If you are like me, you are probably still feeling full from Thanksgiving leftovers… the turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pies, etc. Although this is a departure from our usual “Faculty Feats” (which involve feats of the academic variety), this is a feat by one of our faculty member’s nonetheless. Earlier this semester, Professor Ho engaged in an experiment, where she and her husband lived on a food stamp budget for one full week. It seems like an appropriate reminder that not everyone is able to indulge in big holiday dinners, and to be thankful for the gifts that we have this holiday season. I’ll let her tell you about it…
“October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Filipino American Heritage Month, apparently National Pork Month, and at St. John’s Presbyterian Church: Hunger Awareness Month. So as part of this month, my husband Mark and I decided to live for one week on a Food Stamp budget. That’s $4.72 per person per day for everything you ingest in one week. We had a total of $66.08 to spend. And we couldn’t accept free food from friends. See the whole challenge at: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5420/p/salsa/web/common/public/content?content_item_KEY=9057
We were shocked by some of the statistics about hunger in our own communities. For example, did you know that 5.1 Californians (13.7%) are living below the poverty line ($22,350 for a family of four!). And in San Francisco, 197,000 people struggle to feed themselves every day. Read more at http://www.sffoodbank.org/about_hunger/
So we decided to do the hunger challenge from October 24-30 because it was the only week in October when we didn’t already have plans that involved eating! We planned and re-planned our menus and shopping list so that in the end we had three meals a day with at least some meat throughout the week and at least some vegetable/fruit every day. We couldn’t afford anything organic and made everything from scratch.
Day 1 was exciting! I had greek yogurt and honey for breakfast, peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch, and for dinner we had a very fancy (canned) clam + olive oil sauce pasta. Dessert was ½ an apple that I split with Mark! I felt full enough and was happy to put the rest of our pasta away for another dinner. The only drawback of our meals for today? Everything I ate was beige!
Day 4: I’m holding up well. Dinner tonight is homemade pizza and our splurge was mozzarella cheese (to go with mushrooms and onions – no meat). It’s been extremely time consuming to make everything from scratch but it is to eat home-cooking for every meal. I’m also mindful of how hard it is to work full-time and still have enough energy at the end of the day to cook. Both of us are missing things: Mark misses his post-dinner snacks and I’m missing drinks and fruit!
Day 7: Today is, thank goodness, our final day of the hunger challenge. Yesterday and today, our lunches and dinners were definitely the end of the rope. I’ve never seen our fridge so empty. For our final two days, we made chili for dinner, but portions were very small. This wasn’t helped by the fact that lunch consisted of a very brothy chicken noodle soup. Mark and I combined have lost 10 pounds and we’re both looking forward to eating more tomorrow.
This challenge may not have taught me anything I didn’t already know. However, it did remind me of some important things that I often forget or choose to ignore. It reminded me that on most days, I have a lot of options. I have the option to eat a second helping, I have the option to toss out a bruised banana, I have the option of eating junk food for a meal, I have the option of eating out when I’m tired, and I have the option to see friends ‘over coffee.’ I chose to be a little hungry this week, but I always knew that by the end of it, things would return to normal. That’s a luxury that fewer and fewer of our neighbors have – especially in this economy. I am thankful for that luxury and wish others had those same options.
When I was young and wouldn’t eat everything on my plate, my mom used to warn me, ‘There are starving people in X.’ In a fit of rage, I once yelled back, ‘Fine! So box up my food and send it to them!’ Of course, I knew you couldn’t. This week has been a good reminder though that I can box up the food – at least sort of. St. John’s has a weekly food bank in partnership with the SF Food Bank that serves the Inner Richmond and we’ll be boxing up some of our food budget to support those projects. If you’re bored with your regular eating habits, need some time for self-reflection, or up to the challenge, try the hunger challenge yourself! http://www.sffoodbank.org/about_hunger/”
Congratulations to Professor Ho for her feat and for bringing this important issue to our attention. Here is a picture of her indulging in cookies and candy after her week on a food stamp budget:
I have no idea why this picture is sideways and why I can't fix it...
