On Friday, our participation in the Food Outreach Hunger Challenge concluded. I had planned to spend the evening blogging about the final days of challenge, but after some initial attempts at this post, I decided I needed to take a step back and truly think about the lessons I learned over the past five days.

When I agreed to participate in the hunger challenge, I hoped that I would be able to show that a person living on food stamps could eat well-balanced, nutritional meals comprised of good, clean foods … and be satisfied, both physically (ie, not hungry) and mentally (ie, happy with the variety and content of their diet). Boy, was I in for a rude awakening.

If you’ve read my previous posts (here and here), you’ll know that the first day on the hunger challenge was a huge struggle for both The Chef and I. In one short day, we were both incredibly hungry … and we became quite anxious about our ability to live on the minimal amount of food we were able to purchase with our allotted budget for the week. It was at this moment we knew just how hard the challenge would be.

The next two days were a bit better on the hunger front, but we were both left unsatisfied. We found ourselves with limited meal choices, which meant we were eating the same things over and over … and we were only flavoring our food with salt and pepper since we didn’t have any money to buy spices. In a word … boring.

The last two days have been much of the same. Our breakfast choices were the same as those we had the other days of the challenge. Our lunches continued to consist of leftovers. Our dinners were actually a bit bleaker than the two previous days. We made another soup that, although inexpensive, didn’t hold a flavor candle to the one we made on Wednesday. While we didn’t go hungry, the fun we’ve always had cooking and eating just wasn’t there anymore.

So, what are all the lessons we’ve learned over the last five days?

1. First and foremost, we will never know exactly what it’s like to live on a food stamp budget. Many people living on food stamps don’t have cars and rely on public transportation. In addition, many people living on food stamps work at least two jobs, leaving limited time to shop. For them, just getting to a grocery store is difficult. For the clients of Food Outreach, who in addition to living on food stamps are also living with HIV/AIDS or cancer, getting to a grocery store is sometimes impossible.

2. The weekly food stamp budget ($29 here in Missouri) is not enough to have a complete diet comprised of good, clean, organic foods … and not go hungry. As evidenced by how little food we were able to purchase with our allotted budget, it just isn’t possible to “eat well” and not be hungry. I’m certain people living on food stamps want to eat better. I’m certain they want to feed their children better. There just isn’t money to do so … and since being hungry is horrible in so many ways, I can understand why some people living on food stamps choose cheap processed foods (usually with little nutritional value, which is extremely detrimental to persons living with HIV/AIDS or cancer) to make their food dollars go farther.

3. There are ways to stretch a food stamp budget … but they require significant planning and time. The “to use coupons or not use coupons” on the hunger challenge was debated among many of my food blogger friends. Some chose to use them, some didn’t. For those that did, they found that they spent a significant amount of time obtaining the coupons and then closely checking the items they purchased to make sure the coupon would work, which made their shopping trips longer. Coupons can be great and will help stretch a food stamp budget, but unfortunately, time isn’t on the side of someone living on food stamps.

4. The pleasure of eating—something so important to the pleasure of life—can easily be lost. As I mentioned above, the fun we’ve always had cooking and eating wasn’t there. I think the fact that we always knew that our next meal would be one we’d just eaten made everything less appealing. One of the great powers food has is to bring people together and bring enjoyment to your day, and it makes me sad that this is so easily lost when one only has limited food to eat.

5. There is no “typical person living on food stamps” … it could be your friends, your neighbors, or even someone in your family. Some of the more eye-opening revelations that occurred during the hunger challenge came when reading the comments that were elicited from readers of my blog and my fellow food bloggers participating in the hunger challenge. So many people commented on their experiences as current or former food stamp recipients, and not one story was the same. Never assume you know what someone living on food stamps looks like.

6. Never, never, never take food for granted. We all know it’s easy to take everyday things, especially good food, for granted, and our experience with the hunger challenge drove that home for both The Chef and I. So, it’s simple. If you’re lucky enough to be able to eat good, clean food on a regular basis, enjoy it … and perhaps share some with those around you.

There’s an old proverb that says, “An empty belly hears nobody.” Normally when I’m hungry, I grab a snack and fill the hole in my belly. But when there isn’t anything to snack on, that hole gets bigger and eventually develops a voice of its own … one that constantly whispers in your ear, “You’re hungry” … over and over until it’s all you can think about. It’s no surprise it drowns everything else out.

As I mentioned above, I will never know exactly what it’s like to be a person living on a food stamp budget … but I do know though that I’ve learned a little bit more about their struggles, and because of that, I will never take my ability to make carefree food choices for granted ever again.

