CalFresh Challenge Update: What I Learned

I have failed the CalFresh Challenge. As you may recall from one of our recent blog posts, the San Diego Hunger Coalition recently invited us to try living on a food budget of $4.38 per day, the amount allotted to those living on CalFresh (food stamps).

This anti-hunger initiative, called the CalFresh Challenge, was designed to raise awareness for the food insecure across the state, inviting us to walk a mile in their shoes, so to speak.

After trying the challenge myself, I can definitively say: My knees hurt, and my feet are sore. These individuals face an immense day-to-day struggle, and it was impossible for me to make that budget work for myself and my family, even just for a short period of time.

When I first signed up, I truly believed I was ready to go. I was going to conquer this challenge!   

In my family, we already have a set food budget, we meal plan, three of the four of us take packed lunches, and I personally love leftovers and have no problem eating the same thing every day. I assumed I would change our menu to reflect a lower weekly cost—all in all we spend about $150.00 in groceries a week, not too far off from the $122.64 per week for the challenge (calculated at $4.38 x 4 people for the week).

But my major failing occurred when I made a last minute trip out of town even though I knew I would be getting back late before the start of the week. My planning suffered.

On Monday, I realized it was the 21st, the first day of the CalFresh challenge. Uh-oh. “Well, I can pick up on Day 2,” I thought. Day 2 came and went, and soon it was Day 4 and I still hadn’t found the groove I anticipated.

It doesn’t seem overbearingly difficult in theory, but one meeting leads to a new task at work, the kids need to be picked up at school, you have a date night planned, work runs late, and now the week is over. In our fast-paced lives, one day becomes seven in a flash.  

Because we, as a family, can buy in bulk, it doesn’t eat up the entire budget for the month, and we are OK. For the food insecure, though, this is not the case. They don’t have this luxury, and in reflection, I’m not sure how we could cope without it.

The second thought I had concerned the abundance of food I am surrounded by daily.  There are days where I do not have to bring a lunch or worry about breakfast. At a morning meeting, coffee and continental breakfast is provided, then at the 10 a.m. meeting I get snack bars, fruit, and more coffee. Then there’s a lunchtime meeting – lunch is served, and if another group in our building had a lunchtime meeting, there will be leftovers…you get the idea.

Again, this is not the reality for the target population in this challenge. For many of those living on food stamps, there are no catered meetings and no free meals. Sitting back and really thinking about the amount of food in my life in turn made me comprehend the scarcity of it for others.

Living on this budget, even just for a week, proved difficult, and that’s without trying to keep the diet healthy. If you want nutrition, the mountain’s slope becomes even steeper.

In the end, I was looking forward to the challenge, but I simply didn’t prepare. This caused me to completely fail the challenge, something that makes me wonder: If a family is already strapped for money to cover food expenses and they do have a busy week, how much extra stress is that adding to the many stresses of living in a poor community? What about the stress of traveling to get to one or two jobs?  How do you even quantify the impact this has on their health?  How do they, then, have time to plan?

As we continue improving the lives of this population, I look forward to seeing and supporting the work being done in San Diego that will not only reduce the number of children with hungry bellies but also deliver nutrient-dense local food to the community in need.

While the challenge has ended, I highly recommend you keep a food budget of $4.38 per day in mind as you go through your weekly routine. Think about it when you’re grabbing lunch, snagging a latte, or sitting down to a nice dinner with your family.

Let me know what you learn and experience as you contextualize your current eating habits this way. I think you’ll be surprised and moved by what you learn—I know I was.

– Michele Silverthorn, Program Officer, Alliance Healthcare Foundation. To read their blog, please click here.

Why I am Not Finishing the CalFresh Challenge

“I’m starving, and I’m exhausted,” my partner said arriving home around 7pm.  In the kitchen, this week’s home within my home, I mock rolled my eyes before looking down to see his hand tremble.  Eating 700 calories over the last 12 hours was not enough.

We cooked up our frittatas and then fried an extra pair of potatoes w/ oil and salt to fill up.  Sitting at the dinner table, we got serious and went through our meals, counting calories as we went:

Breakfast: ~300 calories (oatmeal and fruit w/ occasional yogurt)

Lunch: ~400 calories        (beans and rice or chicken, egg and rice w/ tomato)       

Dinner: ~500 calories      (quinoa, chicken and veggies or veggie frittata w/ extra potatoes)

The last meal of the Challenge

Our final verdict: we should have bought donuts.  We were full.  We laughed.  Maybe a week of donuts would not be ‘ideal,’ but we should have created healthy meals that were higher calorie and more filling.  Sounds like a great idea, a no-brainer, right?  Thirty minutes of joking about ‘just how many beans is too many’ later, neither of us had solved hunger.  We agreed that CalFresh can’t be “enough.”  Don’t get me wrong; CalFresh is amazing!  Each year, CalFresh lifts more than 1 million Americans above the federal poverty line, increasing their household budgets by an average of over $2,000 annually.  CalFresh (SNAP) is our nation’s strongest line of defense against hunger and poverty AND it is not enough.

The past five days I’ve felt exhausted, lethargic and unmotivated.  I’ve had enough energy to work out once, compared to almost daily, and have woken up almost every morning with a headache.  In an attempt to maintain a “healthy” diet, we’ve denied ourselves the calories we need to be healthy and functioning.  As a result, we both lost at least a pound of body weight.  The irony was not lost on me as so many poor Americans struggle with chronic health conditions spurred by overweight and obesity.  The foods which fill also kill. 

Not wanting to “give up,” I pulled up a list of local food pantries within my work zipcode, maybe we could supplement??  Two of 12 food pantries on the list were open on a Friday.  I called both and found out the foods being distributed today were: potatoes, oranges, bread, ramen and pastries.  Gluten free leaves me with (more) potatoes and oranges; helpful, but still probably not enough. 

