total travel time from my home to Whole Foods and back would be almost 12 hours.  There will be no Whole Foods shopping this week.

Instead, I chose to shop only at places within 3 miles of home or those places that I work nearby.  I shopped at Trader Joe's and Cargo Largo when I was within 3 miles of them due to work, no special trips to shop.  I also used lots of coupons and asked for a bit of guidance from fellow KC Blogger Kelly of Kansas City Mamas.  I combed the grocery store ads, took advantage of Hy-Vee's One Day Sale, planned for an entire week in a way I never have before,knowing last minute trips to the grocery store could compromise the budget.

It was stressful, I worried a lot about having enough food, being able to afford food that would nourish us and provide enough energy for our physically demanding lifestyles.  I spent time being angry, a waste of energy, because I could have bought cheap boxed mac & cheese for a quarter at the one-day sale if I were able to eat gluten.  If I would just budge on my no-HFCS rule, we could save $1.50 on jelly, $1 on spaghetti sauce. Just in planning the meals and shopping, I was learning so much, experiencing so many emotions related to both a limited budget and food restrictions. The overriding feeling is that I'm pissed that anyone goes hungry in America, I'm angry that buying healthy food is so expensive.  I had no idea this would be so emotional.

I've already made mistakes in shopping.  I bought one too many bags of rice, $0.62 gone from the budget. It was such a great deal, I thought I should buy two.   If this were my reality, I could save it for the next week, but it could run the budget short.  I made a large error related to a coupon.  I had a terrific coupon for one free Amy's item. I chose a gluten-free, dairy-free pizza that was $9.35.  At the cash register, the coupon only scanned for $5.  I neglected to read the fine print on the coupon and spent $4.35, a whole day's food budget for one of us, on a frozen pizza.  Instead of telling the cashier I needed to put it back, which is what I should have done, I paid for the pizza and now we have to deal with my expensive mistake. 

In buying produce, I've struggled with knowing who offers the best price.  Trader Joe's sells by unit and there is no scale to weigh the items to know how the price compares to stores that sell by the pound.  On a limited budget, I couldn't drive back and forth across town several times to research who has the best price.  I've stressed about buying something and then discovering it was cheaper elsewhere.  I stressed about the clerk at one store not giving me my nickel in return for me bringing my own shopping bag.

Tomorrow we start eating the meals I've planned for the week. While technically our week on the Hunger Challenge hasn't started, I've already learned a lot.  What I've already experienced has inspired next year's blog project at 52 Sweets (more on that at the end of the week) and showed me how lucky I am to eat the way I do. Feeling extremely blessed...

Photos of this week's meals will be shared in this Facebook album.  

Every Little Thing Blog's HC Plan

Happy Friday folks! Now that my Hunger Challenge is almost here, I'll be posting updates on here and on my own blog, Every Little Thing. I encourage you to pay a visit over there as well!

Some thoughts first. A friend of mine has been criticized recently for the way she chose to go about the Hunger Challenge. I’ll save you the details but her plan for the Challenge leaves me with this thought:

What exactly is the point of this Challenge?
Is the point to live as much like the stereotypical person on food stamps for a week? Or is the goal to step outside your comfort zone and into another’s shoes for seven days?

For a while, I thought it was the former but now? I believe it’s the latter. There is no stereotypical person on food stamps and to pretend I can mimic their lifestyle seems like a silly goal. In fact, it can make this whole Challenge seem somewhat offensive! That said, if the goal of this challenge is:

• to experience the struggle that those on stamps feel every time they grocery shop
• to note the true challenge in trying to feed yourself a nutritious, healthy meal when processed, chemical-filled food is so cheap and convenient
• to experience another’s hardship, if only for one week

…then I’m in. I can’t pretend to be a person on food stamps, but I can empathize and challenge myself to live differently.

***

Now, let’s talk about a menu! Here’s my dinner plan:

• Sunday: Chili
• Monday: Eggs, potatoes, toast
• Tuesday: Baked pasta
• Wednesday: Black bean soup & quinoa-stuffed peppers
• Thursday: Eggs, potatoes, toast
• Friday: Tuna cakes
• Saturday: Grilled cheese & tomato soup 

Lunches will consist of leftovers and PB&J sammies, and breakfasts will include cereal and hard-boiled eggs.

I created a shopping list based on the very high end price of each item and came to $72 – $12 over where I need to be. I’m hoping that by cutting a few corners and finding items on sale (even clearance), I’ll keep it to $60.

