Easy Cheese, Vienna Sausages, Ramen Noodles. I refuse to eat these things. Unfortunately, one may not have much of a choice when surviving on $4.50 a day, the average SNAP benefit (formerly known as food stamps) in Illinois.
Last week, Bo and I made the hard decision to take the SNAP Hunger Challenge 2010, which means that we have a budget of $126 our family of four for the week of September 19th-25th.
*GASP* No going out for lunch for the entire week! That's my daily weekday getaway during my lunch hour with a plethora of options on Green St. At least as far as the kids go, we almost never take them out to eat except we've started taking them on Friday nights as a new tradition. I think they can manage one week without that, especially if we make an activity of cooking together.
It will also be harder for us to keep our food local and organic, which we've been really trying to do recently. Will we be able to afford our Kilgus Farm milk or our eggs from T&S or Moore's? I think I'll be ok with just even just having healthy options like fresh produce and whole grain bread. I'm afraid that if we buy those we might only have enough budget left for unhealthy processed food product, or even worse, that we'll run out of food. 84% of Feeding Illinois clients report that over the previous 12 months they have been in a situation where the food they bought just didn’t last and they did not have money to get more.
What do you say to your kids when they tell you they are still hungry and you have nothing more to feed them?
I can tell already that this challenge won't be nearly as fun or therapeutic as PURGE, but I have no doubt that it will be an eye-opener for us. Care to join us?
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