Food insecurity: An abstract concept no more

As my family set out on our Hunger Challenge a week ago, my daughter looked pretty puzzled as I tried to explain why we were doing it.

Courtesy of USDA Economic Research Service

Why were we choosing to limit ourselves to just $22 of food a day?

"But we have other food, Mommy," Sylvia said. "We have money to buy more food."

I assured her that we'd bought enough groceries to have healthy meals like we usually do. We'd just have fewer choices of fruits, veggies and snacks, less meat than we usually do. But we weren't going to go hungry.

The point, I said, was to put ourselves in the shoes of a family that isn't as fortunate as ours.

"So … we're going to honor their struggle?" asks the 5-year-old who just learned about Cesar Chavez in preschool.

"Yes," I said, all goosebumpy as I wondered if we really could last all week on a food stamp budget without feeling undernourished.

We did just fine for most of the week. But by Thursday, I was craving protein something fierce. We'd had rice and beans, milk, cheese, tofu, peanut butter -- but it wasn't cutting it. I almost caved Friday morning, but fought off the temptation to dump a handful of walnuts in my oatmeal.

For lunch, I had a large helping of leftover Ramen with tofu, broccoli and carrots -- but hours later felt so hungry, I wolfed down a PB&J the second I got home. I relished every bite of the tuna penne pasta salad I made us for dinner.

Yet a couple hours later, as my husband and I tried to ignore the aroma of garlic fries at a Sounders game, we busted our budget with a soft pretzel and bag of pistachios. It wouldn't be the final fizzling of willpower for us in our final two Hunger Challenge days.

I dipped into reserves that we weren't supposed to touch -- more than once. There were other violations, but I don't see them as utter failures. Throughout the week, we did a lot of thinking and talking about hunger, with each other, with friends, colleagues and family.

Food insecurity sounds like such an abstract term. But when you struggle to feed your family healthy, balanced meals … when you run out of food that you thought would last a whole week and wonder how you're going to make do with whatever you have left … that abstract term becomes something very real.

On Saturday, we splurged on a pound of ground beef at our neighborhood butcher shop, mixed it into leftover rice and beans and enjoyed a more filling dinner than we'd had all week.

As my daughter and I walked home from Bob's Quality Meats, I spotted a man I'd seen earlier in the day while volunteering at Rainier Valley Food Bank.

I can't remember if he had taken any of the cabbage, cucumbers, lettuce or parsley that I was passing out. He was one of hundreds people -- hundreds of my neighbors -- who had walked through the food bank that morning.

As our paths crossed, I felt glad that the food bank had been there for him.

The food bank's vision is a hunger-free Rainier Valley. But every Wednesday and Saturday, it has to be ready to welcome legions of hungry neighbors into a tiny warehouse stocked with a rich variety of nourishing foods.

My family gives to the food bank every month. It's not much, but every dollar counts.

This month, we're giving more.

That's a wrap (not a burrito)

My mom and dad grew up in the piney woods of southern Arkansas during the Great Depression. Most folks kept chickens in their dirt yards (nobody could afford a grass lawn), and just about everybody grew a little food like potatoes, onions and tomatoes. My maternal grandfather was a traveling preacher, and their family moved a lot through little towns like Marvell, Holly Grove, Marianna and Gould. Oftentimes, the country congregations couldn't afford to pay their pastor in cash, so my mom's family often dined on the generous contributions of the community her father served: a couple dozen eggs here, a chicken there, a wheelbarrow full of potatoes here, a bag of flour there. My grandparents had three kids to feed, and food was pay.

Back then, the trees and shrubs in southern Arkansas were copious providers of a slew of edible fruits and nuts. From the mulberry trees bursting with sweet purple berries to the joyously red Mayhaw fruit to the nut-filled burrs of the Ozark chiquapin (a sub-species of chestnut) to the trout, bass and crappie filling the streams and lakes, free food was all over the place. My dad had a soft spot for chinquapins as a kid, and even played a game called "hully-gully," which involved several kids shaking the tree so the other kids could catch the delicious nuts falling into their waiting hands. There was a song that went with it too -- Chinquapin Woman -- but I won't recount that here. The point is, even in an era where many Americans were living in what we would today call "abject poverty," including my ancestors, there was plenty of food.

I bring up these familial memories here as we wind down the Hunger Challenge because this week has really got me to thinking about the state of our food system. It is broken, and in danger of getting worse. A whole lot worse. Sure, there are amazing things happening right now, particularly here in the northwest: the many urban agriculture projects now up and growing or in the works; the proliferation of city-dwellers keeping chickens and goats, and planting gardens; the numerous P-Patches and community gardens in Seattle; community kitchens and the revival of the communal meal; the Beacon food forest. All these and other projects happening now illustrate the ingenuity, resourcefulness, consciousness and authenticity that make living in Seattle hard to beat.

