Many politicians and activists have tried the "Food Stamp Challenge," where they take the average weekly amount given to one SNAP recipient and try to live off of it. In Washington, DC, there are MANY people who have tried this "challenge," using $30 a week to buy groceries. Everyone complains about how terrible and how awful it is, how they had to cut out so many Fresh Produce, etc. This infuriates me. As a 23 year old young professional in DC, I think that $30 is really a great price. Moreover, the SNAP amount is a supplemental amount - you aren't meant to only spend $30 on food, no more and no less. With $30 a week, that's nearly $120 a month for a single person's groceries. If you research even a little bit, it's really not hard. You have to look through sales or deals, buy store brand for certain things, and learn new recipes - but $30 for 21 meals a week isn't something awful and hard to do. Potatoes, pasta, rice, beans, lentils - these are all great bases. Chicken, turkey, on-sale beef can all be attained and stretched out. Things like fresh produce should never be eliminated, just simply shopped for better. The underlying issue is that people need to be taught about food and nutrition. It's not all about giving more money to these programs or arguing that these programs cannot be cut. I have my own personal opinions on the program, but the actual issue is that recipients need to learn about food: How to cook, what to buy, portion control, cooking in advance, etc. What do you all think? As people who post on this forum, I have a feeling that many of us either are in strict budgets or put ourselves on strict budgets to be more financially savvy. I would love to hear your thoughts on this "challenge."
I like the idea of the Food Stamp Challenge. I didn't know about it. Food Stamps are meant to be only a supplement, but in reality it's people's main source of food. $30/week is possible for a single person even in Southern California. It would require diet that's probably radically different from the typical American diet. Lentils, beans, rice, oatmeal, grains, vegetables and very limited meat. These are the foundation of a healthy diet, but how many Americans eat this way. Convenience food is the order of the day. I have recently switched to a vegetarian diet. I have cut out most packaged and refined foods. I feel so much better and my grocery bill has dropped tremendously. But it's a big pain to spend an hour or two to fix a meal that will last a couple of days. It's been an adjustment, but one for the better.
There was a series of challenge videos on Youtube a while back called the "$4 challenge" where the goal was to feed a family of 4 for under $4. One of the recipes was ground pork stir fried with rice noodles, soy sauce and bean sprouts. It depends on where you live though, I couldn't even find a pack of rice noodles in my area for under $4, so that already blew the budget. There is also a blog I started reading recently called Budget Bytes which has a series of very inexpensive recipes, along with a breakdown of all the costs. Worth checking out if its something that interests you. I tried a few recipes off there and they were really good. A couple of years ago, I used to live near a Stouffer's factory. They had a little outlet store that would sell cases of their products dirt cheap, I'm talking like $7 for a whole case (12) of a given item. Not the healthiest fare (although they did gave Lean Cuisine items too), but when money was tight it was a life saver. Just have to get used to eating the same thing for days, lol. One time I bought a case of flatbread pizzas, to this day I won't eat them anymore because I was so sick of them.
I agree with you 100%, particularly the part about nutrition education. I believe that SNAP could be more effective if part of the qualification process would be to participate in a monthly or bimonthly class concerning nutrition, sale shopping, and healthy cooking. Our family recently began a grocery budget. At first, I was cooking and buying the same things over and over again in order to meet the demands of our budget. With confidence and a little bit of shopping experience, I am branching out and trying new healthy recipes while staying within our budget. I believe that with the proper education, many people can eat healthy, sustainable meals on a strict budget.
I find this infuriating too. I am a single adult who would NEVER take food stamps, and I sometimes eat on less than that in a week... and I do it nutritiously (lots of chicken/veggies). Maybe we should challenge some of these politicians to live like the rest of us for a change instead of using our tax dollars to their advantage.
I think the challenge is eye opening. I use food stamps and yes, they are pretty much my only budget for food buying. I'm not complaining about this at all, though. I think what I get is enough for myself and my husband if we budget it correctly, but some people don't know how to do this. My husband, for example, would run out of food stamps every month if I didn't keep him on budget, because he was never taught how to make it work. Sometimes I have to fight him not to waste our food stamps on unnecessary extras, but when I'm successful, we always have enough food in the fridge for three decent meals a day for both of us. But I still think the challenge is eye opening because it highlights how much people with the privilege of a larger food budget take it for granted. They truly don't know how much they have, and so they end up wasting a lot. Personally, I think everybody (not just politicians) should take the food stamp challenge just as a reminder of how much they have. It really irks me when people who have more than I do complain about being "so broke" that they can't even afford their weekly sushi dinner.
Thanks for your input on this. I hope you did not take my post the wrong way. I have no issues with any sort of food stamp program. They are a necessity, especially when people just need a little bit of help to get back up again. I think you bring up another good point - this isn't just about food and nutrition. This is also about budgeting. You need to know how to spend your money, including the money that comes with your food stamp benefits. I think the food stamp challenge can be very effective if people do it more than a week - how about weeks? Or even months? Perhaps a whole year? Then, more important issues will arise. Yes, it is a fact that if you have more money, you can probably buy better food. But, it is also a fact that with a limited budget, there are ways to still eat better food. At first, people complain about fresh produce or not being able to buy coffee or brand name yogurt. When that passes, then the issues of budgeting, learning how to cook, figuring out what foods are the most nutritious, etc. will arise - and that's where people should be concentrating. Another thing to note is that "so broke" is really a relative term. I also find it annoying and slightly offensive when people are "too broke" to go out, to eat out, to hang out with friends, to buy a luxury item ... but honestly, to those people, they do feel "broke." When someone cannot afford the lifestyle they've been living and they start letting go of things, then they feel deprived, they feel "broke." These are the people who would do the food stamp challenge and complain about how hungry they are - and they, too, would need help with nutrition, recipes, and budgeting.