I thought about taking advantage of Saturday’s City Height’s Farmer’s Market “Fresh Fund,” an awesome program that allows CalFresh and WIC recipients to ‘double’ their produce purchases any six weeks out of the year (up to $20), but we don’t have any money left.

While a silly, ego driven part of me is disappointed in not being able to “life hack” this challenge, a deeper part of me realizes that this is a challenge that cannot be ‘won.’ In our society, poverty is all too often reduced to a series of bad decisions on the part of the impoverished, stripping those more fortunate of any responsibility.  For me, this experience was one important step on a path towards better understanding and connecting with a deeper sense of community.  I will continue to challenge myself to connect with experiences and individuals that draw light to my privilege and that provide me opportunities to interact and give back to making our community more just.   

For anyone reading that is wondering what they can do, I challenge you to create your own way to connect.  Try the Challenge for a day, for 3, for a week if you can and donate whatever additional money you might have spent that week on fighting hunger.  As we enter the increasingly circusesque elections, pay attention to and consider voting for candidates committed to building a strong society that includes provides opportunity and access to basic resources for all.  

The Real Challenge: Eating Healthy on a Budget

The Purchase

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went grocery shopping for the week. I didn’t go with a list, but I had some general ideas of what I wanted. $30.67 isn’t much, so I started by doing a lap of the store, writing down prices and attempting to balance my limited budget. I quickly learned that carbs are cheap and would be filling, but are clearly not as healthy. I cut out pasta sauce to buy cucumbers and I dropped grape jelly to add on bananas and a few more apples. I relinquished my coffee addiction. And with every item I bought, I stopped to examine if there was a cheaper alternative.

At the end, I had calculated in my head that I was at $30, give or take a few. And that’s when I realized how stressful it is living on this budget. If I got to the register and my total was $31, I could afford to just buy the extra food and remove an apple from my stash for the week. But the 450,000 people in San Diego who do this every day are faced with this same experience, and they may not be able to afford the extra cucumber or the 2lb bag of carrots. They may have to ask the clerk to return an item, stall the line, etc. I was surprised to feel some of that fear and anxiety as I approached the register. I left with $1.07. It was the most conscientious I have ever been while shopping at the grocery store and it was a clear reminder of how thankful I am for my food security.

The Challenge

The week, as a whole, went pretty smoothly. I never felt like I was going to have to skip a meal, but by the conclusion of my Sunday dinner I will have only 2 extra potatoes, 1/3 of a box of pasta, and a few slices of bread remaining. I only got hangry once, so I call that a win, but I didn’t give myself much wiggle room on my budget. There were a few really difficult aspects to my meals, the first being the repetition. Every breakfast consisted of a bowl of cereal with milk and every lunch consisted of a peanut butter sandwich, a piece of fruit, and a small portion of vegetables. Dinner was more variable and was always the meal I enjoyed most.

After a long day of work the last thing I want to do is cook. During a typical week, I’ll make something easy like grilled cheese or pick up something on the way home. This week, I didn’t have that option but the temptation was always there. It often felt like there was less time in the day because I was spending so much more time worrying about my meals; making lunches, measuring portions, and cooking every night. Again, I realized how much more conscientious I was about what and when I was eating.

The Conclusion

Eating on a budget is manageable. Eating healthy on a budget? That’s a bigger challenge. As a health professional, it was an eye opening experience to the challenge of finding cheap, fresh vegetables. If I was a diabetic and I was trying to limit my carbohydrate intake, I would have drastically failed my diet this week. My core staples at every meal were cereal, bread, potatoes, and pasta; carbs, carbs, and more carbs. They were filling, and as a non-diabetic, made this challenge a little more manageable. I was able to find cheap fruits, but those are high in simple sugars that I advise my patients with diabetes to avoid. I successfully included less expensive, lean meats in my diet, but my week was lacking in bright, fresh, green vegetables. That is the issue with the limited amount of money provided to CalFresh users; either we need to work towards increasing the monthly CalFresh allotment or decreasing the price of healthy options. Easier said than done, certainly. But I have hope that Hunger Action Month and this week’s CalFresh Challenge have raised awareness to these issues and that we may continue move towards ending food insecurity. 

CalFresh Challenge & Living on a Limited Income

Could you live on a food budget of $4.38 per day?

For many Californians living on CalFresh (food stamps) or a limited income, this seemingly impossible budget represents a harsh, day-to-day reality.

Some, like seniors living on supplemental security income (SSI) and state supplementary payment (SSP) face an even greater challenge: Their benefits make them ineligible to receive the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the stipend they do receive barely covers their living expenses, such as rent, transportation, and any medications they need. Day-to-day life is an immense struggle for them, signaling a need for change.

From Sept. 21 to 27, the San Diego Hunger Coalition will run the CalFresh Challenge, an anti-hunger initiative designed to generate exposure and innovation for those struggling to receive daily ample nutrition. For the challenge, you set a daily food budget of $4.38—the amount afforded by CalFresh (food stamps)—for a week, writing down and sharing your experiences along the way.   

You’ve no doubt heard that living a day in someone else’s shoes provides a valuable exercise in empathy and compassion, and the CalFresh Challenge is an extension of this fact, helping people understand the challenges of those living on food stamps across California.  

Even without the Challenge, though, it’s a good exercise to think about the ways people adjust their eating habits when faced with budgetary restraints.  