BUT. There are many corners of our glorious land that are not so lucky. By the time I was born, my grandmothers' chicken neck-wringing days -- and those of most everyone else -- were long past. Chicken didn't come from the yard anymore, it came from a styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic.  The chinquapin trees had all but died out in the South. The delectable Mayhaw jelly folks used to make and stockpile for the year had become the stuff of legend.

And while there are laudable efforts locally and worldwide to revive the populations of the vast array of edible plants and animals our forebears enjoyed in great bounty (like the chinquapin tree), the sad truth is that overall, the diversity of our food system has drastically dwindled; the nutritional value of even our best organic fruits and vegetables is measurably less than it was even a generation ago; and people in general are severed from the source of what's on their plates. Homogeneity is the name of the new game, and it is spelled with letters including G, M, and O. The hour is late, but it is still not too late to change.

At last week's Hunger Action Forum, keynote speaker and food system activist Ellen Gustafson urged everyone present to "Occupy your kitchen!" Here's how I took her admonition: cultivate a meaningful relationship with your food -- know where it comes from (including where it was grown or raised and by whom), know how it was harvested or slaughtered, know how it tastes, know how to prepare it, know what goes with it, and know what kind of nutritional bang you're getting for your buck. Cook with other people. Keep it simple and delicious. Explore. Grow. Share. Eat.

My colleagues and I who have reported our experiences here have all taken slightly different approaches to the Hunger Challenge.  Some of us failed to stay on budget, some of us bent (or broke) the rules a little, some of us did okay on all counts. But we all spent a lot of time thinking about, talking about, shopping for, preparing and eating food for ourselves and our families.

If you're wondering whether my chicken and bean stew made it through the week, I can tell you it went even farther than I expected. We had it for three full meals and there's still enough left for a couple of bowls full! We made it through five days and stayed on budget, even with almost all of the foods we ate 100% organic. We did not turn to the miles of aisles of cheap processed foods, we neither bought nor consumed anything remotely "fast." We didn't even make burritos. And that's a wrap.

Over. Easy?

So our Hunger Challenge is done for the week -- and I went out with a whimper (I think). Mike made an awesome organic meal last night of shrimp, mushrooms, aspragus and mango/feta salad, all within his weekly budget. He shared with me, and I ate the bejesus out of it. I forgot to ask how the portions budgeted out until the end -- each portion ended up being over $7! Whoops. So again, Mike and I had different approaches: he just budgeted $35 for the "week" (5 days) and ate around $4/day most days, leaving more money on Friday for a "big finale"! I budgeted $35 for the week + tried to keep to under $7 within each day within that same budget.

Did I make it doubly hard?

The $7 meal still kept me within my $35. Barely. And then it all kind of fell apart as we each had a piece of chocolate and a little bit of ice cream for dessert. Definitely NOT in the budget. Weak.

This morning I woke up and chose oatmeal for breakfast because I know it's very inexpensive. I did add a little butter on top as a luxury. And it was GOOD. Both Mike and I said this morning how happy we are to have more diversity and not have to watch it so closely. But there are a few major outcomes for our household as a result of this experiment:

1) Mike said he will be spending less money, and

2) I will not be shopping on Amazon Fresh unless it is an "emergency."

I use Amazon Fresh a lot because we are often traveling and have very busy work/social lives. When we recently came back from Vail, we had nothing in the house on Sunday night. I hopped online, and by Monday morning, we had a kitchen full of groceries for the next weeks. No run to the store, no hassle.

Bigger bill. It is definitely more expensive to shop online. Of course. I guess I loved the convenience and it definitely makes our lives easier sometimes. But what is a little inconvenience to have a better relationship with food? Food is already so distanced from us, the packaging, labels, etc., why add another layer with the Internet? Which leads us to...

OUTCOME #3! Today, Mike and I are fixing up the garden and doing some planting. We had talked about going out of town, but decided to stay put and work on creating some food. We did this last year, and it was a big learning curve for the both of us. But we really loved it. I feel this is an appropriate way to spend the end of this week, creating a future harvest for mere pennies, being able to enjoy the work and heart that goes into a garden, dreaming of the future fresh food.

OUTCOME #4! Mike and I are hopping online to make a little Hunger Challenge donation to the Rainier Valley Food Bank in honor of the hard work they do with the limited budget. I thought I understood how hard they work before ... now I realize that I have a lot to learn from them! Sam and Elise and Otis, all the volunteers, I ADMIRE YOU ALL! Thanks for everything you do for our community!

Enjoy your weekend, everyone.

Ridiculously Delicious Hunger Challenge 'Roca'

Tyler and Sylvia help line the cookie sheet with Saltines.

Before my family and I made the Hunger Challenge plunge, one of my first thoughts, "Oy, does this mean we'll have to skip dessert for a whole week?"

I wasn't about to skimp on wholesome stuff to squeeze in ice cream, cookies or cupcakes.
That's when a simple yet impossibly scrumptious recipe came to mind. A friend of mine had shared it with me just a few weeks ago.