I’m going to the farmer’s market tomorrow morning (more and more markets are now accepting food stamps!), then piecing together the rest of the menu with trips to Shop ‘N Save, Schnucks, and Dierbergs (all within 3 miles of my home).

A few things I thought were important:

• Shopping within close distance to my house (many on food stamps rely on public transportation or stores close to home)
• Limiting coupon use (basic store coupons/sales are fine, but most people don’t use more than a couple coupons per transaction, whether on stamps or not!)
• Eating nutritiously, yet realistically (I want us to be full and satisfied while keeping within my food beliefs)

I’ll update after I shop on Sunday! Wish me luck :) Please visit the  to follow my (and other bloggers!) journey through the challenge!

Virtual Can Drive

We are getting canned goods shipped to our door every couple days from generous supporters just like you! We'd like to raise 3,000 cans this month and one of the ways we can meet that goal is through our "virtual drive" set up through an Amazon wish list. The best part? Orders over $25 ship free! Click here to send us cans!

Make sure to include a gift note with your order so we know who you are!

Rhubarb and Honey's Hunger Challenge Continues

After a rough start to the Food Outreach Hunger Challenge, I am happy to report that days 2 and 3 of the challenge have been a bit brighter for The Chef and I (to learn more about our participation in the hunger challenge, read my introductory post for all of the details).

Our planned menus for these two days pretty much accomplished what I had hoped to achieve when starting this challenge: to eat nutritious meals made from good, clean food and to also be satisfied at the end of the day. I say "pretty much" though because I had also hoped to have a variety of meals and foods throughout the challenge, but I quickly learned that shopping with a limited budget automatically leaves you with limited meal choices, which means we're eating the same things over and over ... and since we didn't have any money to buy spices, we're only flavoring our food with salt and pepper.

Please, please, please don't mistake this is as whining; I know that any food, seasoned or not, is better than no food when you're hungry. It just never crossed my mind until we went shopping for the challenge how little flexibilty in meal preparation we would have; what we purchased is what we have to eat. Have a craving for something different? Too bad because there isn't any money left to buy something else.

One of the things I love about food is the pleasure eating brings; trying new foods, new flavors, and new recipes is something I enjoy and look forward to each week. These last few days, I've found myself more appreciative of food, but (with the exception of dinner last night) not necessarily enjoying each meal as I usually do. This made me wonder ... do people living on food stamps derive pleasure from their meals or is eating just a means to an end, ie, is it just fuel to make it through the day? I truly hope these questions don't come off as condescending; I am honestly interested in understanding more about their experience.

So, what have we been eating? Here's the rundown:

Breakfast Day 2: Cooked oatmeal made with 2% milk and topped with organic trail mix

Lunch Day 2: Leftover brown rice and edamame (from Day 1) with a baked chicken drumstick

Dinner Day 3: Spicy "Southwestern" soup made with Whole Foods dried soup base, organic pinto beans, ground turkey, and tomatillo salsa

Breakfast Day 3: Breakfast burritos made with organic tortillas, "refried" beans (made from the organic pinto beans leftover from last night's dinner), scrambled eggs, and tomatillo salsa

Lunch Day 3: Leftover "Southwestern" bean soup

Dinner Day 3: Baked chicken drumsticks, rice pilaf, and roasted organic green beans and sweet potatoes

Of all the meals we ate, the spicy "Southwestern" soup made with Whole Foods dried "Southwest" soup base, organic pinto beans, and ground turkey was by far my favorite. It was hearty, flavorful, nutritious ... and inexpensive. The recipe we created (posted here) made 10 cups and cost $6.72, which means each generous 2 cup serving is only $1.34. This soup will definitely be making an appearance in our house again.

Spicy Southwestern Bean Soup

Ingredients:

1/4 pound dried pinto beans
1/2 pound dried "Southwest" soup mix (from Whole Foods bulk section; approximately 1 cup)
1 small onion, diced
1 small jalapeno, diced
1/2 pound ground turkey
1/2 cup tomatillo salsa

Directions:

1. Cover pinto beans with water and soak overnight.

2. When ready to make soup, combine 5 cups water with soup mix in a large pot. Saute onion and jalapeno in a small saucepan; when tender, add to soup.

3 Simmer soup mixture for 1 hour. At the same time, simmer the pinto beans in their soaking liquid (in a separate pot) for 1 hour.

4. Drain pinto beans; reserving 2 cups liquid. Add beans and reserved liquid to soup; continue to simmer for 20 minutes.

5. Brown ground turkey in small saucepan; when browned, add salsa.

6. When soup mixture is done simmering, add turkey and salsa mixture. Turn off burner; let stand 30 minutes.

7. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if necessary; serve.