1. Buy food you can repurpose for several meals. Fresh produce like lettuce, peppers, and an onion can be used for several salads throughout the week, while a multipurpose starch, like a bag of long-grain brown rice or a bag of potatoes, can also last a week or longer.
2. Get a rotisserie chicken or roast your own whole bird. You can get a whole rotisserie chicken or an uncooked whole chicken to prepare yourself for about the price of just one pack of boneless, skinless breasts or thighs.
3. Prepare your meals ahead of time. Meal prepping can keep you from needing unnecessary snacks throughout the day or making a stop at a fast-food joint for a quick meal. If your meal is already done and portioned, you’re less likely to splurge and cut into your budget and food supply.
4. Leftovers! Don’t waste any food. If you didn’t finish a meal, save what you didn’t eat in a resealable bag or container and reheat it later.

Now, think about these points.

It’s already hard to eat well in a fried-and-fast-food society, but restricting your budget adds another layer of difficulty.

Is it realistic to meal prep when you may be juggling two jobs, children, and the rigors of a normal family life? For many, this is simply not an option. The long-lasting starches, such as rice and potatoes, offer little nutritional value on their own, so while they may help fill you up, you’re getting little in return without coupling them with a more expensive protein and/or vegetable.

That $1 meal quickly turns into a much more expensive plate as you boost its nutritional value.

For many living on a limited income, though, these are the realities they must endure. Prevention.com recently published a blog post titled “7 Ways to Eat Healthy for $4 a Day,” shedding some more light on the issue.

Read the post here and think about the tips. Would you be willing to make these changes? Could you, faced with a real need, limit your food budget to $4 a day and still lead a healthy, happy life?

It’s a real challenge, and it’s worth our time to brainstorm ideas and solutions for those who truly need it.  

In an effort to better understand this struggle, our Program Officer, Michele Silverthorn, is taking the CalFresh Challenge herself. She’ll also be share her experiences here on the AHF blog, so stay tuned for more updates on the CalFresh Challenge.

How do you get your money’s worth at the grocery store? What are some ideas you have that could impact the lives of the millions of hungry citizens living on food stamps across California?  

Leave a comment or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or LinkedIn and let us know. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this subject.

– Nancy Sasaki, Executive Director, Alliance Healthcare Foundation. For additional entries, please visit the AHF blog here! 

Survey Responses

This week, we sent a quick survey for some of the CalFresh Challenge Participants who might not have time for a full blog entry but still wanted to share a bit about their experience: 

Francesca’s Response:

Q1: What are some of the items you have purchased and eaten?

Salads and sandwiches have been my lunch and dinners; bananas for breakfast. I've been drinking water all day.

Q2: How's the Challenge going for you so far?

Difficult! I am in an intense training program, and the lack of food and energy is making it hard for me to focus. I also don't have energy or will do do my daily exercise regimes.

Q3: What has been the most eye opening moment?

When I realize I have to make the food that I have purchased last for days.

CMA’s Response:

Q1: What are some of the items you have purchased and eaten?

On the first day, I forgot my lunch and drink for work so I stopped by McDonalds to purchase a $1 unsweetened tea and a MC Griddle total of $4.73; then one of my peers invited me to a working lunch. He offered to pay and I agreed. (normally I would offer to pay the total check, but was proud that I didn't) For day two, I remembered to bring my lunch and snack and for dinner, we eat what I had cooked the night before. For day three, I remembered my lunch and drink and took out meatballs and sauce I froze over the weekend.

Q2: How's the Challenge going for you so far?

So far it's going okay since I stocked up on groceries on the weekend, but this morning I noticed that fresh fruit, vegies and protein is very low since my son and my teenage daughter are feeding themselves for lunch and before I get home. I will need to go shopping today.

Q3: What has been the most eye opening moment?

The restrain on eating out or inviting a friend. I really had to think about this something that I normally do not have to do. I am feeling very blessed for the job and resources I have, and can only imagine what single mothers/fathers go through.

Anonymous:

Q1: What are some of the items you have purchased and eaten?

chick peas, brown rice, lentils, oatmeal, bananas, broccoli, organic eggs

Q2: How's the Challenge going for you so far?

OK. I've eaten on a stricter budget before. It requires forethought and discipline, so it's a commitment that takes some resources.

Q3: What has been the most eye opening moment?

I don't feel good today, so typically I would treat myself to something healthy and delicious, like a whole-food smoothie or brownie from a specialty shop. I'm not sure how to comfort myself, since I typically use good (expensive) food.

Unintended Consequences of Focusing on Food

Our week started off well enough… however, I’m learning that my attempts to make meals palatable and interesting may have cost us our food security. 

What remained of my pad thai

In an effort to “beat” the doldrums associated with eating on a tight budget, I created a varied meal plan, one that would keep my partner and I both satisfied and interested in the food we are eating.  A part of me did this in solidarity with budget meal planners and preparers, usually women, across the nation who are tasked with creating something “delicious” and cheap.  The other part of me wanted to see if the “you can eat gourmet on a budget” recipes that litter Pintrest and Mommy blogs across the nation actually held up. 

The verdict: I can cook amazingish meals (aka Pad Thai inspired rice, chicken and egg) on a CalFresh budget, BUT it takes 3-4 hours per day. 

Some quick background: at the beginning of the week, I created a meal plan that would only repeat the same meal once- yes- you heard me, we would only eat rice and beans twice in a row.  I worked off of staples of rice, quinoa, and potatoes and added egg, bean and chicken for protein.  Mix a different staple with a different protein and a few veggies and spices, and voilà you’ve got a new meal!    **Disclaimer, I have not been able to test these meals for nutritional content.  We’re most likely getting the protein and carbs we need, but we’re definitely light on fat and key vitamins/nutrients. **

In addition to meal planning and shopping, I am literally spending 3+ hours each night to cook and prepare meals.  Last night, I spent hours boiling and shredding chicken, cooking and crumbling egg, and cooking and seasoning rice for our Pad Thai lunches.  There’s no way that I could do this and hold down a full time job long term, especially if I had kids. 

