The $3 a Day Hunger Challenge

I learned about the Hunger Challenge from Alanna Kellogg at BlogHer.  I followed last year's Congressional Food Stamp Challenge with great interest.  Given that I'm coming off of 3 weeks of conferencing the timing is perfect for me to try this challenge.  I already give substantially to both a local food bank and to national anti-hunger efforts so I think it will good for me to raise my awareness through action.  I look forward to having a deeper sensitivity to the problem and to sharing my experience through blogging. 

I shopped today at three different grocery stores (which already makes my experience different from the poor).  Although they are each within a reasonable walking/bus distance from my home (< 2 miles), I was able to drive to each and spread my purchases around to maximize my $21.  In some ways it is easier to do this a single person (I can cater solely to my tastes & the absolute cost of single servings is lower than larger sizes) and in some ways harder (I lose the economies of scale from larger sizes which often translate to a higher upfront cost but lower per serving costs & for many things I have to buy more than I can eat in a week thus making my $21 spend less efficient).  Also I made up a few rules/allowances for myself.  The stores I shopped at were, as I mentioned, a distance from my home that I could have reached without a car (though I would have limited myself to one), I will use some items that I have on hand that I received for free.  And I did not purchase spices or seasonings though I could have purchased them in bulk.

I spent $20.40 (and I will attempt to blow the remaining sixty cents on an onion).  I purchased no meat/tofu (though one store I shopped at sells tofu for 5 blocks for $1 and I almost added a block).  I bought juice, bread, fruit (bananas & apples), yogurt, eggs, peanut butter, pasta, packaged tomatoes, frozen spinach, a tiny bit of bulk rice & beans (surprisingly organic was cheaper than conventional), fresh baby bok choy, green onions and the mack daddy of cheap and unhealthy eating, ramen noodles.  With more careful planning I could have maximized my use of bulk bins and increased the variety of my choices.

I plan to eat smoothies for breakfast (juice, fruit, yogurt), ramen noodles doctored with eggs and  veggies for lunch, toast with peanut butter for a snack and pasta or beans & rice plus spinach for dinner.  My goal was to balance some of the carb-tastic cheap food with protein & veggies.  I'll use a free package of coffee for my caffeine this week.  I also got a package of instant mashed potatoes courtesy of my shopper card from Safeway which might come in handy if I run out of food.  And, I have some coupons for free fancy juice because I purchased a bottle that had gone bad so  I can get several protein shakes if need be.

I'll post a daily menu starting tomorrow.  I hope you'll follow along and consider taking the challenge yourself or making a donation to either the San Francisco Food Bank or you local hunger fighting group of choice.

Comments

[dharma]

That's fantastic. I would like to be able to do that, but if you remember TGF is a junk food/name brand queen. Drives me nuts.

[Maria Niles]

Hmmm - I wonder if it could be done with junk food/name brand foods. It probably could be - that might be a fun challenge.

You might appreciate that I did the majority of my shopping at Trader Joe's. I was impressed that they had such great prices on staples. Far better prices than Safeway. Though I could have probably done just about everything from bulk bins between Whole Foods and Farmer Joes and loaded up a lot more food.

[Alanna @ A Veggie Venture]

Good for you, Maria - will look forward to what you come up with. It doesn't sound like a lot of food, let alone variety, for an entire week.

[Gayle]

Maria,thanks so much for taking the Hunger Challenge and sharing your insights. It's great to have another perspective. I'll definitely be checking out your posts!

[Kei]

Thank you for taking part and highlighting some of the challenges low-income people face in just getting enough to eat every day. I really appreciate that you touched on one coping strategy a lot of Food Bank clients rely on: buying a cheap, relatively unhealthy food (ramen noodles) and dressing it up with vegetables. There just aren't a lot of great choices available to our clients when they try to stretch their food dollars at the grocery store - which, more often than not, is unfortunately not TJ's or Whole Foods, but the neighborhood corner store.
Great job! Thanks again.

[Maria Niles]

Thanks, Kei. The dressed up ramen trick is a staple from my broke college student days. Scarily it was one of the healthier food options I made back then.

I am happy though that there are stores like Farmer Joe's (http://www.farmerjoesmarket.com/) here in Oakland and are accessible from lower income neighborhoods which have great prices on produce and an extensive selection of bulk items - it is a sorely lacking option to most, though. I can't imagine the choices one would have to make if they had to shop in corner or liquor stores.