As I mentioned previously, The Chef and I are participating in Food Outreach’s $29 Hunger Challenge, in which we’ll attempt to eat nutritiously over a period of 7 days on only $29 each (the average weekly food stamp allowance here in Missouri). We chose today as day 1 of our challenge … and to say it was a challenge is putting it mildly.

Let’s dispense with the nitty gritty first. Based on things we have going on next weekend, The Chef and I decided to shorten our challenge schedule from seven days to five days (today through Friday). We completely realize that people living on food stamps do not have this luxury, and it was not an easy decision for us to make. It was also the first of many reminders of just how lucky we are to be able to make the carefree food choices we do.

Since we didn’t have time to shop this weekend, we set out to Whole Foods (our usual grocery store) this morning with our new food allowance of $20 each (based on $4 worth of food stamps per day over 5 days). This gave us a grand total of only $40 for five days worth of groceries for the two of us. I think fear immediatly began to set in as to whether we could actually eat nutritiously on such a short amount of money … and not go hungry.

Before we departed for the grocery store, we felt we should eat something for breakfast. Since we hadn’t shopped ahead of time, we decided to each eat one fried egg with a touch of salsa and then “deduct” this from our morning purchases. With fried eggs in our bellies and $40 in our hands, we were off.

Our typical shopping trips to Whole Foods usually involve The Chef and I cruising the aisles, deciding on things to make for dinner each night based on what looks good and what’s in season (ie, not based on how much something costs though we try to keep costs to no more than $80 to $100 per week … and usually much less if we’re getting a CSA pick-up that week). We choose foods that are local, organic, minimally-processed, and artisinally- and sustainably-produced. We also sometimes just grab things we may not need for the week, but that are either intriquing or are on sale (because of this, it’s a good possibility we could eat just from our pantry and freezer for a week and still come up with unique and interesting dinner ideas, but that’s another challenge in and of itself). As I mentioned before, we are extremely lucky to be able to shop this way.

Today’s shopping trip was an eye-opening experience. We spent over two hours at the store, carefully checking food prices to see what things cost and figuring out what would give us the most bang for our buck. It also raised a lot of questions. Should we skip organic foods to maximize our money? Because I believe that good, clean, healthy food should be available to all, we decided that we must purchase as much organic food as possible. I guess this is what the challenge really means to us. Can you eat good, clean, healthy food on a limited budget … and not go hungry?

We also questioned the use of coupons to save money. In the end, we chose not to use coupons because couponing requires both time and access to a computer and printer, both of which we assume people living on food stamps may not have. I’m certain this doesn’t apply to all people living on food stamps, but because it applies to some, we choose not to use coupons at all.

So, what did our $40 get us at Whole Foods? Here’s the rundown of exactly what we purchased:

• 1 lb organic rolled oats $1.35
• 1/2 lb organic trail mix $3.17
• 1 lb organic brown rice $1.62
• 1/2 lb organic pinto beans (dried) $0.80
• 1/2 lb organic green split peas (dried) $1.00
• 1/2 lb rice pilaf mix $1.48
• 1/2 lb “Southwest” soup mix (dried) $2.88
• 2 organic jalapenos $0.64
• 2 organic yellow onions $0.52
• 1 bulb organic garlic $0.45
• 1/2 lb organic green beans (fresh) $1.23
• 4 bananas $1.11
• 2 limes $0.80
• 6 chicken drumsticks $2.81
• 1 lb ground turkey $3.46
• 1 dozen cage-free eggs $2.99
• 1 lb organic edamame (frozen) $2.39
• 1 10-ounce package butternut squash (frozen) $1.99
• 1 16-ounce package vegetable medley (frozen) $1.69
• 1 package organic tortillas $2.99
• 1 16 ounce jar tomatillo salsa $2.99

Add in tax, and we spent exactly $39.94.

Leaving the store, we felt pretty good about our purchases and our plans for our upcoming meals. However once we got home, laid out what we bought on the kitchen table, and started writing out our menu for the week … we suddenly didn’t feel too good anymore. It became apparently fairly quickly that we were going to be hungry this week (in all honesty, we were already hungry having only eaten one egg each that morning). It also became apparent that we had forgotten to include any dairy. We chose to set aside the jalapeno, onion, garlic, and limes we bought (since we had also bought salsa to flavor our meals) and made a quick trip to another local grocery store to purchase a 1/2 gallon of 2% milk. I realize (again) that people living on food stamps wouldn’t have the ability to do this (but I’m fairly certain they would have made the smarter purchase in the first place).