As a result of spending so much time on food, other parts of our lives have suffered.  I no longer have time for connecting with friends, going to the gym, or doing other things that I enjoy.  Cooking, preparing meals, washing dishes and planning for the rest of the week (ie bean counting) has taken over. Spending 3-4 hours per day is not a realistic solution for most Americans.  While the USDA claims that SNAP recipients spend an additional ~90 minute per week on meal planning and prep, I call “Fact Check” on that one.  

Also as a result of focusing on food, I forgot and missed a deadline today for paying a parking ticket- costing me an extra $50.  There are so many things that could be said about the larger context of living in poverty and the impact that stress has on our lives.  

We were prepared for the CalFresh Challenge. Are recipients prepared for theirs?

The CalFresh Challenge is nearly over and I noticed that I have been estimating how much I spend on food each day. I did not purchase groceries for the week in the amount of $30.67 - I have been planning by day. I began to ask myself whether individuals on CalFresh know that to stretch their monthly allowance they would need to only spend $4.38 a day. Those of us taking the challenge we were given this information, and we were also supplied with a grocery list and recipe tips. Needless to say this made it a lot easier for me, and I am sure it also helped those that took advantage of these reinforcement materials. There are numerous real life stories from CalFresh recipients indicating that they run out of food towards the end of the month. Aside from only being given a bare minimum to live off of - do these individuals know how to effectively budget their money? If they do, then are they given recipe tips and tricks?

We were prepared for this challenge. Are CalFresh recipients prepared for theirs?

Financial and nutrition education is vital for these recipients. Supplemental income for food isn't enough - recipients need to be taught how to maintain a healthy lifestyle on such a low budget. Housing on Merit understands this reality and in order to combat it provides its residents with financial literacy workshops and nutrition education courses. HOM opens up learning opportunities for its residents, but these opportunities need to be made available to all CalFresh recipients. 

The San Diego Financial Literacy Center and the Wells Fargo Hands on Banking program are free resources that provide essential tools to help combat financial illiteracy. The University of California system has also created a wonderful program called the UC CalFresh Nutrition Education Program. They offer classes for adults and children and have a wealth of knowledge on how to maximize their use of certain foods in order to avoid running out of food towards the end of the month. Bringing this education to CalFresh recipients allows them to have the tools to maintain a healthy lifestyle. 

-This entry is from a staff member at Housing on Merit. To read more about their experience, check out their blog here. 

Placing Restrictions

The repetitive nature of my meals this week is getting to me by now. I will be very glad to not see oatmeal for a while after the challenge. It’s also been difficult being the only one from my house taking the challenge this week. It’s hard to come home and see my family eating some of my favorite home cooked meals (tuna and shrimp ceviche this week) while I have lentils and rice and pasta with sausage again. I’ve also been craving ice cream. Nothing major, but I do think that there is something about having a restricted food budget that makes you obsesses about what you’re eating, what you wish you were eating, and how much you resent not being able to eat it.

The only restriction this week to indulging on snacks is the limitation of my budget this week but it also reminds me of the debates about what SNAP recipients can and should use their benefits for. As it stands right now, CalFresh recipient can purchase food and seeds meant for human consumption. They cannot purchase any alcohol, tobacco, or hot and prepared meals (San Diego County is one of seven counties in California that allow eligible homeless, disabled, and individuals over 60 to use their CalFresh benefits at participating restaurants).

However, the debate of restricting what CalFresh recipients is, unfortunately, an old story. Missouri’s been attempting to ban recipients from buying seafood and steak, Maine is attempting to prevent recipients from purchasing junk food, Wisconsin wants to regulate what is purchased by recipients. These restrictions on CalFresh recipients are part of a larger move to place higher restrictions on low income individuals overall. While the feasibility of these initiatives is doubtful, they highlight a very real perception we have in the US that the poor have it too easy. That the poor should be suffering. That poor people are actively choosing junk food over nutritious meals and that the best way to encourage better nutrition for low income individuals is by policing their behavior.

Given this rhetoric, it’s not surprising that not all eligible individuals apply for benefits.

Feeling Good?

I think about food a lot. Usually, it’s with excitement. My day dreams consist of dinner brainstorming, making lists for my next grocery store run, and what new things I could do with cookie butter. 

These past few days I’ve been thinking about food even more. 

And my thoughts haven’t been too pleasant. 

Breakfast

For the most part I have been satisfied with my meals. For breakfast these past two days I’ve had oatmeal which is a usual part of my diet. I do miss, though, the raisins and walnuts that normally accompany it. 

For lunch yesterday I made a rice bowl from Monday’s leftovers consisting of black beans, green peppers, tomato and some jalapeno. I snacked on carrot sticks too. 

Dinner was a bit of a struggle. 

Yesterday, fall hit New York with full force. It looked like a handful of trees turned colors overnight, and the day was overcast with a nippy breeze. Throughout work I kept thinking about how nice it would be to change into sweat pants and have a hot bowl of soup. But then reality set in and I remembered that I didn’t fit soup into my budget. Even if I could whip up a broth with the veggies I had, I would be out of food for the rest of the week. 

It looks like CalFresh doesn’t take into account spontaneous cravings. 

Dinner Day 2: yam with rice

For dinner I ended up baking some yam with rice, creating a creamy pilaf that was suitable for welcoming in Fall, but it wasn’t quite the same…

The forecast for today was warmer than yesterday, so I felt that a kale salad for lunch would be appropriate. 

Day 3 lunch: Kale Salad

Dinner, today was a deconstructed potato taco. 

I am used to satisfying my food cravings and whims without giving them a single thought.  If I want soup on a chilly Autumn day, I can stop by the grocery store or indulge in Panera take-out (and pick up a warm latte while I’m there). If I change my mind, I know I have enough food in my fridge and in my pantry to make a number of satisfying replacements. If I’m not in the mood to cook anything at all, there are four different delivery places programmed in my phone. 

