Okay, maybe not next week since it’s Thanksgiving, but the week after, find out if you can go a week on only $24 for food. That’s the challenge the folks at Sodexo Careers have just come up with.
The “Food Stamp Challenge” is a program that aims to educate us on what it is like to eat on the average food stamp benefit – which is little more than a $1 per meal per person.
With a little research I learned more about the nation’s food stamp benefit which about $3.45 per day (depending on income and situation). That’s about $24 per person per week (source) . After paying for housing, energy and health care expenses, many low-income households have little or no money remaining to spend on food without food stamp benefits and often those benefits don’t last the month forcing them to turn to food pantries and soup kitchens. Sadly, more than 35.5 million people in the United States are at risk of hunger. The Sodexo Foundation supports supports hunger-related initiatives on local, state, and national levels to help children and families in the United States who are battling problems such as poverty, unemployment, lack of education, and food insecurity.
While living on a food stamp budget for just a week can’t compare to the real life struggles of low-income families week after week and month after month, it can provide those who take the Challenge a new perspective. Shondra said that while she was keenly aware of the problem of hunger in the U.S. and the limitations of current Food Stamp benefits, she took the Challenge to make the issues more personal. “Nothing is more powerful in raising personal awareness and understanding than to experience for yourself (if only for one week) what others experience every day.”
Bonus #1: You aren’t on your own. Download the Toolkit.
Bonus #2: This could easily grow into a buzz-worthy movement if properly funneled through social media. Do I hear “case study?”
Bonus #3: After a week of eating out with visiting family and Thanksgiving next week, the timing couldn’t be better anyway.) $24 for a week? I’m game. (Cafe au lait doesn’t count though, right?)
Okay, who else is in?
photo by Christopher Wray-McCann
While I sit here from my second home on St. Thomas I think to myself, my life is pretty damn good. I’ve done more than anyone would have ever dreamed and I’m one of the lucky Obama 5% that will soon be overly taxed. But…
I grew up on foodstamps. I lived in a huge, primarily poor city. I know what it’s like to LIVE on welfare and eat on $24/day (for almost 14 years). I remember as a kid having to go to welfare specific food stores where everything was printed with white/black labels and said :”Peanut Butter”, no branding in that store.
But growing up that way made me tough and streetsmart. I got my first job delivery newspapers at 12. At 14 I had the largest paper route in a city of 100,000 people. At 16 I was buying all my own clothes and using my own EARNED money for food, entertainment etc.
Don’t feel sorry for the poor. They can CHOOSE to make their life whatever they want. Both my brother and I own multi, multi, multi million dollar businesses today because of those foodstamps. If we had grown up in a middle class or better home I can guarantee you I wouldn’t be as financially successful today. I’d be working for the man.
Don’t bother eating on $24 for a week because frankly it won’t show you anything. You need to live that way for a long time to understand it. The one thing I learned is that being poor sucked and it motivated me to never be that way again.
And I’m not. Foodstamps, thank you!
I am not doing it because it will help me understand what it is like to be poor. I got to experience that when I moved to the US in 1994 with little more to my name than $1,400 in savings and three suitcases full of clothes. I’ve lived on far less than $24 per week, brother.
I am doing it because there is no reason for me not to. Because it’s the kind of exercise that will probably help me make better nutritional choices – moving away from over-processed foods, finding cheaper sources of protein at the store, etc.
And because in today’s economy, it doesn’t hurt to understand the value of a dollar. Too many people have forgotten it.
No need to saddle the high horse on this one. Especially not from your second home in St. Thomas.
First a question – how do you replace 4-5k calories during a 70-100 mile ride on that budget
Second – I agree with what both of you said – first – in some cases, the poor are that way by choice because it’s easy (I mean really, why should I have to pay taxes to help out a perfectly able-bodied individual that won’t help themselves?). I also believe that we can learn a bunch about our own diets and eating habits by trying something like this. I remember when my brother and I were in college, my parents hit a rough time and changed their eating habits DRASTICALLY in order to cover schooling. A great life lesson for all involved. What would happen if everyone, like Olivier, were to look at cheaper, healthier sources of protein? With some creativity, I would bet you could feed a family of 4 for $100/week (we do it now for about $125 – not including the beer!).
Olivier – I am up for the challenge, but I won’t be able to do it until the following week. If all else fails, you can drink water and eat Ramen Noodles for $1/day!
Good thing I don’t go on 70-100mile rides this time of year.
Energy-wise, bulk rice, pasta, potatoes and bread (flour) can give you a whole lot of mileage. A can of corn is still about $1.
Tuna cans aren’t nearly as cheap as they used to be though.
$24/week is survival though. It is very difficult to have a healthy, well balanced diet on that kind of budget. I’ll give you that.
Nutritional choices? You look to be in perfect shape. I can’t drive 70 miles never mind ride it! It’s 85 in sunny St. Thomas