Three of the four inexpensive ingredients would be multi-purpose: butter, brown sugar and Saltines. I've used the butter in scrambled eggs and in mac and cheese, the brown sugar in oatmeal and to sweeten my coffee, and the Saltine's as snacks.

My kids helped me make our Hunger Challenge "Roca" on Sunday night.
Here's the recipe:

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar

36 to 40 Saltine crackers

1 pkg chocolate chips

Preheat oven in 425. Line cookie sheet with foil. Arrange crackers on cookie sheet. Bring butter and sugar to a boil and boil for 5 minutes stirring constantly. Pour butter and sugar over crackers so all crackers are covered. Bake in 425 oven just until you see bubbles on all crackers (5 min or less, be sure to watch closely). Pour chocolate chips over hot crackers and let melt then spread. Freeze for 20 minutes, break apart and store in airtight container in the fridge.

Sylvia helps me break up our "Roca."

All told, it cost us $9.38 and has lasted us all week. We've been missing some foods this week, but it's been nice to have a treat this yummy to look forward to at the end of each day.

Hungry Games and Hungrier Planets

Here are some suggestions for things to do this weekend: go see a movie about food insecurity (that addresses it in a BIG WAY), or an exhibition about food around the world.

HUNGER GAMES:

Do you know the premise of "The Hunger Games"? It's a movie based on the book. The book is quite good. Colonies in the future send children to fight to the death to determine which communities win food for the year. Not a great "beach read," but an interesting narrative twist on food insecurity. And interesting timing too, given the week. Uh, it does make me think that it might be a good idea to solve this food insecurity problem stat.

HUNGRY PLANET:

How about a food exhibition? Wednesday night, Mike and I went to the Burke Museum to hear about Cooper Island, a fascinating study in climate change by a scientific researcher in Alaska named George Divoky. Worth looking at here (and nothing to do with food, unless you like filet o' guillemot). While at the Burke, we also wanted to check out the "Hungry Planet" exhibit, based on the book of the same name. I've been a fan of photographer Peter Menzel for years, so was excited to see his work in an exhibit instead of the usual book format.

And the "Hungry Planet" exhibit delivers! Small,

but effective, a photo exhibit that

examines what people eat around the world. The authors asked families to gather up all the food they would typically purchase in a week, and then photographed the families with their food. You can imagine the diversity.

While wandering and scanning the photos with Mike, I began to get hungry...really hungry. I had eaten about $2.50 worth of vegetables and fruit and oatmeal for the day, and it wasn't enough. Looking at third world nations and the amount of food available there made me grateful for the food I had eaten. But my stomach was definitely responding to the German chocolates, the Ecuadorian fruits, even the Alaskan seal meat.

Been hankering for a steak this week. All meat is starting to look delicious.

Well, not the pink slime, but you know what I mean.

One comment in the exhibit says that Native Alaskan peoples consider food to be "the center of culture." It's funny, because defining culture is something that has come up lately in many conversations -- what does it mean to be a part of "American culture"? "Midwestern culture"? The "artist culture"? "Conservationist culture"? and so on. All these ways in which we define ourselves, inwardly and outwardly...how we define our "tribes."

Physical statements are the most obvious way to express what we value -- fashion, appearance, what car we drive, how we build and furnish our homes. We can show ourselves and others what we value through these direct expressions.

But the metaphysical, the intangible is more difficult to define -- conversation, art, music, theatre. These require interpretation on behalf of the participant and audience.

Food seems to stand firmly in the middle of these two realms -- the physical decisions about what we eat (vegetarian/organic/regional) and the transformation into something "other," the combining of elements, the changing of chemical and physical structure (cutting, cooking, microwaving, spices), the presentation at the alter of the dinner table (cutlery, plates, centerpieces)-- food is also an expression

of our inner selves.

It is finally dawning on me that my relationship with food is complicated because food itself is complicated. Knowing that, I feel better about my shortfalls this week, but see the need to renew work toward solving food security more than ever. While food is a basic need, it is also deeply rooted in cultures around the world, and has meaning beyond sustenance.

It makes me grateful for the opportunity to explore the Hunger Action Challenge as I continue to explore this relationship.

Eating in "interesting" times

This is the point in the Hunger Challenge where things get "interesting." My original plan of stretching Monday's chicken and bean stew into three meals has proven to be a sound one: we enjoyed it as made Monday night with nothing else, and Tuesday night we added a $7 pack of Uli's fresh German brats -- mmm-mmm! I threw together a simple salad of organic lettuce, a few slivers of red onion, and half an avocado. I got exactly enough organic cornmeal, flour, sugar and baking powder from PCC's bulk section to make a pan of cornbread (altogether about $3).  While these did not seem like extravagant purchases, man do they add up fast!

