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