I would find it tough to eat off of 30 bucks a week, personally, and I'm a single guy - not even feeding a family. The main reason is I enjoy cooking a lot, I can easily blow through that buying some marinated hot peppers, goat cheese, a pack of chicken, etc... I'm not saying it can't be done, but it would very much limit what types of food you could make. I kind of justify spending extra on food or other things that I enjoy by not doing other things. For example, I hardly ever go on vacation - like once every several years.
I think food stamps should be used only when needed. I've seen women go into a grocery store and try to pay with food stamps while talking on their iPhone. They don't deserve food stamps. If you can afford a new iPhone you can afford to shop at the grocery store.
Is this $30 a week per person? So for my family of four I could spend $120? If you eat at McDonalds then you might not be able to afford it but if you cooked meals I cant see how you couldnt. My family has $240 a month in our grocery budget and that includes toilet paper and things of that nature as well. I need to be careful what I spend and cook almost every meal at home but its not that hard. We eat mostly whole grains and vegitables. We cut our meat back. Even with the cost of everything going up we are still living in this budget. I think that education would help a ton. If you are going on food stamps or SNAP then they should also offer a class on how to cook nutritous foods and how to streach your budget to include extra food in your pantry for leaner times. I wish the government would put the effort into educating people that they put in to arguing about things.
Here's the thing - prices and cost of living are not the same across the board. Add on that the price of foods is getting backbreaking (the more so since apparently the Farmer Aid bill just wasn't important enough to Republicans) and it becomes a very difficult balancing act. Depending on local "healthy" items are far more expensive then "unhealthy". And you can't shop around if gas has to last for the week, because you don't get paid again until Monday, but thankfully it goes in Saturday. Nor can you shop around on the bus system and it's really hard on the subway. Add on to that the issue of going to work, getting the kids (which you have because single folks generally ain't getting stamps or they ain't getting much), then trying to cook something up before you pass out for the night or have to go to your other job. It's hard - and that point shouldn't be belittled. Most folks on stamps are there because they need help, that doesn't mean some aren't milking it - but that's true of anything.
I don't think this challenge was even necessary. The food stamp program isn't and never was designed to feed any family each month. It was designed to "help" with the purchase of food. Meaning in addition to the food you buy yourself. It is supposed to be supplemental. Not your only source of money for food.
This is a very good point. Its easy to assume that it can be done if you have the means and ability to do it. I am able to drive to the store when I need to and when I cant use the car the store is just over a mile away so I can get there on my bike. A little understanding of the situation could go a long way. I do know people that have milked it, but I also know people who needed to get by for a fwe weeks until things turned around and they got back on their feet.
Sorry to hear this; I did not mean to belittle the program or any recipients. I am just airing out my frustrations regarding the lack of efforts and resources that go into education regarding food and nutrition. I am not saying, at all, that is is super easy to do this. A supplemental income of $30/week/person (which, let me make clear to everyone, is an average - I'm sure you get more or less depending on the circumstances, but many people try out the Challenge using $30/week/person) isn't much when the rest of your income has to go to other places. I have my own opinions about the actual policies and how these programs work, but at the end of the day - I just want people to be educated. If people don't realize that education is key, then they'll never roll out a program where people can be educated. Sure, education about nutrition isn't going to be enough to help people stop using food stamps. But, it would sure make things easier... stretch those dollars a little bit farther. I agree that most of this is easier said that done. The price of food is rising, people may not have the option to shop around, a lot of this is trial and error... but it is doable. It is hard - but it is doable. My personal budget for groceries is about $30/week - but there are weeks where I have a little more to spend and a little less to spend. I don't live near a grocery store, I don't have a car... but I have to make it work, so I've learned how to. I just think it would be better if there was something in place where people don't have to learn on the spot - but they can be taught, they can be helped, and they don't need to waste time "learning" it on their own when they don't have to. I'm glad to see this post is getting a lot of discussion going; I had a feeling this would be a good forum to bring this up in. We all have very bold ideas about money and budgeting so this is very interesting.
I have done it and regularly survive on less. Especially when I was feeding a family of six, it's important to make the most of your money. I wasn't buying nothing but crap either. And it didn't require me to go to 15 different stores and clip coupons for hours on end. Actually, I didn't even clip coupons a lot during that time because it took too much time to do that.
No, it wasn't designed to the sole source of food purchases. But the reality of the situation is.....it is. Ignoring that doesn't make it not true. Social Security wasn't designed to entire source of retirement income, but for a lot of people, it is.
Whether it's supplemental or it turns into the only source of income for food isn't really the most important part, in my opinion. Yes, I understand that if this was supplemental, that's the assumption that you have more money to spend - and thus, more options. And if it's the only source of income for food, then that brings up more questions - what is really enough? Can more be done? But at the end of the day, education is so key and I think it is really a missing part of the puzzle.
I think that along with the food stamps program, there should be education on how to use them effectively. Some people still don't know that you can use coupons with food stamps. Some people don't know that you can buy herb plants, vegetable plants and fruit trees with food stamps, and grow your own food for years. Some people don't know that if you're too broke to buy cleaning supplies, you can buy lemon, baking soda and vinegar with your food stamps and clean your house. There should be some kind of website or seminar that shows them how to use those funds wisely and make them last.
