Relaxed, Capable and Full. Day 3 of the SNAP Hunger Challenge

This is the fourth post in a nine-part series on my experiences with eating on $4.50 a day as part of September's Hunger Action Month.

After two days of voluntarily eating on $4.50 a day and with help from friends and “strangers” who generously offered recipes, shopping tips and food suggestions, I feel relaxed, capable and full at the end of my third day of the SNAP Hunger Challenge organized by Feeding Illinois.

The challenge, part of September’s Hunger Action Month, officially happens September 19-25. I’m taking it now in preparation for a radio program I will host on hunger on WILL radio, September 21 from 10:06 am - 10:50am CST. More details on how you can join that conversation soon.

Day Three
Today’s breakfast not only included a filling helping of organic oatmeal, but I added two hard-boiled eggs and Folger’s coffee. At $1.19 a dozen at Aldi’s, I ate two eggs for 20 cents. Here’s my full menu:

Breakfast
1 cup home-brewed Folger’s coffee with shot of skim milk and 1 tsp sugar ($0.10)
½-cup organic oatmeal from Common Ground ($0.20) cooked
1 tsp. local, raw honey from colleague (free)
1/3-gala apple ($0.12)
2, hard-boiled eggs ($0.20)
Total cost for breakfast: $0.62
Nutritional value: good
Stomach-fill value: very good

I am writing this in Dubuque, Iowa at an abbey called Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey.  My partner and I are here on a day-and-a-half retreat. The abbey is a four-hour’s drive from our home. Our little get-away had been planned before I committed to taking the SNAP Hunger Challenge.

Anxious about how to travel with food and stick to my budget (normally I would eat all of my meals out when traveling for this short amount of time), I turned to others for ideas. I packed a cooler with ice and filled it with my soy milk, baked brown rice, eggs, cheese, apples and carrots. In a cloth grocery bag I added canned salmon (on-sale at Walgreens for $1.49 a can), organic oats and honey.

The abbey is surrounded by rolling green hills. There are several dwellings to choose from and all of them have full kitchens, so it was as easy to look lunch and dinner here as it was at home. And it feels less stressful here. That’s why we came. I recommend it. You donate what you want for your stay.

Lunch
2 homemade salmon patties ($0.84)
1 cup baked organic brown rice ($0.23)
1 cup organic chocolate soy milk ($0.29)
½ gala apple ($0.18)
Total cost for lunch: $1.59
Nutritional value: good
Stomach-fill value: full

Here’s what I put in those salmon patties before I fried them on the stove in a little bit of olive oil ($0.5): 1 cup, shredded cheddar cheese from Aldi ($0.83), 1 can of pink salmon on sale at Walgreens ($1.49), 1 clove of garlic ($0.05), 1 slice of organic sprouted Ekekiel bread ($0.25), 1/3 of a large onion ($0.10), 2 eggs ($0.20), s&p and red pepper flakes ($0.05).

There are all kinds of foods in the retreat house where we are staying: canned soups, breakfast cereal, condiments, juice, individual frozen single servings of chicken and hamburger, boxes of rice, apples, carrots, flour, and a jar of homemade caramels (the nuns make them and sell them). I am welcome to eat any of it for free. I decided, since I am on the Challenge, to estimate the price of what I eat, except for the caramels (those are a gift I will accept).

So for dinner, we each had one of the hamburger patties and I put a value on it of 50 cents. Here’s our menu:

Dinner
1/6-lb.hamburger patty ($0.50) with melted cheddar ($0.20)
4, small potatoes from our local farmer’s market ($0.60) with buttery spread ($0.05)
3 slices of raw tomatoes (free from Emily’s parents’ garden)
2, large carrots cooked ($0.16)
1 cup of organic chocolate soy milk ($0.29)
Mustard ($0.05)
Olive oil ($0.05)
2 homemade caramels (free)
Total cost for dinner: $1.85
Nutritional value: good
Stomach-fill value: full

Total cost of food for the day: $4.11

Fantastic! I am full and have .39 cents to add to my total for tomorrow.

I am losing....
a healthy, small amount of weight on the $4.50 a day meal allowance. I think that’s because I’m not eating out, I’m not drinking Cokes or iced café mochas, I’m not eating chocolate bars and my overall meal portions are smaller.

I am gaining a lot of direct experience with...
the actual cost of food, accessibility to good grocery stores, planning time and research needed to eat healthy, recipes, actual hunger vs. marketed desire for certain foods and how community is needed to solve the hunger problem.

Have you any direct experience with hunger?

Have you donated food to anyone in need?

Cooked a meal for someone who was hungry?

Used the services of a food pantry or volunteered at a food pantry?

If you are willing, I’d love to know.

Thanks.

Other blog posts about this are here: Keeping Hunger Away on $4.50 a day? Getting Ready to Take the Snap Hunger Challenge
Day 1: SNAP Hunger Challenge
Day 2: SNAP Hunger Challenge