The Journey of A Thousand Hunger Pains Begins with a Single Growl…

It’s been a rough week.  Being a 13 year old who has classes most of the day, followed by sports practice, a variety of other after-school activities and tons of homework to do is tough any normal week.  But now add hunger pains. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it excruciating, but it was really hard trying to concentrate in a spelling bee or on a math test when I had to drown out the sounds of my stomach growling.   And I found myself with little energy to make it through basketball practice. It also didn’t help at all that I had three grouchy, hungry and not to mention tired family members, also participating in the Food Stamp Challenge and with whom I share a house.

            And I’ll admit.  I cheated.  At school.  It seemed like everywhere I turned, there were snacks, or birthday treats, or a celebration.  I tried to follow the challenge the best I could in the face of temptation.  Even though I know that the food stamp “challenge” is now over for me, I think of all of the people for whom it continues. What must they have to do for weeks, months or years while they aren’t financially stable? I couldn’t even go a whole week without sneaking a couple of chips for a snack here and there and they don’t even have that option.

            This week gave me an opportunity not only to see the difference in what I eat, but also to compare and raise awareness in my school community. I have my description of the food stamp challenge and what we’ve been doing down to a short four sentences. My friends and teachers at school have genuinely been interested, and asked me to explain in better detail what exactly the food stamp challenge is. I’m glad I had this experience and was able to share it with my friends and family.

Levi Cooper

Challah and Food Stamps...

I write these words preparing for Shabbat and considering the intersection of Shabbat’s celebration and Baltimore Hebrew Congregation’s exploration of one aspect of American poverty.  Our siddur, Mishkan T’filah, offers an appropriate consideration of the same intersection on the facing pages to Yism’chu and V’shamru for Shabbat morning, praises of Shabbat.  On the bottom of page 251, we read a commentary from Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, of HUC-JIR.

“A famous Jacob Riis photograph of the Jewish Lower East Side displays a bearded immigrant dressed in his only suit, sitting with challah and wine at his Shabbat table, regally enjoying his respite from the backbreaking labor that filled his weekdays.  He sits alone; his table virtually fills his tiny one-room home—which is a coal cellar!  But even there, he insists on fulfilling the mitzvah of oneg Shabbat, “declaring Shabbat a delight.”

Celebrating Shabbat in the midst of Food Stamp Challenge should speak to all the other Shabbatot of our lives.  Judaism teaches us that celebration is acceptable, even at bleak moments.  Judaism also instructs us to remember that life is not all celebration.  Not every day is a simcha.  One of the many reasons for celebrating a weekly Shabbat is to be schooled in the practice of that intersection: celebration and awareness.  When our lives are relatively comfortable, it can be difficult to be cognizant of the pains of the world.  However, when our lives are challenging, it can, likewise, be difficult to remember that we are not the only ones facing troubles.  Judaism encourages balance and Shabbat helps reinforce the possibility of emotional balance.

Those of us trying the Food Stamp Challenge are trying to find a similar balance between our personal reality and that of those who face different challenges.  Honestly, trying to live on the income of someone receiving SNAP benefits is not as rich an educational model as the timeless Shabbat.  I have found it near impossible to truly follow the strictures of the challenge.  I have found myself eating with others in range of settings when I have been aware of the finances, but not following the experiment’s guidelines.  The very fact that it is an experiment in my life is what enables me to make those exceptions.  Additionally, the true economic reality of those on food stamps is different than that of those who simply taste of the reality.  Poverty is complex.  It has many causes and many realities.  Society’s efforts to help confront society similarly come with different realities and influences. 

This week’s attention on our food and our shopping; our incomes and our expenses, enables me to consider the plight of others.  May this imperfect teaching device enable us to turn to more long-lasting sources of insight.  Our siddur and our Shabbat encourage us to celebrate with awareness.  May each week’s challah remind us of the importance of celebrating and of taking seriously our tradition’s broader concern.  As Shabbat draws to a close, may we take seriously the work of confronting poverty and of understanding those who suffer its impact.

Rabbi Andrew Busch

Our Relationship with Food...