Notes: The recipe requires some advanced planning since the beans must be soaked overnight; if you forget to soak your beans though, you can easily substitute 2 cans of pinto beans (rinsed) and two extra cups of water.

While most of our meals weren't the most creative or flavorful, I have to say that I wasn't that hungry either day, which was a great improvement over day one. Here's to the rest of the challenge and the lessons still to be learned.

~Kimberly
Rhubarb and Honey

Hunger Challenge Day Two – A Less than Exciting Dinner on Monday

Last evening’s dinner was vegetable rice casserole, based on a recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook. It was healthy, inexpensive, filling, kind of dry, very bland, and really boring. I will likely make it again and use the white wine and the amounts of cheeses and sour cream the recipe specifies, which my budget did not allow this time. For instance, I used no cheddar. And with spices other than just salt and pepper, perhaps nutmeg and a little cayenne. Any way, we know we must eat it for lunch one of the next few days. Craig debated having it for lunch today so it’s gone, but the aroma of the spicy chili I made early this morning lingered in the kitchen and won him over hands down. Chili recipe forthcoming. At least we have a few choices.

I made an observation while we were eating last evening: we were politely quiet. Actually, I don’t think we said a word. We just ate to be done so we could clean up and get on with the rest of our evening. Eating is – and should be – profoundly social. Meals are where people gather and food is shared. Delicious foods add joy to life and bring great pleasure – the tastes, aromas, texture, and appearance for food all enhance the experience of eating.

PONDER:  are those living on food stamps forced to give up this pleasure? Do they feel an isolation associated with eating, like dinner felt last evening? If you are a Food Outreach client, do you get the same pleasure from eating as most of us – or – do you view eating as a chore to get enough food to simply fill your belly and fuel your body for a day?

PONDER:  Do folks on SNAP recipients ever have an opportunity to snack? I did an early evening work out and came home “ravished” (not really, but I sure would have appreciated a bit of protein). Unfortunately, we had nothing in our budget to allow for noshing.

Click here for a version of the vegetable rice casserole that may be really good.

Denise and Craig Evans

Day one down, and a new one for us - a completely meatless day. And it was okay.

Our bellies were full, and we ate healthy. 

Breakfast was similar to what Craig eats every day, but with one big exception. While grocery shopping, we had to cut whole wheat English muffins from our list. One package of six muffins costs twice what a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread (16 slices of bread, enough for eight servings of toast) costs. Spread two tablespoons of peanut butter on the toast, a serving size that is actually quite generous, a banana, and coffee, and you’re off to a great start to the day. I can live without wine, but I couldn’t work with a caffeine headache, so we agreed we HAD to budget coffee into our total – about $1.20 a day for a full pot (seriously, who thinks of java as being 15% of your daily allotment of food dollars?!?!). We didn’t finish the pot in the morning, and it was SUCH a treat – and pick me up – iced in the afternoon.

LESSON:  if you prefer one food over another, too bad. You eat what's cheapest.

LESSON: “Real” plates, glassware, and flatware make food taste better as I experienced drinking my iced coffee in a glass (versus the old, plastic Kreiger cup I had been drinking water from up until then today). This is one of the reasons Food Outreach’s Monday Hot Lunch program is so vital. It allows clients to experience a three-course, restaurant-style meal. The kind of thing most of us take for granted, but not folks living on SNAP.

Lunch was really tasty and very filling, but frankly repetitious, due to a few errors I mentioned yesterday. While I was reheating the soup, Craig mused that most days he snacks while we’re getting lunch ready, and we almost always have cheese and crackers with a glass of wine while we make dinner. Not today because we have nothing easy to snack on (we did get real popcorn but that takes too much time to pop for quick snacking). I missed my after lunch, fun size Peppermint Patty, something I consider a not-too-bad-indulgence – dark chocolate and low fat/calories, right?

LESSON:  eating cheap requires planning and time, things someone battling HIV/AIDS or cancer has in short supply. And snacking and simple indulgences are never considerations. Typically I would not think of spices (such as a good curry powder that is excellent in the soup) as a luxury, but they are on a budget.

If you want to see the recipe for the Lentil-Sweet Potato Soup, click here and you’ll be redirected to my blog.

I failed to mention that our total for our four days of the challenge came to $31.49.