The restrictions of this challenge are suffocating. 

And I still really, really, want soup. 

Why I’m not taking the CalFresh Challenge

What a person is (or isn’t) eating could also be what is eating them.

When my colleagues announced that they would be taking the CalFresh challenge, I knew right away that I probably couldn’t join them.  My limited diet prohibits the digestion of everything from pasta to alcohol to nightshade plants. To sneak a glass of wine is one thing but ingestion of any food on the prohibited list for a whole week would have health consequences that could range from mildly annoying to painful. While I’m fairly certain that I probably could have found a way to adhere to a budget, it was the mental exhaustion of creating a meal plan for a diet that I already struggle with under the best of financial circumstances that I found to be the biggest hurdle.

Poverty snakes its way into every single aspect of a person’s life. It manifests as food insecurity, inadequate housing, environmental illness, a sub-par education, and an increased likelihood of encountering violence. The physiological consequences of dealing with just one of those aspects is substantial, but the mental health effect is equally if not more significant and is likely to have a generational impact.

Yes, just about everyone over the age of 15 is stressed out in modern-day America regardless of income, but not everyone’s stress is based on having to make choices over who eats in the household, which prescription pill to cut in half or skip for the day, or if the converted garage you’re illegally living in will be discovered. And even those of us who have climbed past the first rung on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs may still have a lingering fear if you spent a little too much time in your childhood worrying about the basics like what you’ll eat and where you’ll live. Layer a health issue on top of the lingering trauma of lack in a critical area and it’s enough to make you throw your hands up in the air.

To be food insecure is to have to worry. A burnt meal or a dropped plate is concerning; a child with diabetes or celiac disease requires immense strategic planning with very limited resources. Mental wellness is just not achievable when a person has to worry about what they’re going to eat, or how what they are eating may affect their health. 

Very Brief Crash Course: Policy and CalFresh

Hi CalFresh Participants!

Policy has a huge influence of CalFresh recipients and how they access benefits. We wanted to highlight the major pieces of legislation that affect CalFresh as well as a few other federal nutrition programs:

FEDERAL LEVEL

Farm Bill

What it does: One of the largest comprehensive pieces of legislation that guides and provides funding for federal farm and food policies. The Farm Bill funds the CalFresh/SNAP program, the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), USDA Snack Program, Food Distribution Programs for Native Americans, among other food and nutrition programs.

When will there be space for action: The Farm Bill is typically renewed every five years and it was just recently authorized in 2014. The latest version of the Farm Bill included $8.6 billion in cuts to the SNAP/CalFresh program.

For more information, please visit FRAC Action Council.

Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization

What it does: Provides the guidelines and funding for federal child nutrition programs including School Breakfast, National School Lunch, Child and Adult Care Food, Summer Food Service, the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Programs, and Women, Infant and Children (WIC).

When will there be space for action: The current law is due for reauthorization by September 30, 2015.

For more information, please visit FRAC Action Council.

STATE LEVEL

The state legislative session is over for this year but we wanted to share which bills have passed both the house and the senate and are now waiting for the Governor’s signature. 

AB 515: Farm to Food Bank Tax Credit

What it does: Provides tax credit incentives for farms to donate surplus produce to local food banks to help increase the access of fresh fruits and vegetables for low income Californians.

AB 1321 California Nutrition Incentive Program

What it does: Creates a Matching Grant Program that allows California to bring money from the federal government to allow low income Californians to double up their CalFresh benefits at participating farmers markets. 

For additional information on the bills that passed and died this legislative session, please check out Hunger Advocacy Network’s 2015 Legislative and Budget Agenda.

Current News

As the nation prepares for another potential government shutdown by October 1st, CalFresh recipients might see a delay or postponement of their benefits for next month. If Congress is unable to reach a compromise within the next week, the U.S.  Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not have the funding available to continue benefits for recipients which could be detrimental for CalFresh/SNAP recipients. For more information, please click here. 

Learning to Get Creative

CFC Day 2:

Breakfast: 6oz low-fat yogurt w/ 8 blackberries = $1.04
Lunch: Penne (½ cup), pasta sauce (2oz) and 1 chicken tender = $1.65
Snack: n/a
Dinner: Whole grain pita with hummus, chicken, feta, green onions, and cucumbers = $1.74

Daily Total = $4.41 = 1,443 calories

Challenges: I skipped my afternoon snack today so I would have more wiggle room to budget my dinner. I ended up going over the daily allotment by $.03 and realized how much every single item counts. Normally, when making meals, I tend to snack on the veggies as I chop them but I knew that if I did that, I would not have any to put on my pita. My self-control was definitely tested. 

Lessons Learned: I found myself becoming very creative with the ingredients I had. Instead of looking up recipes that may require me to go out and purchase additional items, I just took a look at what I had and chose to go with a Greek theme and just threw this together. A week ago, I probably would have purchased an item such as my pita creation for $5+ on the go. Now that I know I can make one for under $2, this will be added to my weekly lunch schedule. Plus, I made an additional one for lunch tomorrow!  

Nutritional Information Courtesy of MyFitnessPal App

Blog entry from Jaqueline Hess from Feeding America San Diego. Jacqueline is taking the CalFresh Challenge for the entire month of September! To access all her entries, you can visit her site here. 

My Past Experience with Food Stamps

I felt surprisingly confident on the first day of the Challenge. I had coffee and oatmeal in the morning, something I will be having every morning this week. For lunch, I had pasta with peppers and chicken jalapeno sausage from Trader Joe’s. Since most of our office is participating in the Challenge this year, we got to share stories of our shopping experience prepping for the week. It was interesting to hear about their anxiety and stress at the store as they planned out their meals this week and it was even more fascinating comparing it to my non-stressful shopping experience.

