Mnfoodstampchallenge.blogspot.com
The USDA has a solid, basic fact sheet about current Food Stamp eligibility here: Fact Sheet on Resources, Income and Benefits, and Ten Steps to Fill Your Grocery Bag
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a lot of State-by-State Information.
The U.S. Food Policy Blog has a good post about Orgeon Governor Ted Kulongoski's experience on the challenge, too.
Now, to Day 2 and the beginning of Day 3....
I was up very late on Day 1, working on legislative and constituent stuff. I inculded my first day's diary in an email update to my constituents, and received some very interesting personal stories. I may share a few of them later, with their permission. Regardless, it was to bed @ 2, and up @ 6:30.
My strategy has centered around a big breakfast, with frozen hash browns, 2 or 3 eggs, and a tortilla. I figured that a big first meal goes a long way.
You can imagine how disappointed I was to hear that our home-laid eggs had all been given away the day before (how's that for lack of planning!). There went that idea... The hens don't lay until late morning, so the I had to make due with hash browns mixed with rice and beans. It was halfway satisfying, but fairly light compared to the possibility of eggs.
I was moderately hungry late in the morning, but nothing out of the ordinary. The lack of sleep was tougher to navigate without full nourishment, but still manageable. I had my first helping of the hamburger helper meal for lunch, even though I was at a meeting where pizza, soda, etc... were all available. The burger and pasta was filling and somehow satisfying, so I didn't really feel lacking.
One little item surprises me. Throughout the day I think about grabbing a soda, a cup of coffee, a cookie or four, and even a fourth meal. This week, it's eat, and work.
At 5:30 I did start to get seriously hungry. The kind of halfway-vacant-stare, can't-concentrate, want-to-go-to-sleep kind of hungry. If I had been at home, I could have slopped together a 14-cent pack of ramen noodles, but that was no option. The dinner of left-over pasta, sauce, peas and corn was actually quite tasty and satisfying, and felt like a normal meal.
I did find a gold mine late in the day. I had 90 minutes to kill in Saint Paul between meetings. Finding some reading on which I needed to catch up, I hopped over to a frequent haunt. Not only did I discover punch and desert for the taking (left over from some meeting no doubt - I'd seen this motherlode before) but even better... Small packets of mayo, mustard, jelly, jam (!), and salt and pepper. Hot dang - tuna salad here I come!
On the other end of the spectrum, I had a smack-ramen snack at about 10:45. The last ramen I'd eaten was probably 4 or 5 years ago. Nostalgic, but not terribly satisfying, especially after that chocolate desert I snagged.
I slept okay, but not long enough. I had an unusual 7 a.m. meeting at the Capitol. Normally I might grab breakfast - a muffin, bagel, or the like - after a meeting like this, but that's clearly not gonna happen this week. So I had to rise early enough to scramble some eggs and throw in some beans on a tortilla. It was very tasty, actually, and filling.
The rest of the morning was a 'normal' morning, save for feeling a real need for some orange juice or something fresh. By lunchtime, though, that light-headed-hunger came back a bit. I imagine that lots of people experience this all the time. Watching other people eat, part of me is jealous, though there's such a novelty about doing the Challenge that it's as cool as it is somewhat difficult. Without the safety of knowing that come Saturday I can eat all the Chipotle burritos I'd like (more rice and beans, anyone?), I am sure I'd feel a little bit more of what it's like to do this every day, every week, for a lifetime.
Lunch brought me further back to earth. Two tortillas with rice and beans. I did score some hot sauce from the condiment counter, and it really helped jazz it up. but the starch.... oh the starch.
Over lunch I did an interview with a local tv station, KMSP, about the experience. It should run at 5 pm today. I'll try to let you know if it's available online.
I feel more and more like I am just going through the day, rather than being as engaged as I feel normally. I can only imagine how difficult it might be for a grade-school student to go hungry and try to soak up any information at all. Or a mother working to pay the rent and clothes, and deciding to make sure the kids get adequate milk and meat - and having to go without some needs herself.
Tonight, I am helping my fiancee with a couple of projects around her house. I wonder if I will be able to work as carefully as when I am better fed.
No other profound thoughts today. A teacher did send me this note, in response to my email update from Day 1:good for you for at least trying to feel what some of my kids
feel on a regular basis. i remember last year when i had a kid who
said she did not have any food because her mom's check did not come
in for a few days. she said they didn't eat from friday until sunday
night. it is so hard to imagine that when one has so many
opportunities and options.
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