During a normal week, food consumes my thoughts.  Since I spend my life either dieting or attempting to maintain any weight loss I’ve achieved, I constantly dream about what I’d rather be eating. And when I'm not doing that, it’s only because I’m planning menus for hosting holidays and get-togethers with friends and family.  Like many people, I have a very emotional relationship with food and to the culture surrounding it.

So, it’s not like I’m thinking about food any more than usual, as I (and my family) take the Food Stamp Challenge this week.  It’s just that I am thinking about it differently.  Instead of becoming bored with too much protein, salad and vegetables, it’s unfortunately, quite the opposite.  I am bored with pasta, bread and cereal--the very things I usually limit. 

Last Saturday, in preparation for this week’s challenge, my husband and two boys, 13 and 9 yrs., went shopping.  One might think that we could not manage with our limited budget (4 x $31.50) at a higher-end store such as Wegman’s.  However, we were prepared.  We made a list of meals for the week and the ingredients we would need.  We purchased many store-brand items (e.g. Wegman’s Cinnamon Oat Crisps cereal for $1.99/box, Wegman’s yogurt for 42 cents each, and Wegman’s Pasta Sauce 99 cents – all of which were actually very tasty). 

We felt okay with the amount of food we were able to purchase, but only because of the economies of scale related to pooling our Food Stamp allotments and purchasing items that would feed more than an individual.  We also purchased relatively inexpensive bulk ground turkey as our primary protein, and a few other bulk items at BJs (noting that a BJs membership might be prohibitive for some on Food Stamps).  I think that this planned approach, vs. attempting to individually spend $4.50 per day, meal by meal, made purchasing just enough food achievable.  It also helped that we shopped in advance of the Challenge, when we weren’t hungry.  Knowing the items I purchase when I do shop hungry, I can only imagine the challenges faced by those who are always hungry and who have limited dollars to make good food choices.  While we haven’t been hungry to the degree we thought we would be, the repetition and lack of variety in our diet this week has been very challenging.     

Thinking ahead to the weekend, we won’t be hosting Shabbat dinner or going out to celebrate Valentine’s Day, as we can’t manage that on our budget.  We hadn’t realized just how much our social life is rooted around food.   

I’m glad we participated in this challenge as a family. The experience and ongoing discussion with our children has been valuable. So it won’t be food alone that consumes our thoughts, but rather the social and health implications related to food affordability and accessibility, as well as what we can do to advocate for and help those who need some assistance.

Jessica Cooper

A BHC Congregant Writes...

Food stamps...somewhere on my bucket list between Leprosy and a maximum security prison.  Euphemistically called an "Independence Card" - as if there is any freedom involved.  Don't get me wrong - I am fully grateful to have the extra assistance in feeding my children and myself. Illness and circumstance beyond my control have left me financially not where I ever thought I would be. I sat for the requisite 4 hours in social services, clutching proof of my poverty in bills and lack of income. After receiving the maximum allowed for my family ($310), I joined the millions in learning how to use my new independence.  Food stamps will buy any kind of food, but only food - no toilet paper, tooth paste, soap.  If you can't eat it, you can't use your card to buy it.  Fortunately or not, my kids are picky eaters and most of what they eat comes in a generic bulk form.  Still, I can't help comparing the trips to the store in days of old, when I did not hear each blip of the scanner as a pin prick to my central nervous system, when a new lunch box was not a luxury, when I fed my kids as we shopped just to survive the excursion, when my kids felt justly put out by denial of junk food because I was a tough mom, not because they knew we couldn't afford it.  There is a certain hunger to shopping with a food stamp budget that no food can appease - it comes from wanting to be able to throw that extra item in the cart, knowing that I cannot, a different kind of hunger. I am a careful shopper - and probably always will be.  But when my daughter holds up a candy bar and in a shrill 6 year old voice asks "Will food stamps pay for this?"  I have to stifle the urge to scream.  We eat simply.  We simply need to eat.

No Challah This Week

I tried to save a little to make Shabbat special, but yesterday I was feeling deprived so I spent $1.06 on a big box of Hot Tamales. Did you know it’s hard to find a candy bar for less than that these days?