We forgaged ahead with our plans for lunch … steamed brown rice and edamame topped with a fried egg (don’t worry … that was the last fried egg in our hunger challenge). As The Chef cooked our eggs, I portioned out our alloted 1/2 cup brown rice and 1/2 cup edamame for each of us … and it was then that I knew we were going to be hungry, perhaps really hungry, this week. At 4:00, we each ate a banana as a snack, though it didn’t seem to do much to curb our hunger.

By the time dinner rolled around, we both felt truly hungry … and the thought of our planned meal of 1 chicken drumstick, 1/2 cup brown rice, and (yes, you guessed it) 1/2 cup edamame, was neither appealing nor satisfying. Perhaps it was that thought, compounded by the realization of just how hard this challenge was on only the first day, but both The Chef and I broke down … and ordered a pizza.

I am extremely embarrassed to admit that we didn’t last one full day on the hunger challenge. Should we have left our food philosophy at the door? Should we have chosen cheaper, more processed foods so that we’d have more to eat and therefore be less hungry? Perhaps. Or perhaps this is was one of the lessons we were meant to learn.

The Chef and I plan to continue the hunger challenge as planned for the rest of this week. I’ve reviewed our menu and I’m more confident about the next four days. I guess only time will tell whether we can truly complete the hunger challenge, but I already know that I understand a bit more about the struggles people living on food stamps face … and I’ll never take our food lifestyle for granted.

Let’s face it. We all get hungry. In today’s fast-paced world, we often rush through life, moving from here to there at break neck speed in order to meet the multiple demands placed on us by our families and our jobs. When a hunger pang hits, we often grab something quick and easy in order to satisfy what our body is asking for. Other times, we just endure until we can sit down and eat a proper meal. But while we may sometimes feel like we’re starving at these moments, we’re not experiencing true hunger … the hunger that stems from not knowing when we might be able to eat again.

For 1 in 6 Americans, food insecurity and true hunger are a daily reality. Here in Missouri, the US Department of Agriculture estimates that almost 16% of our nearly six million residents face ongoing uncertainty in acquiring sufficient food for their household; of these, almost 6% experience “very low food security,” meaning that “the food intake of one or more household members is reduced and their eating patterns are disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money and other resources for food.” In other words, they are cutting back on how much food they eat—or skipping meals entirely—because the food just isn’t there.

I can’t imagine experiencing true hunger, and I especially can’t imagine experiencing it while living with a life-threatening illness, such as HIV/AIDS or cancer. But, for the clients of Food Outreach, this is their reality. Established in 1988, Food Outreach is the only nonprofit organization in the greater St. Louis area whose mission is to provide comprehensive nutritional support to low-income individuals of all ages battling either cancer or HIV/AIDS. The nutritional support Food Outreach provides includes two nutritious meals per day, groceries, nutritional supplements, HIV/AIDS or cancer nutrition counseling, ongoing dietetic counseling, cooking and nutrition classes, and meal home delivery if necessary.

The nutritional needs of people diagnosed with cancer or HIV/AIDS are very specific, and it is vital to eat nutritiously to optimize the effect of their treatments. The average Food Outreach client is eligible for a $29/week food stamp allotment (this amount is based on the most recent Missouri Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program guidelines). This amount is often all they have available to spend on groceries each week … and this amount is often not enough to purchase the nutritious foods that can improve their treatment outcomes. The services provided by Food Outreach help alleviate some of the financial burden related to high healthcare costs and they offer additional meals to supplement the $29 food stamp allotment.

This September, in conjuction with Hunger Action Month, Food Outreach is holding its 4th Annual Hunger Challenge to raise money and awareness about the unique nutritional needs and food insecurity of their clients, and The Chef and I have agreed to participate. The challenge? To eat nutritiously over a period of 7 days on only $29. The goal? To better understand the difficulties that Food Outreach clients face.
 

Since both The Chef and I will be participating in the Hunger Challenge, we’ll have $58 to spend on groceries for one week for the two of us. Our $58 budget must include all food purchases (ie, no CSA pick-up for us that week), and it does not include prepared hot foods or items such as toilet paper or toothpaste. Sound daunting? We think so too, but as a long time supporter of Food Outreach, I know we’re up for the challenge.

The Chef and I will be taking the Hunger Challenge the week of September 11th – 17th, and I’ll be blogging about our experiences daily, both here at Rhubarb and Honey and on Food Outreach’s blog. Want to take the Hunger Challenge as well? Sign up at hungerchallengestl.org. Don’t have time to take the Hunger Challenge? There are many other ways to support Food Outreach and their efforts; click here to learn how you can help.

Regardless of whether you take the Hunger Challenge or not, I do hope you’ll check back here each day during the week of September 11th – 17th to read about our experiences. I think we’ll all learn something new!