Denise and Craig Evans

My Food Challenge for the week of Sept. 11-17th

My name is Mary Banach and I am a part-time Dietitian at Food Outreach. I enroll new clients with cancer into the Food Outreach program and do nutrition counseling with clients as needed. I thought I should do the Food Challenge to get a better idea how difficult it is to eat healthy on a limited budget, as many of our clients live of very limited income. I am doing the Food Challenge this week from September 11-17^th.

I spent a lot of time trying to plan healthy meals that I could afford and would also enjoy eating. I knew I could afford enough healthy food, but I wanted to make sure I would not be miserable eating beans & rice all week. I also knew I could afford a lot of junk food, but I wanted the foods to be similar in nutrition to what I am used to eating. It was difficult to plan meals ahead of time, not knowing exactly what all the ingredients would cost. I had to make a lot of price estimates and use a calculator at the store to make sure I would not go over. I decided to go to Aldi, because I thought I would get more value for the money I had to spend.

I was surprised how limited my food choices were at Aldi. Aldi does not carry brown rice or cornmeal. I had to stop at Shop-N-Save to get these ingredients. I could have bought white rice as a substitute for the brown rice, but they had no substitute for cornmeal. I planned to eat cheese grits with fresh fruit/veggies for lunch on most days, so I really needed this item. It seemed like there were many options of less healthy foods like chips and sugary cereals and less options of healthier foods.

Many times, the healthier options are more expensive. You can get a whole gallon of “citrus punch” for the same price as ½ gallon of 100% orange juice. I could have bought a whole pound of hot dogs for 99 cents, but opted for ½ dozen of eggs for 99 cents and they are nitrite/nitrate free, which is something I try to limit.

I drove 9.5 miles round trip to shop at the 2 grocery stores and spent at least 1 ½ hours shopping with all the price comparing I did. If I was really on food stamps, I probably would not have had a car and would have needed to walk or take the bus. The closest grocery store to my house is about 1 mile each way and does not have very good selections, but is probably where I would need to go. I spent a lot of time price comparing, which would have been difficult if I had children with me or I was not feeling well. I also did not have any kids begging me for candy/chips/ice cream, which if I purchased, I would have had to put healthier options back.

I also tried to avoid convenience foods like frozen prepared meals and Rice-a-Roni because they are more processed and have less value for the money. I really had to be careful to choose recipes without a lot of ingredients (each item adds up) and plan on cooking only 2 dinner entrees for the week and eating leftovers the other nights.

I was so relieved my crock-pot recipe came out good last night, because I need to eat it for dinner for 4 nights. I winged it using ingredients I could afford and it came out great. One bowl filled me up and it made a lot. It will be plenty for 4 nights and maybe even a lunch or 2. I felt full and that was nice because I felt kind of hungry all day even though I did not skip any meals. Not sure how I will feel after I finish my 4^th meal of it, but at least it tasted good and was made with healthy ingredients.

I spent a lot of money to be able to have a cup of coffee similar to what I am used to. $6.16, but I just could not bear to skip my coffee everyday and I don’t like using artificial creamers or drinking it black. I was a little disappointed with the after taste of the coffee I was able to afford, but at least I had my coffee.

The bit I splurged on chocolate was really worth it. I savor those bites of my meager portion of chocolate after dinner.

Here is what I bought for my 7 days and $29.00.

My Purchases

Fruit/Veg.:

1 bunch celery $1.19
2# carrots $1.39
1 grapefruit $ .45
4 necterines $1.40

1 kiwi $ .44
16 oz. frozen Asian veggies $1.65 (after coupon

Proteins:

whole chicken (~4 lbs.) $3.70
6 eggs $ .99

Grains:

16 oz. brown rice $ .68 (after coupon)
24 oz. cornmeal $1.58

20 oz. raisin bran $1.89

Dairy:

½ gallon milk $1.97
8 oz. sharp cheddar $1.99

Coffee:

11 oz. coffee $2.49

32 oz. ½ & ½ $1.79

4 lbs. Sugar $1.88 smallest size available

Sweets: 7 oz. chocolate bar $1.99 (dessert for the week)
Total cost $27.46 plus tax 1.44 = $28.90

I did not know I could exclude tax from the total. I might go back and spend the additional $1.54!

Chicken, Rice, Veggie Slow-Cooker Recipe

4# whole chicken, separated into 4-8 pieces
2 cups brown rice

4 cups water
3 large carrots, quartered length-wise and cut into 1” pieces

6 celery stalks, sliced into ½” pieces

~1 tsp salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients in 6 quart slow-cooker and set on High for 4 hours. Mine turns to warm after the cycle completes, so it was ready when I got home from work.