Will one week without Challah do me in? No, but food is not just sustenance, it’s symbolic and I’m going to be sad on Friday night not to bring in Shabbat with a delicious loaf of bread.

Other than the challah and my mid-afternoon coffee cravings (I only budgeted 7 servings of instant coffee packets), I have been able to eat relatively well on $31.50 per week, though I have been thinking about food almost constantly. I’ve been able to eat ok, but I realize there are a lot of resources I have that the average food stamp recipient might not.

1)      TIME – I have spent incredible amounts of time planning and preparing my meals. Shopping for the best deals took 3 hours last Sunday and more throughout the week. I wonder if I was working several jobs and raising a family on my own, like so many single parents, how I would find the time.

2)      MY CAR - I have the luxury of owning a car and having a full tank of gas. If I had to find transportation to the closest store without the option of going to several, I would not have been able to maximize my purchases the way I did. Jayna Powell of Paul’s Place tells me that in Washington Village/Pigtown they have to get on a bus to go to the nearest Walmart. There is literally no place close to buy food.

3)      MY KITCHEN - Like the Cantor, I have spices and a working kitchen to cook up my beans, vegetables, rice and more. Without those things, pre-packaged, less nutritious and fast foods become the only way to eat.

4)      MYSELF - As I sat down to dinner last night with the rest of my family, who are not taking part in the challenge, I was very aware of how much harder it would be to live on a fixed allotment if I were not doing it alone. Factoring in my children’s likes and dislikes, their different needs and my 8-yr old’s enormous appetite would make it exponentially harder.

Having done this challenge, I am so much more conscious of how the balance is tipped toward unhealthy but economical and easy choices. I now understand how easy it is to go for a frozen chicken pot pie when healthier options are more complicated or priced out of reach. Next time I’m in the store, I will join Danny in adding a few extra cans for donation. But I’m also going to think more about poverty and how we can address it. Our Live & Learn discussion on Thursday Feb 16 will go in that direction. Please come.

Rabbi Elissa Sachs-Kohen 

Cantor Solomon's Food stamp experience

Being aware of the money I spend on my daily consumption of food has really focused my mind on my eating habits in a positive way. The $31.50 limit is quite challenging and requires great planning. I have made batches of inexpensive (starchy) foods, such as rice combinations, and oatmeal. Vegetables are mostly inexpensive and can be very filling. But I insist on maintaining a healthy diet in spite of limited resources, so I try to buy organically grown products. Clearly I have a great advantage over those who actually depend on food stamps in that I have access to bargain food outlets; I have good cooking implements and condiments to spice up my meals. Also, our challenge doesn't include many essentials such as paper towels and toilet paper which could come out a food stamp budget. It is pretty sobering to consider what many poor families have to endure.  Cantor Solomon

Empty stomach, Full heart

By Danny Offermann 10th grade student Well these past few days have been extremely difficult for me. I'm used to eating on average enough to feed each BHC member twice during our high holiday dinners so this has been loads of fun. I  roughly enjoyed my bologna sandwich at lunch and my plain potato chips.  I have not been able to give up coffee or cookies so there went about $9.00. To be fair I wake up at 5:30 a.m and then enjoy a very long school day along with several tests today including chemistry and history! Now to say this has been easy is like saying it's easy to get Rabbi Sachs-Cohen to make you a bacon cheeseburger on Friday night. I've been overly tired and have been losing focus to school and often times when attempting to solve the tangent of a triangle I find myself thinking of my empty stomach.  What I have done so far is learn exactly what it means to be hungry. You see I'm one of those people that eats just because they're bored, and to think that other kids my age and younger don't have that luxury is sad. Though it's been a tough couple of days I can't imagine living like this everyday for what probably seems like an endless period of time. When I sit her and I imagine the dinner I'm going to eat I also take a moment and think about those who are less fortunate then I am, who are doing this because it is their life. It makes me stop and decide next can food drive maybe I'll bring in another bag, just so someone doesn't have to feel that hunger in their stomach.