At around 1pm I realized I need to budget more coffee into the Challenge. My coffee addiction started in high school and it has fluctuated quite a bit. I have tried to quit, to cut down, to replace coffee with tea but it never works out. I probably should have accounted for how much coffee I drink a day a bit more. Luckily, I have some leftover money to account for my coffee addiction.

Dinner went pretty well as well. I cooked a staple for me: ground turkey with spices, potatoes and tomatoes with some basmati rice. I love this because it’s a quick and easy recipe and I can always have some leftover for the next day.

For day 2 of the challenge, I had leftovers for lunch and for dinner I had some lentils and rice. During the second day we also discovered that this month Whole Foods is having 25 cent coffee! It might be the best news of the week so far.

Overall, it seems like I’m having a relatively easy start to the Challenge but I attribute it to the fact that I’ve been on benefits before and I had to learn to master meal planning with a limited budget. Taking the Challenge this week has made me think a lot about my AmeriCorps experience. As an AmeriCorps member, my stipend was not considered income so when the county calculated my benefits, I was eligible for the full benefit amount: $200 a month before the cuts to SNAP funding and $189 a month after the cuts to SNAP funding. My monthly stipend came to roughly $1,547 a month towards the end of my term. If my income was calculated to determine my CalFresh benefits, I would only be eligible for $16 a month.

I often found this disparity challenging, especially since my work as an AmeriCorps member meant I was meeting with clients on a daily basis that were living on similar incomes yet they were not eligible for the same benefit as I was. What made it more difficult was knowing that the individuals I worked with were actively searching for higher earning jobs without any success. Some went back to school to improve their chances and ended up with high student loan debt and limited options for advancement, others battled with debilitating mental health issues while attempting to maintain their jobs, while others strived to make a better life for their children in positions with highly fluctuating work schedules.

For me, having access to the full CalFresh allotment not only gave me access to more nutritious meals but it gave me peace of mind that I knew where my next meal was coming from and that I had one less thing to worry about. For the clients I worked with, CalFresh was a lifeline but it was not always enough. They understood that the benefits were a temporary safety net and they were never proud to be receiving CalFresh. Contrary to what some of the myths about CalFresh recipients are, the clients I worked with all looked forward to the day that they would not to rely on CalFresh to make ends meet. 

Now that I have moved away from doing direct service, I feel like doing the CalFresh Challenge this week is a good reminder of why I focus on fighting hunger and food insecurity. It's a good reminder that the work we do in raising awareness and limiting the barriers to accessing this much needed resource is great but also that by talking about public benefits in a more open setting, we are also hopefully working towards de-stigmatizing CalFresh. 

Day 3: Food without pleasure.

Food is such an inextricably linked part of my world, my aesthetic – heck, my husband is a chef and I have a Master’s degree in Food Studies. You can imagine why the magical internet linked our online dating profiles together that fateful day, and you can further imagine how much of our pleasure derives from sharing food and cooking.

Yesterday morning and afternoon were fine, as I generally do not eat extravagant or terribly exciting foods during my work day (though sometimes I do since we work in a vibrant Mexican, Vietnamese neighborhood of San Diego), but when I got home I began to stare down the monotony of another dinner of pasta, rice, or beans as its main component. I haven’t been really hungry, per say, because I am filling myself with foods that satiate, but my palette is screaming for flavor and my heart misses that from which I derive pleasure: the creativity of dreaming up my next dish, the excitement of culling together the ingredients and making them meld into a wonderful treat. When you work really hard all day, and life is hectic, sometimes the most fulfilling moment in that 24 hours can be a great meal and a lovely glass of wine. At least for me it can be.

I am writing a book on prison food and I write a lot about the monotony of repetitive meals and the deprivation of choice. I am very, very slightly glimpsing toward that feeling of having simply meals that fill the belly rather than ones that delight. I have read that with poverty comes a huge amount of boredom, and I am beginning to see how detrimental to spirit that can be.

Food is a true pleasure. Almost universally people find happiness and community in it. It is the one thing we are forced to do every day to keep ourselves alive that we can also turn into moments of sheer happiness. All of that changes on food stamps.

Living on $4.38/day: Day 1 – Eating slowly

The above image came from this fascinating brief history of the food stamp program.  A few years ago I was moved by the idea that I could help create awareness among my circles about hunger issues through this thing called the CalFresh Challenge.  You have to live off $4.38 per day, which is the amount a single adult receives in the food stamp program in California.  The last time I did it, I wrote about many of the things that people don’t understand, like why businesses and poor people both lose if you over regulate what items are included, how this started out as a Republican/Bi-partisan ideal to help the very poor, and even simple things like eligibility criteria.  Today is day one, here’s how it went. The day before we started (a Sunday), my wife and I planned our meals for the week, went shopping, and then itemized the costs of everything.  The first really shocking thing was that our initial meal plan came out to about $84 – or $23 more than we would receive if we were getting food stamps.  Figuring out how to shave over $20 off an already sparse meal plan was pretty tough.  We cut about $15 and are sitting tight for now to see what else can be trimmed.

Another thing to notice is that the amount of money available in food stamps has actually gone down for recipients by over 10% since 2012.  An $8/week reduction may not seem like much to most people, but it made the process that much more challenging.  On top of the reduction in food benefit, the actual costs of the food (and likely everything else one has to pay for) has gone up.  We made a couple of the same items as last time and you can see the price per serving is higher this year.  So, there’s that.

Peanut Butter Puffins

As for the food, it was a pretty tame first day.  I started with these. A reasonably priced item at .55 cents per serving including organic fancy pants 2% milk.  When I got to work I immediately went for some hot tea.  I think I’ll be staving off hunger with water and tea.  I have an office job, so it’s easy to get some hot water and technically the coffee is available at no charge.  I am passing on coffee this week because I can’t afford it.