Rhubarb and Honey's Hunger Challenge: Day 1

As I mentioned previously, The Chef and I are participating in Food Outreach's $29 Hunger Challenge, in which we'll attempt to eat nutritiously over a period of 7 days on only $29 each (the average weekly food stamp allowance here in Missouri). We chose today as day 1 of our challenge ... and to say it was a challenge is putting it mildly.

Let's dispense with the nitty gritty first. Based on things we have going on next weekend, The Chef and I decided to shorten our challenge schedule from seven days to five days (today through Friday). We completely realize that people living on food stamps do not have this luxury, and it was not an easy decision for us to make. It was also the first of many reminders of just how lucky we are to be able to make the carefree food choices we do.

Since we didn't have time to shop this weekend, we set out to Whole Foods (our usual grocery store) this morning with our new food allowance of $20 each (based on $4 worth of food stamps per day over 5 days). This gave us a grand total of only $40 for five days worth of groceries for the two of us. I think fear immediatly began to set in as to whether we could actually eat nutritiously on such a short amount of money ... and not go hungry.

Before we departed for the grocery store, we felt we should eat something for breakfast. Since we hadn't shopped ahead of time, we decided to each eat one fried egg with a touch of salsa and then "deduct" this from our morning purchases. With fried eggs in our bellies and $40 in our hands, we were off.

Our typical shopping trips to Whole Foods usually involve The Chef and I cruising the aisles, deciding on things to make for dinner each night based on what looks good and what's in season (ie, not based on how much something costs though we try to keep costs to no more than $80 to $100 per week ... and usually much less if we're getting a CSA pick-up that week). We choose foods that are local, organic, minimally-processed, and artisinally- and sustainably-produced. We also sometimes just grab things we may not need for the week, but that are either intriquing or are on sale (because of this, it's a good possibility we could eat just from our pantry and freezer for a week and still come up with unique and interesting dinner ideas, but that's another challenge in and of itself). As I mentioned before, we are extremely lucky to be able to shop this way.

Today's shopping trip was an eye-opening experience. We spent over two hours at the store, carefully checking food prices to see what things cost and figuring out what would give us the most bang for our buck. It also raised a lot of questions. Should we skip organic foods to maximize our money? Because I believe that good, clean, healthy food should be available to all, we decided that we must purchase as much organic food as possible. I guess this is what the challenge really means to us. Can you eat good, clean, healthy food on a limited budget ... and not go hungry?

We also questioned the use of coupons to save money. In the end, we chose not to use coupons because couponing requires both time and access to a computer and printer, both of which we assume people living on food stamps may not have. I'm certain this doesn't apply to all people living on food stamps, but because it applies to some, we choose not to use coupons at all.

So, what did our $40 get us at Whole Foods? Here's the rundown of exactly what we purchased:

• 1 lb organic rolled oats $1.35
• 1/2 lb organic trail mix $3.17
• 1 lb organic brown rice $1.62
• 1/2 lb organic pinto beans (dried) $0.80
• 1/2 lb organic green split peas (dried) $1.00
• 1/2 lb rice pilaf mix $1.48
• 1/2 lb "Southwest" soup mix (dried) $2.88
• 2 organic jalapenos $0.64
• 2 organic yellow onions $0.52
• 1 bulb organic garlic $0.45
• 1/2 lb organic green beans (fresh) $1.23
• 4 bananas $1.11
• 2 limes $0.80
• 6 chicken drumsticks $2.81
• 1 lb ground turkey $3.46
• 1 dozen cage-free eggs $2.99
• 1 lb organic edamame (frozen) $2.39
• 1 10-ounce package butternut squash (frozen) $1.99
• 1 16-ounce package vegetable medley (frozen) $1.69
• 1 package organic tortillas $2.99
• 1 16 ounce jar tomatillo salsa $2.99

Add in tax, and we spent exactly $39.94.

Leaving the store, we felt pretty good about our purchases and our plans for our upcoming meals. However once we got home, laid out what we bought on the kitchen table, and started writing out our menu for the week ... we suddenly didn't feel too good anymore. It became apparently fairly quickly that we were going to be hungry this week (in all honesty, we were already hungry having only eaten one egg each that morning). It also became apparent that we had forgotten to include any dairy. We chose to set aside the jalapeno, onion, garlic, and limes we bought (since we had also bought salsa to flavor our meals) and made a quick trip to another local grocery store to purchase a 1/2 gallon of 2% milk. I realize (again) that people living on food stamps wouldn't have the ability to do this (but I'm fairly certain they would have made the smarter purchase in the first place).

