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Sunday, Sept. 16 Leah Jepson, City of Milwaukee Health Department: Money spent: $0 (balance remaining: $5.81); foods eaten: hot cereal, rice and lentils, plain yogurt on said grains, dinner at my parents (see below for how I weasel my way out of this). I have to go to my parents’ for dinner tonight. It’s a weekly thing. They were not thrilled that I was trying to get out of it by claiming participation in “The Food Stamp Challenge”. While they believe that we are all embarking on a noble endeavor, they do not buy it as an excuse to cancel dinner. We eventually reached a compromise: I pulled out what I would have eaten for dinner and put it in the freezer, the deal being that I cannot touch this food until after the challenge is over. I don't know how fair a trade this is; it’s not very painful to swap a pile of grains, which I am quickly tiring of, for stuffed chicken breasts and Paraguayan cornbread. Julie Driscoll, City of Milwaukee Health Department: Breakfast: 1 egg, 1 slice of toast; lunch: chicken stew; dinner: chicken stew, cucumbers Back on the plan! I am growing bored of eggs and peanut butter so I decide to use chicken bouillon and the chicken and carrots to make Chicken Stew. The stew calls for dumplings and my husband and I have a long heated discussion on whether flour is a condiment or spice that is allowed through the challenge. I argue that it would be a staple like ketchup and salt so I make dumplings. The girls are very interested in what I’m making and want to eat some…….I realize that I usually cook more elaborate meals then they have been having but this weekend they have been having what I eat or more convenience type food. We all eat lunch together and I realize that what could have lasted a few days will only last me for dinner tonight. It was nice to all sit around and eat together, which we haven’t done all weekend so it’s worth it and I’m sure I’ll be skipping several meals now that the work week will start. Ann M. White, Milwaukee WIC Coordinator: My husband and I combined our resources for the week. Usually when shopping I stick mostly to the perimeter of the store: produce, fish/meat, dairy. On this trip I found myself in the middle aisles purchasing non-pershiable items that would last the week and hopefully keep us satisfied. I tried to plan meals with foods I could use in a variety of ways. Shopping took longer. I paid more attention to what was on sale and store-brand items. Our plan for week includes breakfasts of oatmeal, cereal or eggs; lunches will be leftovers from the night before, peanut butter or tuna; dinners like rice and beans, pasta with sauce, tortillas, beans,cheese, chicken and hopefully some fresh vegetables from the farmers' market. I spent $30 leaving $12 for the remainder of the week. We'll see how it goes. Marcus White, Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee: Ann and I are off to a good start. I am grateful that Ann knows nutrition well and is a great cook. We managed to stock up on rice, beans, eggs, chicken, oatmeal, and some "on sale" cereal. Ann will probably offer more thoughts about the shopping/budgeting experience. Sunday started well but has become rather rough. Like Dave Adam of the HTF board, I am also training for a long race. I am running a half-marathon in three weeks while Dave is doing a marathon. Today I was slated to do a 15-mile training run. To make a long story short, it went pretty well although I started to feel sluggish around mile 12 (a little earlier than I am used to). The tough part has been the recovery. About two hours after the run I started to feel very lightheaded. At Kohl's! I now have a headache, too. I will have burned about 2300 calories on the run but probably took in only about 400 this morning. Thankfully, dinner is soon, to be followed by a speaking engagement at a church this evening. The theme? Hunger. How's that for timing! What I notice right away is the sense of feeling a bit trapped. We simply can't do what we might like to do. No snacks, no lemonade just for fun. I think we will do well in making the meals stretch, but the extras are obviously things I have taken for granted. Saturday, Sept. 15 Leah Jepson, City of Milwaukee Health Department: Money spent: $0 (balance remaining: $5.81); foods eaten: hot cereal, lentil dal with rice and plain yogurt, a couple of apples. So, I started prepping for the challenge a week and a half ahead of time. I found that, if armed with a lot of free time, a pretty good knowledge of what decent nutrition is all about, and a lot of extra resources, you can kind-of-sort-of make it work, but without a whole lot of variety (which I never realized was SO important to me!). My resources, as well as I can figure, are as follows: I have at least a dozen cookbooks, and found numerous healthy recipes for black beans and rice, vegetable soup, and other good and cheap food. I also have a friend who has an Indian restaurant. She gave me recipes for tasty, inexpensive, filling, and nutritious food. On top of that, I grew up in a family that stressed good nutrition to the point that the other children in our grade-school thought we were total freaks - everybody else had bologna sandwiches made with WonderBread. In fact, I don’t think I had junk food until I was in college (at which point I made up for lost time). Which reminds me, I went to college. Plus, I have a computer and internet access, and can look online for weekly specials at some of the stores. Since I have a car, I can drive all over to get the great deals I found on the internet. And I have no children, so that gives me a lot more time to do this. And love to cook, so I have a wide assortment of kitchen equipment, spices, and condiments that you need to make a variety of dishes. So, yeah, lots and lots of resources (I’m feeling pretty lucky right about now). Today, I made my friend’s Indian recipes for dal and Khichdi. Both are really tasty, nutritious, and really cheap (thanks, Ami!). Plus, they made a heap of food. But it is incredibly time consuming. I have seriously spent about 12 hours on this since I started prepping, and that’s a conservative estimate. Julie Driscoll, City of Milwaukee Health Department: Breakfast: 1 egg; 1 slice of toast; lunch: 1 peanut butter & jelly; dinner: N/A Breakfast doesn’t bother me as I am an accomplished meal skipper but the lack of coffee is killing me. I go for a two hour walk