Hunger and Whole Foods

I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would ever asked to be hungry for an assignment. I also never thought that I would be so appreciative of the opportunity. As a part of the College Aggies program, this week my challenge was to experience first hand what life is like when you hardly have any way to purchase food for yourself. I took part in the "SNAP Challenge," sponsored by Tyson Foods. SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and it works to help millions of low-income people and families across America.

My challenge specifically detailed not spending over $4.50 per day TOTAL on all 3 three meals. That means I had a maximum of $1.50 to spend for each meal. When I thought about how I would go ahead and complete this challenge, I knew it would be extremely difficult. It was. I live in Washington D.C. and am a student at The George Washington University. The only food store located on my campus is a Whole Foods which is a wholly organic food store. The quality of food at Whole Foods is impressive, however the price of even the most simple of foods is much higher than most food stores in America. In Washington D.C. I can pay as much as $7.00 for one sandwich! This was seriously problematic since my budget was $4.50 per day!

What did I end up buying?

In the two days I participated in the diet I purchased: two cups of yogurt, two boxes of pasta, a jar of organic tomato sauce, an almond protein bar, one cucumber. That's it. That's all I had money for.

Here is my food diary for the two days I completed the challenge:

 

Day 1:

 

Breakfast: Almond Zone Breakfast Bar: Cost- $1.29

Lunch: Stony field Yogurt Cup: Cost- $.99

Dinner: Pasta and tomato sauce with half a cucumber: Cost-third box of pasta: $.50, half of cucumber: $.50, some tomato sauce (1/10) $.20

Total for day 1: $3.48

Tap water included with my dorm facilities

 

Day 2:

Breakfast: Stony field Yogurt Cup: Cost: $.99

Lunch: $.50, half of cucumber, part of elbow pasta bag- $.50, sauce- $.20

Dinner: Pasta and tomato sauce: Cost-third box of pasta: $.50, some tomato sauce (1/10) $.20

Total for day 2: $2.89

Tap water included with my dorm facilities

Right away this experience enlightened me to a two essential things:

1. Hunger is way more real than I ever realized. D.C. is an already expensive place to live no matter where you are and there are many families here that are either homeless or fall into the category that I was in this past week. I can hardly imagine what hunger looks and feels like for those living like this day to day, everyday, across America.
2. It is IMPOSSIBLE to purchase a balanced diet with $4.50 per day. I was able to purchase one vegetable, a cucumber and arguably some tomato sauce. I was not able to purchase any decent sources of protein like chicken or beef. I simply could not afford the prices of a sandwich or meat that I could prepare myself. I found myself eating pasta for multiple meals per day, because that is all I could afford without fear of going way over my budget.

I thank the College Aggies Program, Tyson Foods and the SNAP program for providing me with this opportunity. It is a truly revolutionary experience that changed the way I will look at food and hunger in America for the rest of my life.