Congressional Food Stamp Challenge

Congresswoman Lee: Finishing the Challenge

Friday, I had grits and toast for breakfast, crackers and a banana for lunch and two hamburgers from White Castle ($.51 apiece) for dinner.

On Saturday, I skipped breakfast.  We held a press conference at the Discount Grocery in Berkeley, which is one of the few places where people on a low budget can get some nutritious food.  I bought a small container of chicken and dumplings, an apple, a can of tuna, a box of macaroni and cheese and a can of turnip greens (total $2.25).  I had the chicken and dumplings for lunch and skipped dinner.

Sunday I skipped breakfast and lunch and made a macaroni and tuna casserole, with greens on the side, for dinner and half a can of peaches for dessert.

Monday morning I finished the peaches and had an apple raisin and carrot bar (purchased Sunday $1.40) on the plane back to D.C.  For dinner it was two bean burritos.

When I finished the challenge it was a relief, but not as much as I had imagined at first.  As the days went on, I found that I became less hungry, or maybe more accustomed to being hungry.  My first meal after the challenge ended was a tuna sandwich, which was good, but I found I was not all that hungry.  The same is true with other things, like coffee.  During the first few days, I missed my regular lattes (I even got headaches from the caffeine withdrawal), but by the end of the week I had completely forgotten about it.

One thing I have noticed, however, is how conscious of the price of food I have become. I bought a plate of fruit at the cafeteria, and and I ended up paying $3.50 for 14 little piece of fruit, which is outrageous!  I am definitely more conscious of how much food costs and how much money is wasted on food by those not on a limited budget.

I know I mentioned before that, having had this experience I can see how people forced to eat on such a budget could develop health problems, but I am certain that the stress of worrying about how to afford to eat is part of it.  I have no problem imagining that people on food stamps could get high blood pressure just worrying about how to budget their food expenses.

In closing, I want to thank everyone who tuned in to read about my experience.  Obviously, this isn't about me, it's about raising awareness about hunger in the richest country in the world, and it is about building support for a Farm Bill and a Food Stamp Program that reaches more of the people in this country who are hungry and provides them with more than just $1 per meal.

Congresswoman Lee Continues Food Stamp Challenge
KCBS - San Francisco
June 9, 2007

In an effort to help raise hunger awareness, Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee took on the “Food Stamp Challenge,” Tuesday to live on just $21 for one week. With three days left, Lee is down to just $4.00.

A Democrat from California’s 9th Congressional District, Lee is one of several legislators who took on the challenge. She knows from past experience what it is like to live off food stamps.

"We decided to participate in this challenge to help raise the level of awareness and really inform the public that food stamp recipients live on $21 a week, $3 a day," said Lee. "Hopefully through this campaign we will help those who are eligible for food stamps understand that they should apply and that there are some of us who are trying to increase the amount so they can get on their feet."

San Francisco Chronicle
The Food Stamp Diet
Editorial
June 8, 2007

THE HOTTEST diet sweeping the nation has very little in common with Atkins or South Beach. Carbs, in fact, seem to be the only item on the menu: Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, is eating a box of crackers, a loaf of whole-wheat bread, tortillas and brown rice. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, subsisted on cornmeal -- until he cheated and had a pork chop. Eric Gioia, a city councilman in Queens, N.Y., found himself feeling "lousy" and "tired" after a few days of white bread, corn and ramen.

That's how the 26 million Americans who depend on food stamps feel every day.

A long list of politicos, both local (Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, has been filling up on 19-cent bananas and peanut butter sandwiches) and national, have taken a weeklong "food stamp challenge." By attempting to subsist on what they can buy with a week's worth of food stamps -- the average benefit is about $3 a day -- they hope to draw attention to this long-neglected, much-maligned program, which is up for reauthorization (and, hopefully, an $4 billion increase in benefits) in this year's Farm Bill.

Here's what Americans can learn from their ordeal: On $3 a day, it's tough to buy the fresh fruits, vegetables and quality proteins that make up a healthy diet. If a recipient makes a single poor choice at the supermarket -- breaks a single jar in the kitchen -- she may go hungry for days. There shouldn't be any doubt in our minds that increasing benefits for the food stamp program is a vital use of our resources.

Congresswoman Lee: Day Four

Day Four:

Dinner - Chicken thigh and rice (with hot sauce from Taco Bell) and a can of peas
Breakfast - A bowl of grits and a piece of toast
Lunch - A banana and crackers

This is such an unhealthy diet.  I am trying to eat the most healthy food I can afford, but I have no problem imagining how someone eating like this could quickly develop diabetes or high cholesterol.  And with all these carbs, I can see how easy it would be to gain a fair amount of weight.