with the girls and stop for drinks at the local mart, my daughters split an orange soda and I am dying for one sip! I eat lunch and my husband gets a phone call that he is off tonight. He hasn’t had a Saturday night off in 8 weeks and it will most likely be another 5 weeks before he gets it again. He wants to have date night and go to dinner. He insists!!!!! I’m conflicted about what to do….I cave as I have no resolve. Eating out is our main entertainment with and without the kids…We speculate at dinner how families in poverty cannot afford eating out and what they can do for entertainment that is low cost. We agree that between groceries, having dinner parties, eating out, designer coffees, and gas station convenience we spend about $800 per month for our family of four compared to the $336 foodstamp allotment we would get. Gary Comeau, Hunger Task Force: Chose starch and protein. Had to skip fruit -- it's too expensive in my neighborhood -- and will wait till I can shop out of my area for affordable fruits and vegetables. Friday, Sept. 14 Leah Jepson, City of Milwaukee Health Department: Money spent: $15.09. Foods eaten: hot cereal, black bean tacos (with salsa and plain yogurt to replace sour cream), an apple. In doing the Food Stamp Challenge, I wanted to try and buy foods that are close to what I normally eat. I don't eat a lot of processed foods, and eat a mostly organic foods. Plus, I’m dieting with a friend, and I wasn’t willing to take a week off and eat high-fat, low nutrition foods. What I have noticed is that if you have to eat on such a severely limited budget and have a busy lifestyle, you have to eat a lot of really low-nutrient, massively processed, and usually incredibly fattening foods. And good luck getting decent fruits and vegetables. I stocked up on the following from the bulk food section at Outpost: 1 lb of 7 grain "hot" cereal, 1 lb. of black beans, 1 lb of lentils, 1 1/2 lbs of brown/basmati rice, an onion, some ginger and garlic, a quart of plain yogurt, and some corn tortillas. It came to $12.09, that I know for sure. I also got about 14 small, dinged-up apples from the farmer’s market – if you get them with worm holes and other blemishes, they’re half price! That was $3.00 – making a total of $15.09. I still need coffee and meat. I’m no vegetarian, and no one likes me if I’m off coffee. I made the beans a week early and froze them, and saved the black bean water for soup stock. I don’t know if this is a good idea, or not, but we’ll find out later in the week. Julie Driscoll, CIty of Milwaukee Health Department: Foods bought for challenge—12 doz. Eggs; 1 loaf of bread; 1 jar of peanut butter; 1 jar of jelly; 2 boxes of pasta; 2 jars of past sauce; 1.5 lbs fresh broccoli; 2 lbs baby carrots; 2 cans of tuna; 3 lbs chicken breast; 2 cucumbers; 1.5 lbs bananas; leftover money: $1.46 Breakfast: 1 egg, 1 slice of toast; lunch: 1 peanut butter & jelly, handful of carrots; dinner: 1 peanut butter & jelly, handful of carrots. I realize at breakfast I didn’t buy any drinks…..no coffee for a week! I can buy a cup of coffee at work for .25 but I am very spoiled by my regular purchases of designer coffee. Mid way after lunch I feel hungry and am not interested in anything I have bought. Keep opening the fridge and looking into it-what would it be like if nothing was there? Forgot I agreed to go to a friend’s house for kid’s play date and Chinese! Oh the torture Shawne Johnson, West Allis Health Department: I went grocery shopping yesterday and bought $20 worth of food, so I still have $1 left to spend. I was really excited that oatmeal was 50% off as that gave me a couple extra dollars to spend on other items. I found myself studying every item prior to buying it as I wanted to make sure it was exactly what I wanted. Here's what I bought at the grocery store: 1 dozen eggs (they were expensive at $1.69), a large container oatmeal, a loaf bread (50% off too), a jar peanut butter, a large can baked beans, 1 box brown rice, a small box dry milk, chicken which was on sale (99cents/lb), and the one item I splurged on was a small bag of chopped walnuts ($2.50) as I like to add that to oatmeal. I also went to the farmer's market and bought 7 apples ($1), carrots ($1), and red potatoes (50 cents). I'm kind of a health nut so I didn't want to buy the cheapest food, but buying a little better quality definitely was more expensive. I'm thinking of going back to the farmer's market early next week and buying another 7 apples for $1 as I like fruit. I had to pass up a lot of food I normally would have bought--blueberries, cantaloupe, and other good-looking fruit and vegetables. I think I'm going to be eating a lot of the same food all week--oatmeal and peanut butter sandwiches! Marie Greenfield, Hunger Task Force: My name is Marie Greenfield and I am the Community Relations Manager for Hunger Task Force. Like Sherrie I have not paid as much attention to price as I do the nutritional value of food. I am used to purchasing what my family needs when we need it most of the time. I am also allergic to wheat and gluten so this challenge keeps me away from the super inexpensive Ramen noodles, pasta and inexpensive bread. I shopped and bought most of my food in bulk from Outpost because I can get what I can eat and it is much less expensive. Oatmeal and plain yogurt will be my breakfast every day and rice with inexpensive beans and tuna will make up most of my lunches and dinners. I spent $9.57 so far on my food and will use the remainder to purchase some vegetables and apples from the Farmers market. Dave Adam, Hunger Task Force board of directors: I found just shopping to live for $21 a week a challenge. I like to eat healthy and there was no way I could do it on this budget. No citrus fruit – only bananas on sale & the cheap apples in the 3 lb bag. No lean meats, just soy nuts for protein and only one gallon of milk for the week. As I’m training for the Lakefront marathon in a few weeks, it will be tough getting enough good fuel to last a week. I empathize with those on food stamps and better understand why many suffer from high blood pressure and other nutritionally-contributing maladies. |
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Sept. 14-16
 (414) 777-0483Hunger Task Force, Inc. | 201 S. Hawley Court Milwaukee, WI 53214 | Fax: (414) 777-0480 |
Hunger Task Force is a private, non-profit community organization that exists to prevent and alleviate hunger. |