We forgaged ahead with our plans for lunch ... steamed brown rice and edamame topped with a fried egg (don't worry ... that was the last fried egg in our hunger challenge). As The Chef cooked our eggs, I portioned out our alloted 1/2 cup brown rice and 1/2 cup edamame for each of us ... and it was then that I knew we were going to be hungry, perhaps really hungry, this week. At 4:00, we each ate a banana as a snack, though it didn't seem to do much to curb our hunger.

By the time dinner rolled around, we both felt truly hungry ... and the thought of our planned meal of 1 chicken drumstick, 1/2 cup brown rice, and (yes, you guessed it) 1/2 cup edamame, was neither appealing nor satisfying. Perhaps it was that thought, compounded by the realization of just how hard this challenge was on only the first day, but both The Chef and I broke down ... and ordered a pizza.

I am extremely embarrassed to admit that we didn't last one full day on the hunger challenge. Should we have left our food philosophy at the door? Should we have chosen cheaper, more processed foods so that we'd have more to eat and therefore be less hungry? Perhaps. Or perhaps this is was one of the lessons we were meant to learn.

The Chef and I plan to continue the hunger challenge as planned for the rest of this week. I've reviewed our menu and I'm more confident about the next four days. I guess only time will tell whether we can truly complete the hunger challenge, but I already know that I understand a bit more about the struggles people living on food stamps face ... and I'll never take our food lifestyle for granted.

~Kimberly
Rhubarb and Honey

Today's our first day doing the hunger challenge

As we were enjoying amazing sushi, cocktails, and wine with friends on Friday evening, the tone of the conversation turned serious as we talked about Hunger Action Month. Craig and I are taking the hunger challenge because we need to understand what it’s like to walk in the shoes of the hungry and to raise awareness how widespread food insecurity is in our own community.

I am confident we’ll have enough to eat, and our meals will be healthy. But we’re fortunate because I know how to cook. I am well-versed in meal planning and cooking nutritiously and inexpensively – rice, beans, lentils – with planned leftovers for lunches. We also have access to many resources that most Food Outreach clients do not have. We can drive to a farmers’ market to get seasonal (and cheaper) produce. I have hundreds of cookbooks and can easily go online and retrieve millions of recipes. Our kitchen (in our nice home in a safe neighborhood) is well-stocked with appliances and enough pots, pans, baking dishes, bowls, blah, blah, blah to easily prepare dinner for 25. And we’re really, really healthy! We’re not undergoing chemo or taking antiretroviral drugs that leave us too exhausted or nauseated to cook, and we’re not battling hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol. Hunger is only one of the many hardships experienced by those living with a terminal illness – and – living in poverty.

It took us an hour and a half on Saturday to plan our meals for the four days we are doing the challenge. It never takes me that long to plan meals for an entire week. I usually ask Craig what he’s hungry for and go from there. Not this week. Even buying frozen, (cheaper) tilapia from Whole Foods, the only place we buy fish, is not feasible ($2.99 for six ounces). Typically if we have lentil, sweet potato, and spinach soup, I’d pick up a whole-grain baguette from Trader Joe’s. Not this week. Since I’m making brown rice for a vegetarian broccoli casserole, we’ll have the soup over rice. Nutritious and filling. We usually have at least three or four things for dinner (salad/soup, protein, starch, vegetable). Nope. A small, simple salad – OR – homemade applesauce will be the only other thing we can afford with our soup, chili, pizza, and casserole. Choices on a food budget are extremely limited. And if I didn’t cook, our eating would be likely be peanut butter sandwiches, cereal, and canned and boxed foods (soup, stew, chili, tuna helper), all of which are so much more expensive and nutritionally inferior to home-cooking. And how do you fill half your plate with fruits and veggies as the USDA recommends?

We shopped yesterday, which was very different than normal. We had to eliminate some things from our list to stay within our budget and no organics and no spices. Our fresh produce is limited and basic, and we opted for generic brands, frozen broccoli and canned tomatoes instead of fresh. I don't think we've ever compared unit prices as closely as we did yesterday. When another shopper looked at us like we were freaks as she heard us arguing which peanut butter we could “afford” (I think that was the word that got her attention), we told her about the hunger challenge. She thought it was pretty cool, but she did walk away shaking her head and wished us luck. That’s the thing. Come the weekend, we will go back to our typical eating, unlike Food Outreach’s clients who have no choice but to eat like this, day in and day out.

