Posted on 11/19/2013 12:19:47 PM PST by wbill
GREENSBORO — Cathy Coons has been passionate about fighting hunger since she was a teenager in Westchester County, N.Y.
It was there that she first joined in a fast to raise money for Save the Children, the well-known charitable organization for children in need in the United States and around the world.
Since moving to Greensboro in 2004, Coons has continued to take part in a variety of volunteer initiatives to alleviate hunger and poverty, primarily through Starmount Presbyterian Church, where — as a member of the mission committee — she is actively involved in such local ministries as senior meals, refugee resettlement, backpack feeding programs, the church’s community garden, and Family Promise, to name just a few.
But she has never again attempted to experience firsthand the pain of hunger, at least not until now.
Coons said that when Stamount’s mission committee recently approved the church’s participation in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge, Nov. 17-23 —in which families and individuals pledge to use the average food stamp benefit as their total budget for groceries for seven days—she said there were few takers.
“Since I volunteer with working poor families who live on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) funds every day,” said Coons, “I thought I would give it a try.”
She said that she had no specific expectations, except that she would be hungry.
“For the past 10 years I have been reluctant to identify with those struggling with hunger by fasting or doing without,” Coons said. “The reason I came to feel that way is because of my interactions with those who deal with food insecurity. Whenever I have spoken with them about fasts or other deprivation programs, they don't always understand why someone would do this.”
Ruth Farrell, coordinator of the national Presbyterian Hunger Program, explains that the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge is a discipline to draw attention to the gross injustice of poverty and hunger in the U.S. and to open new opportunities for education, understanding, compassion and solidarity.
“This challenge is not only a call to hunger and poverty awareness, but also a call to action,” Farrell said. “We are called by God to be in the world and to seek to make it a better place. Changing hearts and minds is the starting point of building a movement and improving policy.”
Members of the key leadership bodies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)—including Linda Valentine, executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency—will also be taking part in the challenge. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), based in Louisville, Ky., comprises more than 1.9 million members in more than 11,000 congregations, answering Christ’s call to mission and ministry throughout the United States and the world.
“By joining in the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge—and intentionally living within these allowances together—we pray that awareness will be raised, consciences stirred, and actions taken so that all people have access to life’s basic necessities,” said Valentine.
Kevin Kattmann, who chairs Starmount’s mission committee, said that hunger can be hard to understand.
“The media report how many people in the U.S. go hungry every day,” Kattmann said. “Then the next night they will report how obesity is fast becoming the number one health challenge in the country. Hunger here doesn’t look like hunger in other countries.”
As Kattmann, Coons, and other Starmount members prepare to spend only $5.49 per person per day on everything that they eat in the coming week, Kattmann said that most people don’t think it is really that hard. “No better way to know that than to try,” he said.
Starmount’s pastor, John Odom, will also be joining the challenge
I’m sorry I missed that show.
I have my own measure of how good or bad the current economy is at any given time.
The drive thru indicator.
If when you go to the drive thru at a fast food establishment and find the people taking your order and actually delivering what you ordered, English speaking, competent, friendly and successful in doing their job, the overall economy is really bad.
When they can hardly understand you or you them, your order is messed up and the food is substandard, the overall economy is doing great.
Aldi’s website lists 20 stores in the NYC area.
You could do it in New York.
There’s been times I’ve spent 30-40 dollars for the whole month, much less a week. There’s only one of me (in the past there was a cat too, but she’s now in kitty heaven), but even so, $40 for a whole month is a stretch, but I’ve done it. One set of my relatives (2 person household) gets about $180 a month in food stamps, and their freezers are stacked with food. I must admit to some jealousy, as I scrape by. Actually, now I’m hungry. Am going to forage for food now.
I can comment on this very thing....
Mom used to work for HHS. Try being the only conservative in a gov't agency like that...but I digress.
Anyhoo, she had a client who was on WIC who (Mom's words) was an outstanding shopper. If memory serves, she was a stay-at-home Mom whose husband got laid off and was going back to school. The gov't programs were working as designed, IMO...short-term help for an immediate need.