Last night I chopped up the last of my chicken thighs and mixed it with some rice.  I added some hot sauce from Taco Bell and it tasted pretty good.  I should also say that I have never, in my entire life, eaten an entire can of peas, but I did last night.  So much sodium!  It was more food than I needed, but with my travel schedule I'm going to have to go a long time between meals.  I saved my last banana and the remainder of the crackers for lunch on the plane this afternoon.

Congresswoman Lee: Day Three

Day Three:

Breakfast - 1 bowl of grits and a banana
Lunch -  beef soft taco from Taco Bell ($.79)

It's hard to concentrate for any length of time on anything except food.  I don't know how people with no money for decent meals do anything - study, work, exercise, read, have fun, etc.  It's all about just making it through the day.  I don't have to worry about my kids like I did when I was in college and on food stamps and like so many women do now.  I only have four more days to go, and there are millions of people with no end in sight, who are permanently in this survival mode.

I have been thinking about green vegetables all day, and I wanted to get a taco, because it would have lettuce and cheese.  I was in a meeting and by the time I was able to eat my taco, it was cold.  I can't stand cold food, but let me tell you, even cold it tasted good.

I can't wait to get back to California.  A friend told me that he knew a place where I can get greens for $.88 a bunch.  If I am lucky I can find a ham hock to cook with them if I budget these last dollars right.

Reuters
Bologna sandwich is US Senate meal on 'hunger day'
By Charles Abbott
June 5, 2007

WASHINGTON  - In an ornate room of the U.S. Capitol, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin offered for lunch a bologna sandwich, macaroni and cheese and a cup of sugary fruit punch -- value $1 -- on Tuesday in hopes of getting $3.7 billion in return.

"This is what poor people will have for lunch, and for dinner ... This is every day," Harkin told reporters beforehand.

The meal was intended as a first-hand demonstration that food stamp benefits, which average $1 a meal, should be increased. As chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Harkin sponsors legislation to boost food stamps by $3.7 billion over five years.

"It's pretty powerful," said North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad of Harkin's presentation, made at the weekly closed-door luncheon of Democratic senators. A few senators opted for the food-stamp meal. The rest chose from salad, salmon, chicken and other entrees with a dessert table available.  "No desserts," said Harkin, for senators who selected the food-stamp menu.

The setting was symbolic -- lunch was served in the Senate room named for President Lyndon Johnson, who made food stamps a permanent program -- and Tuesday was National Hunger Awareness Day, a day when antihunger groups call for attention to public nutrition programs.

Some 26 million Americans are enrolled in the food stamp program, which helps poor people buy food. Food stamps are the major U.S. antihunger program.

According to the Agriculture Department, which runs the program, 65 percent of eligible people participate in the program, an increase from 54 percent in 2001. "No one should go hungry," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns in a statement.

Besides the plan backed by Harkin and Indiana Republican Richard Lugar, there is a House bill to increase food stamp spending by $5 billion. The Bush administration has proposed that college and retirement savings should not be counted when determining eligibility. 

"We will work for as much as we can get," said Ellen Vollinger of the antihunger group Food Research and Action Center.

The Harkin-Lugar plan would change parts of the formula that determines the size of benefits given to applicants. They would allow recipients to have more than the current maximum of $2,000 in liquid assets and to deduct the full cost of child care. Eligibility would be restored to some legal immigrants and benefits for unemployed, childless adults would go up.

"We are adjusting the standard deduction," said Harkin. "That means they will get more."

Congresswoman Lee: Day Two

Last night I made 2 burritos and ate some crackers.  I baked 4 chicken thighs and froze 2 for next week.
Today I ate a bowl of grits and a slice of toast for breakfast, a chicken sandwhich for lunch (made at home) and 4 crackers around 5p.m.  Tonight, I will eat another chicken thigh, some rice and some peas.

Before I decided what to cook or eat or freeze last night I spent a long time thinking about making this food last for a week and how not to run out of food and money.  I was literally counting crackers!  It sounds funny, but honestly it was very stressful trying to figure out how to stretch this food.  It is very painful to think of all the people in the U.S. who have to live like this - so much time and energy is taken up just thinking about how to survive.  It's no way to live in the wealthiest country in the world.

San Mateo County Times
Lee Pinches Pennies to Highlight Food-Stamp Plight
By Josh Richman
June 6, 2007

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, walked into a Washington, D.C., McDonald's today, ordered a McChicken sandwich, and reportedly was mocked from behind the counter as she asked for ketchup, mustard -- and strawberry jam.