What we purchased is what we’ll be forced to eat. We have no flexibility to change our minds if we’re in the mood for something else. Since we’re eating dinner leftovers for lunches, I was planning to make both lentil sweet potato soup and black bean chili yesterday so we'd have lunch for today, and we wouldn’t need to eat the same thing for dinner and then lunch the next day. However, I forgot to soak the black beans, so I just made the lentil sweet potato soup for today’s lunch. The issue is that I had made this last week too, and we finished the leftovers on Saturday; so, we’ll have eaten the same thing four times over a five day period. And I just realized I also forgot to make rice, which cooks for 30 to 40 minutes, so all we’ll have for lunch is soup. It hits you what little variety – and – how much planning you have to do to eat on $4 a day.

Denise and Craig Evans

2011 SNAP Challenge: Final Thoughts

Today is the last day of the SNAP challenge for me and I want to take a few minutes to record my thoughts. As I mentioned in previous posts, this year was about gaining perspective on a plant-based diet so I could make a more informed decision about implementing it or at least more of it, on the Food Outreach menu. Sure a plant-based diet is healthy but our clients depend on us for the bulk of their food and I don't want them to feel like one more thing is being taken from them. If we're going to move more plant-based items onto the menu, they need to be delicious, satisfying, and something I would be happy to eat myself.

What I learned

-A plant-based diet can be satisfying, "satisfying" being the keyword, even for the most diehard meateaters. I'm not going to pretend that my lentil soup had my mouth watering the way a thick slice of prime rib does but I'll no longer judge meatless dishes for the sins of my wife's "chicken casserole"(think one can of chicken in a mountain of pasta).

-An added benefit of the plant-based diet seemed to be weight control. I've been recovering from strep throat for the bulk of the challenge so I have done zero training and I'm down almost 4# in 7 days. I didn't have a fever and last I checked strep didn't make you hypermetabolic. More importantly, I felt full, really full, almost bloated the whole challenge, yet I lost weight. The majority of plant-based foods naturally have a low caloric density because they are almost fat free and full of fiber. To clarify: heart healthy or no, fat has almost twice the cals of protein or carb per gram so when you practically eliminate that from your diet, you free up a lot of caloric budget.

-Eating healthy on a budget is not impossible but it is time consuming because it requires so much planning and meal preparation. I'm an R.D so take this with a grain of salt but I think eating on a budget is the real challenge and not necessarily the healthy part. For example, maybe you can't buy your organic apples or $5-a-box, 100% whole grain, antioxidant infused, fiberlicious cereal but you can buy bag apples or generic oatmeal and still come in on budget. They may not taste as good and/or be what you prefer but that's a budget issue, not a nutrition issue. That being said, I'm a healthy, nutrition professional with my own transportation so I'm not playing on the same field as someone with a chronic illness and dependent upon public transportation.

In closing, it was another valuable experience and I hope to see even more people particpate next year.

Thanks for reading!

Josh

Every Little Thing's Thoughts on Challenge Prep

9 days! Nine days until my Hunger Challenge week begins. I’m Stacy again, from Every Little Thing, and I’ve started the meal-planning process with some apprehension. Am I ready for this? Thankfully, I have the choice to participate in this challenge, but many do not. $30 per person isn’t much so I’m hoping to spend our $60 budget wisely while keeping our bellies full and bodies fed with nutritious, local food.

> Thoughts on protein: Though I’ve recently been trying to eat less meat (strictly for health reasons), I do enjoy the occasional burger and chicken breast. While meal-planning for the Challenge though, I’ve certainly found the cost of meat to be quite a hurdle in getting the most out of my $60. I’m also picky about my meat, so I’ve decided not to use this meager food budget as a reason to buy a 30-pack of hot dogs or canned chicken. Not to say I don’t understand why people do – a hot dog is better than a hungry belly.  That said, my goal is to use this $60 budget to create nutritionally-minded meals, as all natural and fresh as I can, and I think I can do it without processed meat.

The proteins I’ll look for include: beans, quinoa, lentils, eggs, tuna, and any cheap, quality meat I can find. “Cheap, quality meat” is a tall order,  but I’m sticking with my goal and not compromising my money if I don’t have to. I’m considering a pound of ground beef from the market for about $5. You can do a lot with a pound of ground beef and I think I can stretch it between several servings of chili and a couple burgers or addition to stuffed peppers.

