Food Challenge

"SNAP is a critical anti-hunger program that feeds millions of low income Americans, including children, veterans, and seniors who would not otherwise have the resources to buy groceries." — Dan Maffei

A few years ago, I was struck by something Cory Booker — then-Mayor of Newark, New Jersey — shared on Social Media. He took on a challenge of living, for a week, off only food bought for the amount people on the SNAP program get. That amount is $29 dollars per person, per week. It equates to $1.38 per meal (three meals a day, seven days a week). That's not a lot of money. In fact, you can't get much with $1.38, and you can't get a lot of food for $29 in a week.

I admired Booker's commitment to the challenge and effort to bring awareness to the subject. I've since seen many others try to do the same thing. Most recently, it was Gwenyth Paltrow. In Paltrow's case, most of the media attention veered away from a discussion about poverty and more toward mocking her purchase choices. Nevertheless, she put her money where her mouth is, so to speak, in terms of trying to do something.

I've been fascinated by the idea for a few years. One of the complaints is, since people on SNAP get such little money, they can't afford to eat healthy. That always struck me as something interesting to explore.

So for this week, I decided to shop for Lindsay and I on a SNAP budget — $58 for the pair of us. We knew we wanted to go to Sam's Club later in the week for a date, which is about $3.50 after tax for hot dog meals, so I tried to keep the food costs at the store to just $54.50, while also trying to get the same kind of healthy things I typically try to eat — salad, carrots, weight loss shakes, etc. Going in, I didn't think it would be hard. But once you see how much things cost, it adds up quick.

The biggest barriers to eating healthy, freshly made meals is the cost of the materials. Meat, in particular, is expensive. I decided on a pair of cheap, tasty, healthy options for dinners (we usually have left overs for a couple days). But both required buying some meat. A pound of ground beef was $6.18. Two pound of chicken was $6.47. With just two items, I chewed up nearly a third of my budget.

That required some sacrifice for the rest, but I got my weekly haul for $54.64. I'm excited to try this challenge, but more importantly, I'm excited to see what I learn. And I hope it's a discipline that helps me remember how fortunate I am, and pray for those who don't undertake this kind of budgeting as a challenge, but rather as a daily struggle to live in the wealthiest country in the history of time.