We’re more than half way through the Challenge – how is it going? Many people take the Challenge to see if it’s possible to eat nutritiously on a limited budget. How are you trying to make it work?
What You Can Do: Nutrition is key to good health. Doctors are often a liaison into people’s lives. Encourage local physicians and other medical providers to ask their patients about food insecurity and to provide information and referrals to food resources.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is my first comment and I will try to backtrack and tell more stories later. One of the things about doing this is that it takes extra time to plan your day and the food in it. I'm eating lunch at my desk at 11:30 (leftover Black Beans, two carrots and some tortilla chips) because I'm about to go to a meeting where lunch will be provided and I will refuse. It's a lot easier to do that when you're not hungry. But when I refuse the food, and they ask me why, I get to start a conversation about food insecurity and beyond what I'm learning at home with my family, this is one of the great and valuable things about this process--it forces the conversation.
ReplyDeleteMore later...
I made meals on Sunday that have lasted me until today. It might sound boring but you can spice it up by adding different toppings every day-peanuts, cheese, dressing for flavor. I've learned this is helpful with portion control so you don't go through a food too fast!
ReplyDeleteI have always been under the impression that the 3Squares Program was a supplemental program and not intended to cover all of an individual's or family's food costs. It seems that the Federal name of the program--Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program--makes this clear. So I'm wondering why participants in the challenge are being asked to spend only the 3Squares allotment. Could someone clarifiy please?
ReplyDeleteI also don't see the point of refusing to eat food that is offered (eg.at work)--are we saying that people who receive 3Squares are NEVER in situations where food is provided? For the purpose of this exercise it would make sense to allocate the cost of the lunch one has brought to be on the "safe side" but refusing offered food just seems silly.
In response to the above comment about 3SquaresVT as a supplemental program and thus, why are Challengers being asked only to spend the 3SquaresVT allotment: In my experience working with 3SquaresVT participants and service providers, often times the 3SquaresVT allotment is in fact all a household has for their food budget, despite its original design as a supplement. While they are theoretically supposed to have other money for food in the budget, other urgent expenses demand that money, and the food budget is the most flexible and the first thing to get cut.
ReplyDeleteIn my Challenge experience, I am trying to refuse offered food because I really want to experience (as much as is possible in one week) what that limited-food-budget experience is like for 3SquaresVT families. While it is very true that 3SquaresVT households do seek out free food and accept offered food, it is often in less socially acceptable ways, for example at places like food shelves, soup kitchens, etc. which is certainly a different social experience than sharing a meal with my colleagues at work. I have had multiple conversations with others about whether the Challenge should allow participants to accept offered food, and I really think each Challenge participant should think about it and do what makes sense for them and their family. For me, in this week's experience, I'm doing my best to stick to the guidelines, assuming as a low-income household, I would have less opportunities for offered food than I have now (in my office, there is ALWAYS free food around - I'd never have to buy anything!)
I try to eat on a fairly low budget and I must say it hasn't been too bad as long as you have the necessities, such as spices. If you run out of those, it decrease your actual food expenses a lot. The one thing that has made it easy is always being busy, because then there is hardly any time to eat those snacks that you are always craving when you aren't even hungry. It is also helping me to really work on proper portion sizes.
ReplyDeleteWe are also being more careful with portions. For my family of 4 we bought 20 bananas and froze about half. Snacks include:
ReplyDeletesmoothies made from frozen bananas, milk, peanut butter and Shaw's brand frozen blueberries, which were on sale this week;
apples with peanut butter (and a few chocolate chips);
whole wheat carrot muffins that I made on Sunday;
yogurt (with blueberries or granola, which I made on Sunday);
and a trail mix of walnuts, (Shaw's brand)raisins and chocolate chips.
Dinners have included a lot of portable sandwiches since there are several nights where various members of the family are eating on the road (meetings, soccer practices, etc). So these have included:
Meatball subs (made with the leftover meatballs from Sunday's spaghetti dinner);
Egg salad and tofu salad sandwiches;
homemade veggie burgers;
bean and cheese quessadillas;
beans and rice (of course! - only we did an Indian dal and spiced rice with carrots);
and homemade pizza.
We've been able to round out the meals with some raw or frozen vegetables. But it's been LOTS of work. I feel like I'm cooking or preparing and packing up meals in every free second I have.
Laura, I'm coming over to your house for dinner.
ReplyDeleteKidding aside - wondering if there's room for a volunteer nutritionist mentor program? Like when that naked chef guy went into a family's home, helped them shop, prepare meals, taught kids some basic cooking skills: the family learned some healthy food ideas with the help of an integrated teacher. Seems those of us who know how to shop/plan/cook can stretch the dollars better than those of us who are less likely to shop/plan/cook. If participants had the comfort level from knowledge and support, would they be more likely to shop/plan/cook?