Lunch was an oldie but goodie, split pea soup! Here’s what I wrote about it – and its incredible nutritional value – last time (link).

Healthy & filling split pea soup

This is a great dish if you are trying to stretch dollars. It is a $1.33/serving (compared to $1.08 in 2012), which is a little high for lunch, but worth it.  The pale, slimy green appearance probably would turn kids off, but it tastes good and is super nutritious.  You need a microwave to make it work, but other than that it’s a pretty easy choice.  It occurs to me that if I had an outside job, like on a construction or landscaping gig, I’d probably have to make different choices about my lunch just due to the lack of a kitchen.  I’ll be interested to hear other stories of what is possible from others who either do this challenge or just live their lives with this budgetary constraint.

I read on one of my favorite news sites how according to the author doing this type of thing is a stunt.  To be sure, some politicians and others do this so they can play gotcha games with the other side. Former California Republican gubernatorial candidate Neal Kashkari kind of set the gold standard for trolling with his pretending to be homeless for a week.  The sad part is, had he just focused on sharing the lessons that such harsh conditions teach us, it could have been a really useful thing. His effort probably was a stunt.  But there’s a danger in minimizing efforts to call attention to the challenges that being poor or nearly poor brings.  Most people won’t know and don’t generally have time to really understand what it’s like to have to stretch your money because you only have $4/day to eat with. This is an opportunity to help get more information to people.  And, hopefully, more empathy.  Using someone’s dire circumstances to score cheap political points is a bad idea.  But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. I guarantee no one I speak to this week will know that while food prices went up, the amount available to live off went down.

On another front, the people in my office are really decent human beings.  And they love to share their baking skills with everyone else.  In fact, I went in to fetch some hunger-masking ice cold water from the break room and found this.

I hear it was delicious.  I had to skip it to stay on the path of this challenge.  Truth be told, if your place of employment serves food you probably augment your personal food supply with at least one meal this way.  I recently learned from an uncle that my grandmother stretched their very limited food supplies in Little Rock in the ’50s by bringing home the leftovers she prepared as a cook for her wealthy employers. Nevertheless, I get the idea of trying to be true to the spirit of the campaign, so I passed on this lovely looking cake.

It’s amazing how much more slowly you eat when you know the next meal is eight hours away and you don’t have money to just grab a quick pick-me-up. I’m only one day into this thing and am already remembering one of the things that I think is really most important.  The experience of hunger shapes how you handle other things. It’s like going on a long walk with a mild ankle injury. You can get the job done, but there isn’t a point where you don’t notice that something’s not right.

Turning to dinner, we had this

These “taco” lettuce wraps were only $3.44/serving and they were delicious.  A couple things. First, as a native San Diegan whose first food love is Mexican food, I know the idea of calling anything without a tortilla a taco is sacrilege. But when your motivation is partially to convince yourself that something isn’t as odd as it seems a little suspended disbelief never hurt anyone. Second, they actually were good and I didn’t miss the tortilla.  I’m not just making the best of it, I was really surprised to find this to be true.  Not sure if I could permanently leave the warm goodness of the Pancho Villa tortilla forever, but the occasional substitute may be good for the wallet and the waist.

Day One unfolded as mostly a success. I shared the story with a few work colleagues, so am raising a little awareness, and I’m ready to tackle day two. We had three healthy meals all for about $5.32 each. Yes, we blew our daily budget on the first day by .94 cents (over 20%), but we wanted to get started on the right foot and will look to make that up later in the week.

I think I reached at least five new people in person with the story. In fact, one friend of mine even recommended giving the difference between my weekly grocery budget and what we’re spending on this challenge to the Hunger Coalition. I’m going to discuss this with my wife, but it’s an interesting idea.  Our weekly grocery budget is about $125, but some of that is the prorated cost of things like paper towels and lotion. Technically we could have a separate category for these things, but at some point you get too granular and budgets stop having meaning.  But anyway let’s assume our food consumption budget is about $100/month. That’d be only about $40 worth of donation. What’s perhaps most shocking is how much of a difference that amount of money makes on what you can eat.  My theory is that if we downshifted on ingredient quality we could probably knock off another $10-15.  I like paying more for hormone-free this or humanely raised that, but I hope people who get self-righteous about this type of thing realize what a luxury that actually is. I suspect most of the world – and over 400,000 San Diegans – simply don’t have the good fortune to be so picky. Maybe it points to larger problems with our food system. Well, food for thought, I guess (yes, yes that was a terrible and initially unintended pun). Thanks for reading

Blog entry by Omar Passons. To read more about his journey, you can check out eat.drink.give.go.

Food Stamps- Not Stress-Friendly

It looks like I am off to a pretty lousy start. 

I spent last night at my friend’s house to offer her support as she adjusted to cat ownership. We relocated Minnie from her home of seven years in Connecticut to Beacon, NY. 

Have you ever sat with a cat in a carrying case for an hour in a half in a car?

It was a traumatic experience for us all. 

To recover we ordered pizza, drank wine, watched movies, and eyed Minnie as she explored her new home. 

To cure the headache I woke up with today, I felt it was a good idea to eat a few slices of the leftover pizza. 

Oops. It turns out CalFresh doesn’t take into account hangover food…

I wasn’t able to get on the right track until dinner time. Running errands all day forced me to skip lunch; needless to say, I was famished when it was time to make my first CalFresh meal. 

Taco Night

I have the feeling I will be eating a variety of this meal throughout the week.  These tacos are stuffed with black beans, brown rice, a sliver of green bell pepper, a wedge of tomato, and a nib of roasted jalapeno. 

A New Kind of Stress... Will there be enough?

Lunch for Day 1 of the Challenge!

