SNAP Hunger Challenge: Day 2-4 Reflections

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.

SNAP Hunger Challenge: Day 1 Reflections

This is hard. Not so much the feeling full part, but feeling satisfied. I'm also probably eating too much, but we've decided to not fixate too much on keeping track of every cent, but being very aware of being as frugal as we can.

PB and Pekara is good - The peanut butter sandwich for lunch was delish and filling. Even Bo only used one slice of honey wheat bread from Pekara because it's pretty large and dense (4.59 for a loaf). I may be sold on bulk peanut butter from the Co-op too ($4.49 a lb).

Living without the frills is the biggest challenge - Poor Bozie managed to survive without his free Starbucks coffee from work, which has apparently become a staple for him over the past couple months. He was also bummed to have to turn down homemade baked goods that coworker brought to the office and as well as candy on someone's desk. I had the same issue with the candy. It kinda helped that it was Dove chocolate, and I could not rationalize how someone on SNAP would have free access to that. At dinner, I also skipped on the freshly grated REAL parmigiano reeggiano that usually makes my pasta look like a blizzard swept over it. THAT was hard.

I know we definitely broke the bank - The apples we got cost about 70 cents each. Yikes! But it fairly satisfied the sweet craving that hit me in late afternoon. In general, my philosophy is that if it's healthy, especially local and organic, it shouldn't matter what it costs, just get it into my body or the kids' bodies. It's also important to us that we expose our kids to a variety of foods like mangoes, plantains, and kiwis. True story, last week when Bo took care of the boys while I had an evening meeting, they all went on a special trip to the grocery store and picked out coconuts to bust a hole in, drink the milk, then whack open and eat the flesh. This is their daddy-son bonding activity, but costs over $2 per coconut. Wouldn't you rather our kids being doing this than snacking on unhealthy food? It's too bad that some healthy food, even a simple apple, can be a luxury.

All of a sudden that box of Jello that has been gathering dust in my pantry for 4 years looks good - That afternoon sweet craving lasted into the evening. So I made Jello. Not my preference, but it was the cheapest option we had on hand. I'm looking forward to Saturday because also in my pantry are 2 Reuben's chocolates. At $1.60 a pop, they are totally not doable on a SNAP budget.

We're not really doing it with the kids, but kinda - They still have their Kashi cereal each morning (to the tune of almost $4 a box and their whole milk from Kilgus farm to the tune of $4.49/gallon). This is their thing, so we left it alone, but I did skimp on them. They get food at school, so that we don't count. At dinner they each had an egg, while they usually have 2. I might have caved and gave them more, but that was all we had in the fridge. 1/2 slice of Pekara honey wheat bread was good for Monkey, but Bean asked for another 1/2 after his first 1/2, so I obliged. They also had a banana and yogurt smoothie. No veggies, but we'll make up for it tonight with squash soup. They weren't hungry after dinner, I don't think, but I know they usually eat more. Each of them can eat 3 slices of pizza and it's not because they're big boys. They're only 2 and 4 years old and each of them are in he 30th percentiles for their heights and weights. I can't imagine only being able to spend $4.50 a day on a teenage sons!

SNAP Hunger Challenge: Day 1 Breakfast

Breakfast:

Cream of Wheat made with:

1 c Milk (Kilgus Farm Whole Milk from the Food Co-Op)

3 T Cream of Wheat

Reactions: Very satisfied and full. This is comfort food for me. I think I could eat plain Cream of Wheat like this pretty much every day, but we'll see after a week. Milk, however, is a "must" or else this would be gross. It could be made even healthier with mix-in of fruit or nuts, but I can't complain about getting nearly half my daily value of iron in one sitting, which is important while being pregnant. So far so good.