> Thoughts on snacks: I’m a snacker. I love to eat my lunch in parts – yogurt at 10 a.m; sandwich at 11:30; chips at 1:oo; and so on. $30 per person doesn’t save room for a lot of snack food, so I’ll need to be more mindful of my meals, eating one large portion instead of many small ones. I will also have to eat leftovers, which I’ve had a hard time with in the past. Three words for that: get.over.it.

> Thoughts on the farmer’s market: Many, many people have told me that their farmer’s markets are much more expensive than their regular grocery store. My market can go both ways but I firmly believe that the extra money spent goes towards a greater good and better quality food. I would like to buy much of my food at the market for the Hunger Challenge – this won’t be entirely possible but I’ll do what I can. I already know I’ll purchase peppers, squash, onion, potatoes, and eggs from the market. I’m going to search for cheaper bread options (Companion Early Bird Outlet?) and will carefully price out meat.

> Thoughts on convenience: One thing I can’t deny – convenience goes out the window when you have a limited budget. No canned beans – you can make twice as many with a bag of dry. No individual packages of anything – bulk is cheaper (and less waste!). I’ll be putting more work into all our meals, but lunches specifically. Any individually-sized foods I buy are almost solely for our lunchboxes, so I’ll have to make better use of my glass Pyrex bowls!

My next post will have my budget and hopefully, meal plans. As you’re preparing for your hunger challenge, here's a question to think about:

Do you consider spices, olive oil, and salt and pepper pantry staples, and therefore don’t need to be included in the challenge?

(There’s no way to generalize for all people on food stamps but I feel as though nothing can truly be considered a pantry staple. I have had clients that literally have nothing left in their pantry at the end of each week, and spices are of little concern when you just need food. Salt and pepper may be the one exception.)

Day 3

Well I'm starting day 3 of the challenge and I'm looking forward to trying a new recipe for lunch. Last night I made a modified version of a quinoa and black bean dish and we'll see how it performs in T-minus 3:22. As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to focus on a plant-based diet this time around so I could gain some perspective for integrating this into the Food Outreach menu.

The Modifications

The first thing I noticed while shopping was this was going to be a quinoa-less, quinoa recipe. It was around $4.00 a box and it wasn't a big box. Dropping 14% of the budget on a box the size of my hand just wasn't going to happen. I settled on the couscous as it was closer to $2.00, although it too seemed to suffer from boxatrophy. Upon examining the nutrition label, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had 8 grams of protein per serving. I also noticed that one serving was 225 calories which is approaching 3x the calories for 1 diabetes exchange for starches. I'm no food scientist but I'm guessing it's due to the small, dense nature of the product. By comparison, the brown rice in our grocery center has 3 grams for a 150 calorie serving. So you get 28 calories for every gram of protein in couscous and 50 calories for every gram of protein in brown rice.

The other major change I made was swapping out the corn for frozen broccoli. Corn is what I like to call a paper vegetable akin to a paper champion in boxing. It's only a vegetable on paper; as far as the physiological effects on your body, think of it as a starch. Since I'm not a Navy SEAL or training for a marathon, I didn't see any reason to add more starch to a dish that was already giving me 45 grams of carbs per serving. I'm not anti-carb but high carb dishes tend to be calorically dense. For example, about 1/3 a cup of cooked pasta is around 80 calories vs. 1/2 cup of cooked vegetables is around 25 calories. To clarify, for roughly the same volume of food, starches give you almost 3 times the calories!

When it was all said and done I basically had a pot full of couscous, broccoli, 4 cans of black beans, the other half of my chopped onion, and low sodium chicken broth. If I had to do it over, I would cook off the couscous first and then add the broccoli, beans, and onions. I boiled my broth and then added it all which made cooking it more challenging to say the least. I did burn some of it before I realized I'd need to be there to stir it continuously. I tasted the burned couscous and it formed an interesting crispy layer, something between the texture of the crust of corn casserole and a Twinkie. I liked, so I left it in and it adds more of my favorite color; black!

On a closing note, one pleasant benefit for me has been that I've already dropped two pounds. I'm trying to be a certain weight for the Missouri State Arm Wrestling Championships later in the month. Although this will help me, the trend is disturbing, especially if I had a chronic illness, and it's definitely been the food as I've been too sick to train.

Meet James Farmer on Saturday

Meet James Farmer, author of A Time to Plant, on Saturday, September 10 at Left Bank Books in the Central West End. (399 N. Euclid) This Hunger Action Month event goes from 2-4 PM and James will donate a portion of proceeds from the sale of books to Food Outreach!