Food Stamp Budget experimenters
posted on 15 May 2007 by maki ::
10 comments
[The following has been edited to correct some things from the original posting and add a couple of links. Serious Eats lists some more congresspeople participating.]
Last year the most popular food plan experiment was “eating local”. This year so far it seems to be “eating on a food stamp budget”. The main reason for this is upcoming debate on the 2007 farm bill. Bush administration is proposing to make big cuts in food assistance for the poor, a large part of which would mean cuts to the food stamp program. [Edit: as an anonymous commenter pointed out, that was a link to an article about the 2005 farm bill cuts.] (A NY Times editorial about the subject [Edit: this actually is about the 2007 Farm Bill :)].) So a number of politicians are doing the Food Stamp Budget Experiment at least in part to protest against this.
Here are the ones I’ve found so far (Note, some of these links were already posted to my del.icio.us, so my apologies for the duplicates if you follow that also.)
- Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski seems to be the first one to start this.
- Councilman Eric Gioia from Queens, NY has run out of money (on a $28 per week budget) and is now relying on food from a food pantry. Earlier, New York Magazine was quite snarky about his experiment, to which Joe Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger who is also participating in the experiment, replied. (A food pantry, for non-USens, is a non-government, usually charity-run place where people can go for food, which is donated in the form of actual food or money to buy food from the public. The NYCCAH mentioned above and America’s Second Harvest are examples of groups who run food pantries.)
- Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson from Missouri is trying it also, on a $3 per day budget.
- So is Congressman James McGovern from Massachusetts. [Edit: His (and his wife’s) blog about the experience.] Emerson and McGovern are co-sponsoring a “Nutrition Bill”.
- [Added on May 17th] Congressman Tim Ryan (Dem. Ohio) is also participating, and blogging about it.
- Salt Lake (Utah) County Mayor Peter Corroon, Governor Jon Hunstman Jr. and State Representatives Jennifer Seelig and John Dougall (additional link)
All of these politicians seem to be sticking to the $3-a-day-per-person budget. As mentioned here previously, blogger Rebecca Blood is conducting a month-long experiment in this vein, though she’s allowing herself a $74 per day week budget (for two people), and adding the additional challenge of eating organic food. [Edit: see my followup post.] She seems to be doing quite well so far, eating lots of fresh vegetables, pulses and grains. On the other hand Councilman Eric Gioia, who went shopping with the assistance of a mother who had raised a family on food stamps, and bought things like ramen noodles, white bread (cheaper than whole wheat), canned tuna, peanut butter, isn’t doing very well. I suspect that more people who are actually in situations where they have to rely on food stamps shop more like the councilman than like Rebecca.
It does strike me that the councilman’s diet sounds suspiciously like that of a typical ‘starving’ student’s though, which is probably why a lot of the commenters on this Digg post seem to think it’s not a big deal.
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Eating on a Food Stamp Budget
Thanks for the link, Maki. That should be $74/week, not day - about about $5.30 per day, per person. I’m doing quite well so far - I even have leftovers in the freezer - but the contrast between my experience and the experience of those politicians buying ramen is important.
The budget I’m on is the one the US government has determined will feed two people “thriftily”. Since the government assumes that 1/3 of everyone’s food costs will be paid by the person themselves, everyone’s actual benefits vary. But the Thrifty Budget amount is important, because it’s the what the government has determined is adequate to feed a person or family. For 2 people, $74/week is $3 a week more than the maximum food stamp benefit we could ever collect.
One big assumption of the Thrifty Food Plan is that individuals will cook their own food, eat at home, not out, and so forth. And it seems quite reasonable to expect people to use their allotment in the most frugal manner possible.
But what about the homeless person without access to a kitchen? What about the person without any cooking skills (and there are lots of people like that). What about the person whose cooking skills depend on putting together prepared foods (which is the way many people cook)? What about the person working full-time (or more)? Can they realistically cook all of their meals from scratch?
I believe they could - but based on many of the comments I’ve gotten so far from people who have plenty of money but are anxious to reduce their food bills, there are lots of people out there who don’t have the first idea how to start.
My experience raises a lot of questions. Is the Thrifty Food Plan adequate to feed a typical working family that doesn’t have a stay-at-home member to do the cooking and shopping? Should governments be doing something to give people the skills they need to survive on such an austere budget? Should the US government raise the food stamp allotment to account for the realities of modern family life?
Move to where the food is.
Smaller communities, those surrounded by organic farms/producers, are likely to have the food pantry/bank stocked regularly with healthy items.
Otherwise relying solely on gov’t entitlements vis-à-vis the food stamp program and cash benefits, is not possible.
Despite these so-called ‘luxuries’, humane necessities, I left the area, to go to a different place; Where starving residents out, on items with less-than-zero nutrition - white-bread, not considered ‘bread’ - is handing out non-food items. Where not providing housing and general medical, is outside the conciousness. It needs to be explained, because locals don’t get this reality of north american life. The propaganda churned out by all the television and other networks in the states works well to hide the realities.
Consider the backdrop of Iraq, where every neo-con greedy idea is in place, ideas too far out for even the drugged U.S. people: People have no food, no housing, no electricity, no running water, no basic medical and no safety - clearly a success! Far from off-topic, this is the same syndicate dropping provisions for those who have the least.