So, faced with about $29 left for the week, for Day 3, I got $1.85 worth of organic short-grain brown rice from the bulk section at PCC, and used a small amount each of green cabbage, kale, carrots, onion, garlic, mushrooms and celery (all of them organic) to make a fantastic mess of fried rice.  I even found a bangin' deal on organic soy sauce at Viet Wah to season it all.  I served it with a simple salad of half a tomato and half a cucumber (also both organic) sliced, with a little salt and pepper. Everyone tore into it with relish and rapacity, and there's probably enough left for two more meals.  All of that came to just under $12.

If we had to make it from here until Friday night without spending another penny, we probably could. Earlier in the week, I spent $3.47 on a dozen eggs, $5.49 on a gallon of organic milk, and $7 on a pound of coffee for the week (I make it Turkish style every morning at home).  That may be just what we'll do, as I'm now down to about my last $11 bucks.

But besides obsessing over my food budget, a few related issues have occurred to me this week. Yesterday I measured the drive to my local PCC (the Seward Park store): a 7-mile round trip. Like many low-income folks, I can't afford a Prius, and unfortunately my vehicle is a gas-guzzling Dodge Ram pickup. A 7-mile round trip is almost half a gallon of gas for me, so there goes another $2 bucks every time I think I'll just "run down to the store real quick."  Many people living on food stamps do not have vehicles at all, and were I to take the bus, the trip would take four times as long, with two blocks to walk, two transfers, and limit me to purchase only what my arms can carry. Not to mention having to scrape up bus fare from under the pet fur encrusted couch cushions.

Which brings me to another thing: cat litter. Cat food. Dog food. I live with two felines and one enormous dog; they've got to eat too. I haven't figured pet food into my overall budget for the week, but I've spent money on it nonetheless.

The rules of the Hunger Challenge are not all that realistic when you get right down to it. In the real world, people offer you food all the time.  Free snacks are available in many places, as are free meals.  The vast majority of folks living on food stamps are likely visiting their neighborhood food bank to supplement the woefully inadequate pittance the government deems "enough." So I have accepted food that was offered to me this week and I'm not feeling guilty about it. It would have been rude to say no, but it did make me think.

And that, after all, is the point. It's not necessarily the challenge of living on a limited food budget for a week that makes this whole exercise worthwhile, but really spending some time exploring the tangled web of issues surrounding food security and our food system as a whole. (News flash: we're in trouble, folks!) More on this later. To paraphrase an old Chinese curse, we are now eating in "interesting" times.

Confessionals of a food bank employee during Hunger Challenge Week

I have done better at sticking to a $7 a day meal plan on non-hunger-challenge days than I have on hunger challenge days! I normally don't even buy lattes yet Monday they were calling my name in frothy foam harmonics! My first day, Monday, decidedly turned into "my last day before I start" by 11am. I reasoned that it would be better to coincide the challenge with work days at the food bank anyways, Tuesday - Saturday. Right. So here we are, Tuesday at the Rainier Valley Food Bank, and the thing about food banks... there's food! Don't get me wrong donors, we still need more! But it's just like any other hospitable work place, really. There are copious snacks and goodies made by so and so for such and such an occasion. Such as chocolate chip cookies brought by PCC for our volunteer packing parties, or curry soup from a faithful volunteer every Wednesday. We definitely prescribe a "take care of yourself so you can take care of others" vibe around here and naturally keeping each other well nourished falls into play. I have found myself budgeting a pick here and handful there of random offerings that, in reality, put me well over my $7 a day budget.

This whole process has been bringing me back to backpacking in Nepal, exactly one year ago. After traveling for 6 months I was completely accustomed to eating on the cheap. $7 a day was pretty much the standard. Sure, I could easily go to a tourist oriented cafe for breakfast and have $4 toast and eggs (which by the way, I thought a completely healthy first-bite-of-the-day before my trip). But I much preferred eating the local way to start my day, at $1, a traditional rice and veggie dish or maybe even a somasa if I had had a little too much raksi the night before. I found myself a little envious of other backpackers living on even $5 a day. Though it definitely can be done, I guess gummy bears were a "whole-meals-worth-expense" that I couldn't get off of! Point being, as I am attempting to essentially budget meals this week just as I was one year ago I am left wondering how eating wholesome has gotten to be so expensive in developed countries. I have a lot of thoughts & opinions on this that are perhaps best served over social lubricating libations.

Have you noticed my lack of actual commentary on the logistics of my $7 a day Hunger Challenge?! This is where I scroll down in envy to our awesome volunteers, photo journaling their uber delicious, wholesome and cheap meals! Though it certainly doesn’t read as a piece of cake, clearly others have stuck to the plan more than I have [lowering head in shame]. However, I am thankful in this moment that I have not let my shame guilt me into backing out of my blogging duties. This is all part of the process and experience, right? Sometimes not succeeding translates into learning more in the end … aaaaaand, sometimes following all the rules does too! I do have my google docs spreadsheet which mostly tracks most everything I eat this week. Needless to say, my daily totals are excellent food for thought. What is it about "can't have" that makes me want more?