Day 1 of the CalFresh Challenge is complete!  I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only did I make it through the day, but I was also able to make it through a Spin workout w/ a decent amount of energy.  There were small tweaks made to my day: I spent an additional hour on food preparation and drank an extra 40 ounces of water to stay “full;” however, we were able to squeeze in 3.5 servings of fruits and vegetables, got lots of protein, and I even kept my daily dose of caffeine. 

Now to the stress… while we had a “great 1st day,”  it might have been too “great.”  I thought I had budgeted enough rice and beans to get us through four meals; however, I’m quickly realizing that we’ll need nearly double the amount I planned for!  What this means is that we’ll potentially need to decide between protein and produce later in the week.  A part of me had thought that we’d have an easier time taking advantage of economies of scale with two people participating in the Challenge; however, we are learning that no matter how well we plan, this allotment does not allow for an adequate food budget. No matter how creative we get, something has to be given up.

When I realized how much my partner needs to eat, my first thought was whether I could cut my portions to ensure he got enough.  While I recognize that trading my food security for his is not a healthy choice, it is one millions of Americans make each day, especially those with growing children.  Since noticing the potential shortage, my free thoughts are occupied figuring out how to shift and stretch what we have to “cover the gap.” I rarely spend this much time and energy on getting enough healthy food in my body.  Luckily we have PLENTY of carbs (5lbs of potatoes for $1 makes carb loading easy).  We’ll see what the rest of the week has in store…

Going Over Budget

On to Day 2! I’m excited, but still a little worried about making this budget work.

We stuck with our planned menu for meals and snacks throughout the day:

Shrimp Kabobs for dinner

Breakfast (fruit) – .27
Morning snack (string cheese) – .25
Lunch (wrap sandwich) – 1.54
Afternoon snack (carrots and celery) – .35
Dessert (yogurt) – .58
Total daily meals/snacks (except dinner) – 2.99

But I didn’t budget for coffee, but I had one this morning. I made it at home for .78.

For dinner, we had kabobs. I bought a dozen shrimp because they were on sale. I used half of it on dinner tonight, so we each got a kabob with 3 shrimp. It’s definitely not enough protein, but I was nervous to buy any more than that. We also had a kabob of veggies (zucchini and onion) and a side of corn.

Here’s the cost breakdown:

6 shrimp – 1.73
1 zucchini – .59
1/2 onion – .20
2 ears of corn – 1.00
Total for dinner – 3.52

So our total for the day (meals and snacks during the day, my coffee, and dinner) came to $10.28, or $5.14 per person. We went over our budget for the day, but hopefully we’ll be able to make up for it somewhere.

Headaches & Lack of Energy

As my first day of the CalFresh challenge comes to an end, I would like to point out I have a headache and am drained-physically and mentally! I decided to buy groceriesyesterdayfor the first 3 days of the challenge- spent 13.50-and will purchasefood on Thursday for the last 4 days with the remaining balance.  I purchased bagged salad, bread, ham, bananas, cucumber, and avocado and plan to make it last for 3 days. I am planning to make identical meals for the next few days, so have averaged the price per meal. For breakfast I had a banana(.27 cents), salad for lunch (1.78) and sandwich (2.05). I had a cookie for dessert (.20 cents) and didn't factor my bottle of water into my budget today, so I know now for future purposes.

It was hard to focus at work; by 2 I was so tired and had no energy. My stomach was grumbling all day. It was hard for me not to buy anything, especially since I had money in my wallet. It took a lot of will power not to buy any snacks, and I am proud that I stuck to it. I think I will not be able to go for my 30 minute lunch walk, as I did not have the energy for it, so I have to consider that as well. I know it will be difficult this weekend as I have family visiting from out of town, but i will continue to try my best.

See you later Starbucks

CalFresh Challenge shopping in New York. 

First, It’s frustrating knowing that I will not be able to give myself to this challenge 100%. On Friday a dear friend is getting married and on Saturday I will be attending the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival. For a second, I thought about taking into account the cost per plate at the wedding reception hall, but at $66, I would be sacrificing TWO WEEKS of food. With regards to the Garlic Festival, this glorious event comes but once a year and is a shining beacon in my small life. To make amends for my deviance from the challenge I will attempt to stretch out the food I bought for the challenge for two days past the official end. 

Location might prove to be a challenge. I am a native San Diegan living in the Hudson River Valley of New York. For over three years the East Coast has been my home and for over three years the discrepancies between East Coast and West Coast food have been the bane of my existence. I shudder every time I look at the outrageous prices of avocados and citrus. And I always have to give my produce an even more careful once-over since fruit and veggies take a beating when trucked over from the Central Valley of California. When I get the chance, I try to hit up the local farms for produce, but since I work Saturdays, I can’t make the local Farmer’s Markets and the one grocery store that features local products is a thirty minute trek (one that I refuse to make during bitter winter days). In New York the average weekly food stamp benefits per participant is $36.93, but I’m sticking to the California budget. 

Food is an extremely social aspect of my life. My mid-morning coffee break I have at the office is such an essential part of my day and my mid-week happy hour adventure is key to keeping sane. I’ve already rescheduled Aside from the previously stated exceptions, I will only eat food I have prepared from the items I purchased for the challenge. See you later Starbucks. Take care Sam Adams…

1 package of corn tortillas- $1.29
2 cans of black beans- $.67 each
1 can of garbanzo beans- $. 67
Brown rice- $1.19
Quick Oats- $2.69
Balsamic vinegar dressing - $2.99
Kale bunch- $.95
2 lb package of carrots- $1.00
Garlic- $.50
3 Russet potatoes -$2.56
Cucumber -$.66
Sweet potato -$1.02
Onion -$1.21
4 Granny Smith apples - $3.03
Jalapeno pepper - $.22
Green pepper -$1.11
2 tomatoes- $3.17 

TOTAL with Tax: $25.40