Last year during the hunger challenge I attended a lunch event. Oops I did it again. Today I attended an event during lunch. Eating the lunch provided is not in the spirit of the challenge.
When Congressional Representatives did their food stamp challenge, they brought their own budgeted food with them to events. Since I'm not a congressional rep with a media crew following me, just a blogger who would have stood out like a freak if I brought my own food on the BART train to a restaurant, I chose to "cheat." I also cheated by having dinner at Starbucks with a gift card I received at another event. I'm working away from home much of the time right now and I'm dealing with contingencies.
I suspect though that those who are sufficiently poor to qualify for food stamps aren't likely to be in my position and spend time networking and thus getting invited to events and getting free lunch in nice restaurants or gift card giveaways.
One thing I'm finding this time around, cheating aside, is that having gone through the challenge once, it is easier to manage this time around. I'm better tuned into spotting and recognizing bargains. If I were getting supplemental food from a food bank, I would have more ideas about how to work it into my food plans. The temporary extra $1 a day makes a huge difference.
Not only do I think it will be devastating to families when the temporary increase in their food budget is taken away, the benefits to the economy will stop. In terms of stimulating the economy, increased food stamp benefits give the biggest bang for the buck.
I was telling someone at the event today about the hunger challenge and she posed an important question: what do we do after the challenge ends?
There are so many intertwined political issues in the issues of hunger, it is important that beyond donating money to food banks to help meet immediate needs, we need to pay attention to the broader structural issues and educate ourselves and let our representatives know our concerns.
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