Can You Imagine What Hunger Feels Like?

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Can you eat on just $4.20 a day?From Jan. 26-Feb. 1, 2014, members, staff and clergy of Congregation Shaare Emeth will take the SNAP Challenge and try to live on the average food budget of a Missouri SNAP recipient – just $29.25 per week or less than $1.40 per meal. SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as Food Stamps). Why are we doing this? To raise awareness about the struggles faced by millions of food-insecure households, to experience first-hand how difficult it is to afford nutritious foods, and to renew our commitment to do what we can to put an end to hunger.

Please join us by attending one of our hunger events, following our blog as we document our experiences (subscribe by email in the box on the right, subscribe to the blog feed, or check back daily), joining as SNAP Challenge participant and blog author, or participating in an alternate way. Let's all learn a little more about what it's like to live solely on food stamps.

Monday, January 27, 2014

No room for the normal ups and downs of life

Originally my family had discussed taking on the SNAP challenge.  We were pretty hesitant, realizing how hard it would be, but willing to try it.

Then Bryce was sick for most of last week with a stomach bug—he barely ate all week, and his system is still off kilter.  I simply couldn’t bring myself to make my still recovering, very stubborn eater stick within the limitations of a SNAP budget.  How would he regain the weight he lost and his general good health on such a limited diet?  I am very grateful that abandoning the challenge was as simple as not taking it on.  What if we didn't have that choice?

Whenever one of my kids gets a stomach bug, I head to the store for popsicles, Jello, Gatorade, and soup ingredients.  This time was no different, except that I was thinking, “What if I had already spent my food budget for the week, and didn’t have anything left?” When the stomach bug then kicked off an episode of reflux, I felt very grateful to be able to purchase the medication that was needed and the foods that would be easy on his stomach.   I added the surplus Gatorade and Jello to our donations to the food drive. 

I went grocery shopping this week with the SNAP challenge in mind, and purchased several of our dinners within its guidelines.  I had a number of thoughts about it, but I see that Val has posted so many of the same thoughts that my list would be very redundant.


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