Food Stamp Challenge - Friday > Rexroad.com

I will report more later but I basically had a starvation exercise today as I took an emergency trip to San Francisco today and forgot my food. The Food Stamp Challenge is now over for me.

Tonight at the gym I did ten pull ups (dead hang Charlie-san -- there is no other way).

Now bring on the chow!

Now I have another little emergency to take care of. I think I will be awake all night.

Comments

By Charlie in Esparto @ Saturday, November 22, 2008 10:00 AM

Matt...10 dead hang pull-ups is respectable at your advancing age (LOL)...but really....10-12 pulls, 70-80 crunches and 21-22 Min 3 mile if middle aged or old 'warriors' is a respectable score... Wait until you get over 50...the run becomes the easiest part!

Also, the best exercise for middle aged or advancing age (old fart) Marines is ‘push-a-ways’….(Push the food away)….But from experience I can tell you that is the hardest exercise of all…(Laugh) And this is the worst time of year for ‘push-a-ways’…dang! Your $15 food change was a good example of a ‘push-a-way’……

Semper Fi....Charlie-san

By rstown @ Saturday, November 22, 2008 3:10 PM

I sure hope you are going to post an overall review of the experience ala Mariko. I am curious to hear what your thoughts are about this food experiment! Do tell!

By rstown @ Saturday, November 22, 2008 3:33 PM

Just a refresher on what you wrote about this concept back in September! So, have any of your thoughts or beliefs changed since then? I think it was much more realistic that you did it without hunting, fishing or gardening. It needed to be experienced like a true low income person who generally does not have access to any of those 3 resources. Good for you Supervisor Rexroad and Assemblywoman Yamada! You did a great community service by shining the spotlight on this very interesting and timely topic and managed to do so in a totally non political/partisan manner. I for one was very impressed!!
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Last Tuesday the Board of Supervisors started the day at the Yolo County Food Bank. We were given some information on the Food Stamp Challenge. It is a challenge to live on $3 a day for five days. I actually think I can do it. It is intended to show how difficult it would be to live off the food stamp allowance.

Here is a story I found on the issue.

So here is my plan. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas I will try it for five days. $15 for five days. I need to do some research but I think I can make it happen.

Here is my general breakdown of what I will do with the $15.

Chicken Livers -- $4
Frozen OJ -- $3
Rice --$2
Beans -- $2
Fruit -- $2
Bread - $2

The plan would be to see if I can make a stew with some of the stuff above and then see how it goes.

Then I will see if i can catch a couple fish to be able to add to the above. I could also try and get a duck or pheasant.

I will need to get off Diet Coke prior to that and drink lots of water.

We will see -- but I think I can do this and not be hungry. If I was planning on it and could get a garden going I am sure that I could do it well and probably eat healthier than I am now.

Anyone want to join me on this?

By Charlie in Esparto @ Saturday, November 22, 2008 9:58 PM

Rstown...If you really want to make-ends-meet you need to drop the pre-prepared food..like Bread and Frozen OJ. Safeway has 5lbs of flour right now for 1.99 and 5Lbs of sugar for 1.99. Add a little yeast or baking soda and you have bread, pancakes, rolls, cookies..etc..but you have to make them from scratch...I do it all the time. Just yesterday I took a pumpkin (Halloween leftover--they were free) and liquefied it in my blender, add sugar and flower and baking soda...wala--Pumpkin Bread...and it not bad (but to much soda makes it a bit bitter)...the possibilities are endless and 5lbs Flour goes along way..if you know how to cook. (I learn as a Kid in the Boy Scouts…Cooking on a fire from scratch makes oven cooking easy!)

Charlie-san

By rstown @ Saturday, November 22, 2008 10:52 PM

Thanks for the reply Charlie-San. That was actually Matt's list-I was just cutting and pasting his original post on the topic from his blog entry back in September. Everything below the squiggles ~~~~ is his. I just wanted to refresh his (and our) memory on what his original thoughts were on being able to eat well on 3 bucks a day.

The pumpkin bread sounds yummy! We cook mostly from scratch and I am very fortunate to have a husband who does most of the cheffing at our humble abode. He is an awesome chef! Even so, I doubt we could eat healthy on the allocation of 3 bucks per day times 2, although it would be better than trying to fly solo on 3 bucks a day.

We still have some regular favs from when we were poor, starving (and considerably thinner) college students many years ago. Our big staple was a black bean burrito. Whatever flour tortillas that were on sale, black beans (duh he says), fresh tomatoes and herbs from the garden, romaine lettuce, avacado, sour cream, cheese and sometimes salsa if it was on sale. We could buy the ingredients for 10 bucks during Sunday afternoon shopping and have them for dinner every night for a week. We never got tired of them! Oh to be young and in love!

I am going to try the challenge, how about you? I am going to talk to Katie Villegas and Helen Thomson and see if the Childrens Alliance will sponsor it as a community activity to bring awareness to the topic. It fits really well with the CA community goal of reducing obesity and helping low income families.

Cheers!

~rstown

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