Without the whole picture, there is no picture.
Thank you for your comments
Thank you for your comments Rebecca! And I’ve corrected the typo. (too many of these cropping up these days…)
Anon commenter, thank you for your comments also but I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. If your point is that people need to move to ‘better’ (in whatever way that’s defined) communities though, that’s not really a practical option for many people. Otherwise no one would live in run down, crime-riddled neighborhoods, for example.
That Washington Post article
That Washington Post article you link to is from 2005. What does that have to do with the current farm bill?
you are right
You’re right anonymous no. 2. I’ve corrected the post. (I missed the date since it all sounded familiar.)
$73 a week!
I can’t believe that is the USDA alloted amount for food stamps. That’s MORE than what my family of three spends and that’s splurging for two cartons of ice cream every shopping trip. I think it’s more of what people buy and where that becomes problematic. The best place to buy inexpensive and good produce is at farmer’s markets or local groceries… but most probably don’t take food stamps. Also, I think a lot of people buy “junk” food - canned, boxed, etc… which actually is more expenisve than buying and making it at home. Not to mention it’s not as healthy. And people also seem to abhor “stocking up” for sales (for staple foods, like pasta) or buying “in season” foods… but if you buy almost everything on sale (as we do) and in season, you can have some very tasty and healthy meals… for closer to $50 a week. (this is in California, where food is NOT cheap, but varieties of seasonal vegetables and fruit are readily available).
I want to know where you
I want to know where you live, so that I can come there too, because there is no way my husband and I could live on $73 a week and eat nutritious food; we could eat and manage, but on that budget we wouldn’t be able to afford to buy food that is good for us and poor families should have the same abilities to eat good food as many of us do. In addition, I applaud the “analysis” of the author of the post before this, because it really thinks critically about those who do not have a good home/kitchen, who do not have a home at all and many other people that this $73 is designed for. In my experience, families need a lot more assistance on having access to nutritious food.
Re: Move to where the food is.
Yes.
Precisely, I am talking about -moving-.
Re. “that’s not really a practical option for many people.” (Example given of inner-city folks).
With respect to the great intelligence I know you have - Wrong, or at least I disagree.
Poor pilgrims managed to cross the Atlantic Ocean in wooden boats hundreds of years ago, with a lot less resources than what someone living in an inner-city, run-down, rat-infested sewage pit has today. Many of the immigrants to north america since the time of the earlier ‘settlers’ have had similarly scant resources - coming from countries they were literally starved out of.
I see no difference [no greater barrier] between the examples above, and moving within the U.S. to another community which has ample fresh and healthy foods. As the poster in California points out, the food she needs for her family is available at less cost then 74$ a week.
Was it not the ‘Great Depression’ which saw huge internal migrations of people? People who were >willing< to make the move? Is it not the biggest obstacle in those who live in a neglected community the willingness to move out? It takes a lot of courage: it can be done. It may mean living in a cardboard box. However, it is my experience, there are those communities in north america, who find this unacceptable, even to a stranger, providing them with clothes, a tent or some lodging, and ample fresh and other foods.
Is it okay to stay within the idea of ‘I am a west-sider’, and remain on my side of the tracks, forever stuck in my own local community? My own health be damned? Or is it better to allow myself to be a member of the world community. And so long as I am physically and legally able to move somewhere better, do so with haste. I have heard misery loves company. [And Entropy takes all with it.]
Re: Move to where the food is.
Riddle me this, anonymous. How can someone move if they cannot afford to buy their own food and need help from the government? In other words, how does a family of three or four pack up and move when they cannot even afford gas to get out of their city?
Your examples do not work on the basic tenet that land costs money these days. If someone is having to go through the government just to feed themselves, they certainly cannot afford to rent an apartment or house, nor could they even afford a down payment on such a place. When America was settled, land was mostly free and work was constantly available. These days, even college educated people have trouble finding a job that pays more than minimum wage. Using simple logic and mathematics, tell me how someone can support a family on $6.75/hour and still have enough to save for this grand exodus you think they can all make.
Maki, as for food stamp totals, the woman using $74/week is a far cry from the average of $72/MONTH. Foodstamps and healthy eating mix as well as oil and water.
Re: Food Stamp Budget experimenters
Growing up in a make from scratch household with 2 working parents (including a mom who went college & grad school while raising 3 kids), there was an incredible amount of planning ahead -- weekly menus, grocery shopping every 2 weeks, training the kids & husband to cook along, etc.
One of the first purchases after a home, was getting a freezer for the garage, ahead of any wall to wall carpets for the house, We made do with area rugs on the wood floors, which had to be cleaned, shined & buffed every week!
Weekday menus were simpler & quicker -- eg, casseroles, assembled while doing breakfast, then ready to cook when the kids got home from school.
We all learned the "time-bake" (pre-set delayed cooking) at a young age, but I remember teaching many adult women neighbors how to use that feature on their ovens, cause they waited until midafternoon to start thinking about what to eat for dinner, otherwise.
Since the oven would be going for meatloaf, we also prepared 7-10 baked potatoes, as many as would fit in the remaining space & voila! Enough for diced potato salad the next day!
Having older parents who were adults during the Great Depression, our family was naturally frugal.
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