Day 3 - So far so good

We've plowed through half of our budget. We're not big planners so we're proceeding with caution, only buying a day or 2 in advance. I think we're doing good so far - already 3 days into the challenge we have a really good idea about how filling our meal choices have been, what we need to do differently and what we need to buy at the next trip to the grocery store. 

All in all not so different from our usual - we've been in college mode for a few years now and have it down to a science. But like Allison we're realizing that it's hard not being able to use any existing food in the pantry. Because we can't fall back on anything we've stocked up on, $12/day doesn't seem to go as far as it usually does. We're finding ourselves having to re-examine our eating habits.

I've come to realize that the toughest part for me is the snacking! I guess I've always known that I'm a snacker - I prefer to have smaller meals and to munch throughout the day on crackers or popcorn or nuts or something. But not this week. B and I dedicated most of our budget to making sure we had 3 full, rounded meals leaving little wiggle room for snacking. Going into this, I didn't think it would be that big of a deal. But then I lost count of how many times I got up to check the kitchen for something to nibble on yesterday afternoon, only to return empty handed, stomach growling. And when I'm out of the house and I feel like stopping into a store or a cafe for a quick bite? Nope. A quick bite is not in the budget. Sorry. 

B's biggest issues is the lack of seasonings. He's one of those people that puts salt on everything he eats. And as the chef of the house, he takes his seasonings seriously. So now he goes on and on about how bland everything is. But other than that he's doing a little better on the challenge than I am; He eats big meals with few snacks in between. And even though he got roped into this - he's actually been the one keeping me on track.

But, I think he is keeping a mental list of all the things he will eat when this week is over. I have a feeling that next week we'll be eating like kings. 

Now we have a better understanding of our individual eating habits and what it takes to sustain us throughout the day, we've slightly adjusted our shopping plan. While at Trader Joe's today getting our rice milk we were able to squeeze a couple of snacks into the budget. 

So far so good.  

Same Old, Same Old (Sort of)

Mama-daughter Hunger Action Week art

Halfway into my family's Hunger Challenge, our lineup of meals hasn't changed much from the usual: nothing fancy (oatmeal, PB&Js, rice and beans ... more rice and beans) and mostly healthy (fruits, veggies and whole grains with most meals).

The main things we're missing are variety and protein.

We could afford just three fruits: a bag of mandarin oranges, some applesauce and frozen raspberries.

And four veggies: two heads of broccoli, some pre-washed organic spinach (our go-to green leafy vegetable), a medium-sized bag of carrots (non-organic so we'd have enough to last all week) and some frozen green beans.

The only meat in our $22/day budget this week is a can of tuna I'll be whipping up with some penne pasta and spinach Thursday or Friday night.

We're sort of missing snacks. I hadn't realized how much I relied on a munch here and a munch there throughout the day.

Our meals have been pretty bland -- no room for spices or salsas or anything in our budget this week. 

For mac & cheese, I usually boil some whole wheat shells or elbows, drizzle in some olive oil, sprinkle on some Parmesan cheese and stir. Simple, and my kids love it. Last night, I went with the 59-cent-per box variety, which tasted pretty processed. Made me wish I had done a side-by-side cost comparison with my stand-by recipe before budgeting for what I assumed was the cheaper alternative. 

All in all though, when my daughter and I sat down to do some Hunger Action Week artwork together, we noticed our drawings had quite a colorful variety of foods we like. Sylvia added yogurt and a few things she misses, but still said, "Hey! We have a lot of good stuff here!"

That was before we ran out of cheese for the week. And we've almost polished off our only box of cereal. Good thing I kept our Hunger Challenge grocery bill $15 and change shy of what we have to spend through Sunday.

So ... do I replenish the cheese and cereal or follow through with my surprise plan to pop into our neighborhood butcher shop for a small cut of beef tomorrow night?

More About Mike's "9-Ramen-a-Day" diet

Mike was teasing me that he didn't play a big enough role in yesterday's post, since he is doing the challenge as well. So here are a few things I've noticed about Mike's approach vs. my approach:

• Mike likes to make spreadsheets of the food he has eaten and how much he has spent, and then send them to me. I'm guessing that's the finance training kicking in. I am definitely not interested in making spreadsheets more than is necessary, although I do like seeing his and the fact that he shares them.
• Value and ease are the driving factors for Mike, I believe. The first day of the challenge, he ate five bananas until dinner time. I'm guessing that is because it was cheap and what was there. If I ate five bananas in a row, I would never eat bananas again.
• I told him that we are supposed to get some protein and vegetables every day, which he responded to by eating my celery and homemade pea soup and mentioning that he would "pay me back." He did add the cost of the food to his daily budget (but so far not the weekly, which remains with me).
• He drove to Walmart outside the city limits to purchase ramen and canned goods, the first time he's been to a Walmart in months (definitely since we were last in Wisconsin). I am still hoping to make it to the I.D. for "local" veggies and noodles, but haven't made it yet.
• Mike brought home 2 cans of Chef Boyardee and was happy about it, while I had to gag just looking at the label. On the other hand, I burned the spaghetti squash last night and forgot to take out the seeds, so I can't tell which food was more disgusting.
• Mike spent some time with friends last night, and showed incredible willpower by drinking water instead of Dark & Stormies, and drinking more water instead of eating snacks. I had to wrestle myself back from the brink of eating some birthday chocolate ganaches by throwing them up on the highest cabinet where I can't reach. It was a close one.