This client had her act together. She knew all of the ins and outs of what could be bought, the sales, how to maximize their coupons, how to handle the meal planning...the works, all within the WIC budget. AND, she volunteered to run a class / seminar on it. Couple of hours for an afternoon, once a month or something.
Mom said, "That's a BRILLIANT idea.", and took it up the chain of command.
The word came back down...."not just no, but H*LL NO!". No explanation, but I'd guess it had something to do with self-sufficiency. End of story.
Mom listened, though, and learned a lot of good shopping tips. So the knowledge wasn't completely wasted.
I'll need to pick up a Big Mac and see what's there. :-)
I do notice a HUGE difference when I do the grocery shopping (using lists, coupons, menus, a plan) and when my wife does it (when she’s flying by the seat of her pants, tired, stressed, PMS-ing, hungry, etc.) A huge difference.
Don’t ever walk into a supermarket if you’re hungry.
The "artist" used to do things a month at a time and videotape himself ..."A month on Minimum Wage" "A month eating at McDonald's" "A Month working on a hog farm" and so on.
Interesting premise, except that he just couldn't stop himself from taking artistic licence and trying to "improve" on the story. While it might be fun, or worthwhile trying to do yourself, someday, it's not really worth trying to track down the show and watch him do it. :-)
Another huge favorite for us is fried cabbage and bacon! Cheap, easy, and fast!
I just finished a breakfast/lunch of a bowl of pinto beans, and 4 corn tortillas.
Figure 12 cents for my tortillas, and at 69 cents a pound, pennies for the bowl of beans.
I can cook a roast with carrots and potatoes for 12 bucks. It will last for 4 days and get better every time I heat it.
Shut up lazy ass libruls.
I know that guy.
His last name is something like, or sounds like Sperling.
If there were ever an "11th Commandment", that would be it. I'll need to be extra careful tonight, when I do a bit of grocery shopping on my way home...after working out. lol
If only all that free gas could run your car!
Cold burger, shriveled fries and tea that is all ice and 3-4 oz of tea. Guaranteed!
That's why they have to sell their propaganda as the daily "oh, poor, pitiful $5.49 a day" number, because people think nobody could ever live on what a fast food combo meal costs. Once people wake up and do the math, they realize that for a family of four, that's $600 a month, which is most likely a lot more than most people are able to budget for food. Not surprisingly, the sympathy level goes down, especially when you consider all the other government programs like WIC and school breakfast/lunch that accompany SNAP. Like that woman they did the story on at the beginning of the month who was whining that her benefits were being cut from $649 to $611, and she just didn't know how she was going to survive. Really? You can't feed yourself and three kids on $600 a month when they're getting two meals a day somewhere else five days a week? It just reinforces that poverty has less to do with income than with attitude.
I stopped in to my local gun club today. Haluskis and pierogis were $3.75,combined. Of course I spent $16.00 on beer, but.., just saying. Good meal for a day. If I could just get my cats to eat on my budget.
/johnny
Poverty for the most part is lazy. I have absolutely no problem helping the handicapped through life. Libruls claim that status all the time and actually hurt the status of those in need.
Libruls are a scourge on America. Our laws made it so.
$38.43
That is a lot of rice, which you don’t need to be a master chef to prepare. Or cornmeal. Or flour. With plenty left over to buy a few eggs and some fruit & vegetables. What planet are these people on?
Libraries are full of cookbooks. As are thrift stores.”
I have bought some great cookbooks in thrift and second hand stores, some of them really old and very interesting to read. I have all my mom’s old cookbooks plus have amassed quite a collection of my own.
Took my grandson to the library last week. All the computer stations were full with people waiting, nary a soul was reading or even looking at books.
If people want to learn to cook, they are plenty of ways to learn. I learned at my mother’s knee and on a wood stove but she still made me take sewing and cooking classes in high school.
I have always contended that all high school students should take a life skills class which includes areas such as menu planning, thrifty shopping, cooking, cleaning, basic sewing, budgeting, etc.
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