Not eating free food at work is hitting Bo pretty hard. At first it was just candy and cookies that he couldn't touch, but today his employer provided Papa John's Pizza for everybody. Well, everybody except him; he had to graciously decline. It did give him a chance to share about the Hunger Challenge and for that I'm so proud of him. Still, he's frustrated. To make matters worse, tomorrow is Friday, when all his co-workers always to out to eat together and he will have to stay at work and eat what he's packed. He's not thrilled about that. He wonders if the SNAP challenge is extra hard because he's not surrounded by other people in the same boat, experiencing the same struggles. Though this is a simulation, I'm sure that are real people who experience this real isolation on a daily basis. No one should have to face this.
For me, I thought the hard part would be not going out for lunch most everyday, but that part is not so bad. The worse is not enjoying the frills. I like freshly grated parmigiano reggiano on my pasta. No can do on a SNAP budget. I've been trying to prioritize healthy, fresh, local foods if I can, which leaves little money for treats. It makes be feel guilty about spending money on a sweet treat when I could be filling my and my family's tummies with something more nutritious. So I made Jello and have rationed that for the week with a loss of only 50 cents.
On a happy note, I've fallen even more in love with squash soup than I was before. I made organic butternut squash soup for about $5.60 (not including the cost of dry spices) and it was enough for two dinners for my kids, 1 dinner for each of us adults, and one lunch for me. Because my kids love it so much we'd already been eating it about once week, but I"m even more convinced that it needs to be a staple in our dinner rotation. Though next year, we're growing our own squash, so we can save even more money.
I hope that my next post will be a compilation of ideas that have come from this enlightening experience. I won't lie, I can't wait for this challenge to be over, but much good has already come of it.
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