So we're both doing pretty well in our own ways, I think. Besides the great exercise in budget and restraint, the added benefit is that we've been talking about it all week with friends and colleagues, raising awareness for ourselves and others. The debates over the rules (a lot of differing opinions on that, very interesting), how to approach budgeting, organic v. non, etc., are all interesting questions that should be discussed more frequently. This week, we're really thinking about it.

Hope everyone is doing well this week!

Breakin' the Law, Breakin' the (Food) Law

One of the rules of the Hunger Challenge is that you can't use food you already own. I get the point of this -- you're not supposed to buy 10 pizzas on Sunday night at 11:56 p.m. and then eat that pizza for free all week.

But I take some issue with this. Let's say you did buy those 10 pizzas and you counted them into your daily and weekly budget for the week. That seems fine to me. Just because you bought the food in advance doesn't seem to be a problem -- it's the "cheating" factor of calling it "free food" that is the problem.

Also, the rule doesn't take into account how people actually live -- we accumulate as we go. Even people I know who eat on severely limited budgets have told me how they buy in bulk (rice, pasta, flour, etc.) because it is cheaper and will last a month.

Additionally, wasting food seems to be the antithesis of the Challenge, as well as not in the spirit of the food bank. We had guests with us over a 4-day weekend. When they left Monday morning, we still had a 1/2 gallon of organic milk, some cheese, and lettuce. Those products will spoil by next week. Our neighbors wouldn't take the extra.

I am still using those products, so I count it into my budget. So I take what I paid for the milk, and figured out that every serving is $0.28. I count the overall price of a 1/2 gallon of milk into my $35/week budget.

I don't want to waste good food! I wonder what the United Way thinks of this.

BUDGET:

So there are two budgets to keep track of: (1) the overall 6-day challenge budget (Monday-Saturday, don't spend more than $42/week) and (2) don't use more than $7 worth of that food per day. There is the daily count and the overall weekly count.

If you had just taken the $42 and purchased everything for the week, I wouldn't have to think about what to eat -- it would all be in the house. But due to our schedules and meetings and needing some flexibility, that is not really a great option. So I spent about half the budget, and left the other half open. So I keep track of the overall and the daily, with the $42 and $7 firmly in mind.

It's complicated.

PEA SOUP:

What is not complicated is that I made pea soup for the guests at our Marketing Committee meeting last night, and, with crackers, each serving came to $1.25/person. Pretty good! The soup is filling, nutritious, tasty and healthy. Here is an easy recipe.

onions

broth (chicken or veggie)

frozen peas

mint

Cook the onions in oil or butter, add broth and stalks for mint, add frozen peas (they taste great!) and cook. Remove the mint, then blend remaining ingredients together (I use a hand blender in the pot). You can add cream or milk to it at the end for more flavor and texture.

Day 1: One third of my budget blown

So here I am in my kitchen, which is slowly filling with the delicious smell of a chicken and bean stew I set to simmering an hour ago. The smell is intoxicating -- made more so by the fact that I haven't eaten yet all day. You see, I tend to fast a lot, which is not necessarily good for me. My job keeps me so busy I frequently skip both breakfast and lunch, and my first meal of the day often doesn't come until 8:00PM.  That's why I usually give up fasting for Lent. 

Today I failed my 2012 Lenten resolution, but hey, it was a rare day off for me, and I slept until 1:30PM. It also made the fact that I spent a third of my food budget for the week on what's simmering now on the stove a little easier to stomach.

So let's talk about the chicken and bean stew for a second.  This is part one in my goal to prove that we don't have to turn to the miles of aisles of cheap processed foods in order to feed ourselves on a budget. Sure, it helps to have a little kitchen know-how, but this dish is so simple, anyone could do it. And I'm planning on stretching it for three separate dinners this week, which, once the math is done, makes each serving come to a whopping $2.30 per person, per meal.

I started with $90 for five days for a family of three.  I immediately subtracted $15 bucks so my kid can get hot lunch at school all week, and that left us with $75. This stew I'm making cost $20.68 total, and all but two ingredients are organic. It's got a little over 4 pounds of organic chicken wings, drumsticks and hearts, a pound of Flageolet beans (the so-called "caviar of beans"), a couple of onions studded with cloves, some Bay leaves, a little dried thyme, carrots, celery, and salt, and at the end I'll add half a can of diced San Marzano tomatoes, a few cloves of chopped garlic, and some fresh chopped parsley to the mix. It's a great basic stew, no doubt, and I got the recipe from one of my culinary heroes, Jacques Pepin.