But for Lee this week -- as it is for millions of Americans every week -- getting every possible crumb of food for her buck was no laughing matter. Tuesday marked the start of Lee's "Food Stamp Challenge" in which she'll subsist for one week on $21, the national average weekly benefit for a food-stamp recipient.

That's about $1 per meal; at $1.10, even the over-sauced McChicken was busting her budget.

"It is important for the public to understand how many people rely on this program and just how limited their nutrition options are," she said.

The food-stamp program is up for reauthorization this summer as part of the 2007 Farm Bill, which is expected to be enacted by Oct. 1. Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., who co-chair the House Hunger Caucus, took the challenge last month to highlight their call for another $4 billion to be added to the current $33 billion food-stamp budget; that would give a family of four another $48 per month.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., also took part in the challenge's first round May 15 through 22.

About 65,000 Alameda County residents are enrolled in the food stamp program, and that's only 53 percent of those who are eligible. The program serves about 26 million low-income people across the nation, about half of whom are children and about 8 percent of whom are over 60. It's meant as a safety net for particularly tough times, and most people leave the program within nine months.

Lee received food stamps while attending college as a single mother of two. But changes to the program made during the welfare reforms of 1996 basically have worn down the stamps' buying power; food prices have increased without the stamps' value keeping pace.

So Lee spent $13.37 at a Washington, D.C., Safeway supermarket Tuesday, buying a box of vegetable crackers, a can of peas, two cans of beans, tortillas, a loaf of wheat bread, two bananas, a box of hominy grits, a bag of brown rice and a package of chicken thighs.

"I was struck by how hard it is to eat in a healthy manner on a tight budget. I had to put the apples back because they were too expensive. Whole wheat tortillas were twice as expensive as flour," she wrote later Tuesday on the challenge's blog, http://foodstampchallenge.typepad.com/ "I got grits instead of oatmeal, and I could not afford to get some of the things I eat every day, like nuts, juice or coffee (even instant coffee was $4 per container!)."

"So far, so good, although I am already ready for a snack," she wrote.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Joins the Food Stamp Challenge

My name is Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and I represent California's Ninth Congressional District, and today I began the Food Stamp Challenge.  Over the next seven days, I will live on $21 worth of food, the average weekly benefit for a food stamp recipient.

In my district, there are approximately 65,000 people enrolled in the food stamp program, which is a lot of people, but less than half of all who are eligible.  Nationally, the program helps more than 26 million low-income people purchase food for themselves and their families.  It's designed as a safety net to help ensure people have access to food during difficult times, and the majority of people leave the program within nine months.

There are several things participants in the challenge hope to achieve.  We want to raise the visibility of hunger in the United States.  There are approximately 35 million people in our country for whom food insecurity is a daily reality.  We want to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by low income people in obtaining a healthy diet (I will describe some of my experiences with this at the supermarket today below).  Finally, we want to build support for improving benefits and access to the food stamp program, which is due to be reauthorized this year as part of the Farm Bill.

Today, I went to the store to buy groceries, and this is what I ended up buying:
2 cans of beans
1 can of peas
1 box of crackers
1 bag of brown rice
1 package of chicken thighs
1 package of tortillas
1 loaf of wheat bread
1 box of grits
2 bananas
Total: $13.37

I was struck by how hard it is to eat in a healthy manner on a tight budget. I had to put the apples back because they were too expensive.  Whole wheat tortillas were twice as expensive as flour.  I got grits instead of oatmeal, and I could not afford to get some of the things I eat every day, like nuts, juice or coffee (even instant coffee was $4 per container!).

My gameplan for today was to skip breakfast and go to McDonalds for lunch, where I got a McChicken sandwich for $1.10 and picked up some free condiments.

So far, so good, although I am already ready for a snack.  I will continue to update you on my progress.

Representative Jan Schakowsky Talks about the Food Stamp Challenge on The Colbert Report

On June 4, 2007, Representative Jan Schakowsky appeared on The Cobert Report and spoke with host Stephen Cobert about the Food Stamp Challenge she just completed, along with her colleagues Reps. Jim McGovern, Tim Ryan and Jo Ann Emerson.  Each of them lived on $3 per day for one week, the average food stamp benefit.

To watch the Cobert Report:

http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_colbert_report/index.jhtml

Under the “Most Recent Videos” section, scroll down to what is currently the 4^th video titled “Rep. Jan Schakowsky.”