One night this week, I'll add some organic sausages to the leftover stew to make it into more of a casoulet style dish.  I'll also probably make some cornbread to go alongside. Hopefully there'll be enough left for a third meal.  We shall see, but meanwhile, I'm starting to sweat about the rest of the week.  I thought this was going to be easy. Clearly, I have deluded myself.  By the time Friday night rolls around, we may be eating rice and nothing else. For now, I am salivating, stomach grumbling, ready for a beautiful bowl of this delectable stew that is fogging up my kitchen windows. I promise you, we will savor every bite, and scrape the bottom of the pot before it's all over!

Day 1: Not So Wholesome

Sunday was my metaphorical Last Supper. If Da Vinci was alive today he could've painted me with my neighbors in all my glory..? I briefly told them about the $7/day challenge while I was feasting on pizza from Flying Squirrel (mmm.. pizza...) and a pint of Manny's (mmm.. beer...) It made me think, I don't eat healthy at all. So with full fanfare, I'm going to embrace my embarrassing eating habits and go into college mode.

As of 5:00 PM: Free coffee at the Federal Courthouse (did I mention I went in for jury duty), roast beef sandwich from Safeway ($2.50) and a lot of water.

Wherein Mike and I Find Ourselves Bagel-less

So yeah, we're not prepared for this. My boyfriend and I had a crazy amount of work last week and friends visiting until this morning, so there was no time for soups or crock pots or, you know, any kind of planning.

Day 1 with Mike. "You're on your own!" I told him this morning on the way out the door. I am such a good partner. Bless his heart for hopping on board with me on this. Even so, despite his solidarity, he's been trying to figure out ways around the challenge ("Can I get the guys to buy me lunch every day?" "Can I eat nine bags of ramen every day?" Uh, no and no.). I've been trying to figure out how to eat well, with protein and vegetables. Not going to happen easily. Especially when you haven't done any actual grocery shopping.

This is hard, just thinking about it. It makes me kind of ashamed at how little I think about it on a regular basis. Some people are going to shop the same as they have, but I already know I have to take a hard look at how we shop regularly, and adjust accordingly to do better in the future. My goal for this week is to make it down to the International District where I used to shop before I became lazy and devoted to Amazon Fresh.

Part of me is approaching this with a sense of adventure and interest in examining the way we live. The other part of me is growling for coffee and a bagel. That's the stomach part of me.

RVFB & Hunger Challenge

DAY 0 - Ready, Get Set..

I roped my boyfriend, B, into this doing this experiment with me. I didn't even have to explain it, he was in as soon as I said the word "challenge". Pssshh. Boys. "$12 a day? Easy," he said. "It'll be just like college - you know I bet we don't spend that much more on food now anyways." I didn't even have to give him the whole speech I had planned to talk him into it. Lucky guy.

It's true that we live very cheaply. We are recently graduated and very broke. We cook almost every meal at home - not only out of necessity but because that's how our mamas raised us. I make my coffee at home (the kind that comes in a plastic tub. no fancy seattle brew), B cuts coupons obsessively, and we rarely eat out. But, I've never gone to the grocery store with a calculator. That's the scary part. We have a weekly budget but we've never had a maximum budget and if we go a couple dollars over we usually don't worry. Until this week. 

Then we have another hurdle. Together, we have a rainbow of food allergies. Between the two of us there are allergies to tree nuts, avocados, milk, mustard, some types of fruit, and a mild gluten sensitivity. 

AND, we've made it our mission to try to eat as healthy as possible on the budget. Because I know B would just eat potatoes in all their various incarnations (french fries, baked potatoes, tater tots, hash browns…) all week if he was doing this challenge on his own. This will be hard as well. Have you looked at how much a bag of lettuce costs?? But that's really part of the challenge, right? Because if we all we had to do was spend $7 on a day's worth of calories, I live 2 blocks away from a Taco Bell and could do that in my sleep and still have bus fare left over. 

The plan going into this week is to keep cooking every meal, cutting coupons and buying on sale. Like Sam, we're going to shop at all of our usual grocery stores. And there's no room in the budget for snacks, sweets, alcohol, juice, tea, OR COFFEE. Not to mention the things we take for granted like cooking oils, and seasonings. 

So here we go. The pantry has been cleared and tomorrow is DAY 1. We start the day with Instant Oatmeal for breakfast then we're off to the grocery store with our calculator. Wish us luck. 

My Hunger Challenge 'Duh!' Moment

My family's food for this week -- all of it.

I have a confession: My first thought about the Hunger Challenge wasn't that it would be hard. I thought it would be pretty easy.

I regularly spend $100 or so per week to feed my family of four. Or so I thought.

That's what I spend at Safeway. I also load up on massive quantities deeply discounted staples at Costco once every few months.

Before I carefully read the rules, I figured we'd be able to dip into those Costco staples during our Hunger Challenge week.

Nope. That's when I had my "Duh!" moment. Shopping at Costco is a luxury. Someone who relies on food stamps to make ends meet has $22 a day for everything.

So I went back to the drawing board with my shopping list, scanning Safeway's website to price out everything we'd need for the week (except salt and pepper). Before adding it all up, I subtracted the weekly cost of the lunch and two snacks my kids' preschool serves (about $53), leaving us with $101 for the whole week.

We're foregoing some of our go-to faves, which I never considered splurges: yogurt, granola, honey, lunch meats, frozen pizza.

We'll be having oatmeal (with water, not milk) for breakfast most days. My husband and I will have PB&Js for lunch (though we almost couldn't afford the J). For dinner, we'll have some of our kids' favorites: rice and beans, mac and cheese, Ramen noodles with tofu and broccoli, quesadillas, and a tuna and penne pasta dish I'm going to try out for the first time.

I checked out of Safeway with $85.41 worth of food -- leaving $15.59 worth of wiggle room in case we run out of food later in the week.

Here's hoping we don't.

Toothsome & Wholesome on a Budget

I love to grocery shop. I love to cook – something I’ve been doing since I was 10 years old.  Most of all, I love to prepare and eat good food with good friends and family. And while there have been a few times in my life when I have had to avail myself of the services of my local food bank (and thank god they were there!), and even times when all I’ve had to eat were raw potatoes with no way to cook, most of my time in this life, I’ve had easy and consistent access to good food. As executive director of Rainier Valley Food Bank, I’ve made it my profession to ensure that others have equal access to nutritionally sound, high-quality foods that are familiar, easy to prepare and delicious.

Right now, we’re poised on the cusp of United Way’s annual Hunger Action Week.  This year for the first time, I’m standing in empathy and solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of my fellow Americans who rely on programs like Basic Food to feed themselves and their families by taking the Hunger Challenge.  And I’m taking my wife and teenage son along for the ride.

While I have to carefully manage the Food Bank’s budget down to the last penny every day of the year, my own personal food budget is not something I normally sweat over. Sure, I’m a smart shopper and a creative cook. Sure, I know how to stretch a $2 sack of dried beans and a few smoked neck bones into tasty chow for days. But I have to admit, the very thought of shopping for food on a budget is giving me the willies. 

And because I’m either a glutton for punishment, or maybe I feel I have something to prove, I’m planning to shop at the same places I normally shop: PCC, Bob’s Quality Meats, and Trader Joe’s. With a family of three, I’ve got a "generous" $18 bucks a day to spend on breakfast, lunch and dinner. So if you see me lurking in the aisles at PCC this week furiously crunching numbers on a calculator and scribbling recipes and ingredient lists on a notepad, tearing out what little hair I have left, you’ll know why.

My basic hypothesis as I enter the Hunger Challenge is that it is possible to eat high-quality food that is both toothsome and wholesome, even on a budget as tight as this. If I can get over my shopping-to-a-budget phobia, I think I’ve got a fair chance of succeeding. I’m not willing to sacrifice quality for quantity, nor good taste for a sweet deal. It's entirely possible that I’ll fail miserably.  Hopefully I’ll learn something new in the process. Either way, I’m embracing the Hunger Challenge whole hog, and I look forward to sharing the results of my journey through the week with you here. Join me if you care!   

T-Minus 4 Days and Counting ...

So here I was minding my own business, doing my own thing, when all of a sudden I felt this urge to volunteer. Fast forward to present day (after months of working at the Rainier Valley Food Bank) I find myself canceling lunch plans for next week, planning my meals-to-be (which I've never ever done) and trying not to psyche myself out (I mean $7 a day for all your meals is not a lot! I spend $3 on coffee alone on way into work).

I've told a few friends of my Hunger Challenge and many of them have been supportive; some even offered recipes (which sounds nice and all if cooking is your thing). I'm taking this challenge in the same vein as work: fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants procrastination. (Please don't tell my boss!)

It's 4 days until the challenge starts, am I nervous? Hell yes I'm nervous but I've got a couple aces in my back pocket: peanut butter, ramen and eggs. (Not at the same time though.)

What if you had to feed yourself on just $7 a day?

Take the Hunger Challenge as part of Hunger Action Week March 19 to 24 and find out. Experience firsthand what it's like to try to nourish yourself on the maximum daily food stamp benefit for someone in Washington state.

As you think hard about the money you spend to feed yourself, consider giving what you can to help Rainier Valley Food Bank provide fresh, nutritious food to 11,000 neighbors every month. Match your Hunger Challenge food budget with a donation, and we'll stretch every dollar you donate into $12 worth of food.

The Math for One Day	The Math for One Week
One person: $7 = $84	One person: $49 = $588
Couple: $12 = $144	Couple: $84 = $1,008
Four: $22 = $264	Family of four:  $154 = $1,848

Several volunteers and staff at RVFB are taking the Hunger Challenge. We'll be sharing our stories on this blog all week, writing about every penny we pinch and the lessons we learn along the way about what we eat, what we can't afford, and how hunger is an everyday reality for so many thousands of people in our community.