Try living on food stamps this month

The Columbian ^ | November 2, 2013 | Staff

[2ndDivisionVet]

Can you feed yourself on $4.50 a day?

That’s the typical daily benefit for someone who gets food stamps. Millions of low-income Americans are dependent on the program, which is called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, for some if not all of their food money. SNAP benefits have just been reduced slightly, with the sunset of an economic-stimulus addition, and will likely be cut more by Congress before the year is through.

Here in Clark County, Share and the Clark County Food Bank are inviting the community to get a sense of life on that kind of budget by accepting the SNAP Challenge. Participants will commit to eating all meals from that tight SNAP budget of just $4.50 per day.

Visit clarkcountysnapchallenge.org to register for one day, three days or seven days in November. You’ll be provided with guidelines as well as suggested shopping lists and recipes. All participants are encouraged to share their experience on facebook.com/clarkcountysnapchallenge, and to connect with other participants at #CCSNAPchallenge.

At 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 19, SNAP Challenge participants will share their stories at the Vancouver Community Library, 901 C Street. That’s part of a series of activities planned for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, Nov. 17-23.

[faithhopecharity]

it is worth checking it out

http://www.costco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/WarehouseLocatorView?actionType=add&langId=-1&storeId=10301&catalogId=10701

[2ndDivisionVet]

IIRC, Sam’s Club has an equivalent deal on hot dogs and pizza at their snack bars.

[Black Agnes]

I know someone who ‘separated’ from her husband officially (he still lives in the house although his ‘mailing address’ is somewhere else) and got a giant boost in the handouts. Sad but true.

[faithhopecharity]

agreed on the burgers being sort of like emergency rations, ha ha

the last time I was in McD’s, a young woman started wailing at the top of her lungs. she kept it up for at least 10 minutes.... everyone pretended not to hear her, but she was crying louder than a fire truck on its way to lunch

so anyway,
I went up and asked her if she needed any help with anything.
(what else can you do?)
and she said she was hungry and had no $.

so, I gave her a twenty (figuring she might need a little extra) and gave her directions to the local free meals place (just two or three blocks down the road, walkable). They have free clothing and a free medical clinic and free job placement assistance and help with free housing (yes, I know, if everything is provided for free then nobody will bother working... but I do not criticize since it is a church charity operated entirely on contributions and volunteer labor)

have to say, tho, that the dining atmosphere at McD’s was not too pleasant. They also had all sorts of smelly, dirty people hanging around both inside and just out the door (where the park overflowing shopping carts full of dirty clothes and blankets).

Despite all the free housing and free food and free everything, there are still many people who CHOOSE to live out on the streets.

They sleep right in front of McD’s (and other businesses).

Better to make a sandwich at home.

[JoeProBono]

[faithhopecharity]

Thanks for the info about Sam’s.

We have Costco nearby, no Sams and no WallyMarts

(perhaps the only spot on Rocko Numero Tres without a walmart, ha!)

so we go to Costco

[Irenic]

Can you feed yourself on $4.50 a day?
**********************
Yes, it it is very easy. The yahoos that write this garbage don’t have a clue, do they?

Many people hump it and do without jumping on the dole.

[GeronL]

The closest is probably Austin or San Antonio

[Ellendra]

Breakfast:
- 1 packet instant “Maple and Brown Sugar” oatmeal.
(Instant, because I keep them at my desk at work. That way I don’t have the temptation of stopping at a drive-thru if I’m running late.)
I get those for roughly $2 a box at Aldi’s, and each box has 6 packets, so that’s about $0.33
-Cola.
Again, Aldi’s brand. I bring a can and a cup from home, my work provides ice for free. A 12-pack is a little under $3, so one can is $0.25
(I know I could skip this and save that quarter, but I’m trying to show what I really eat every day. Besides, cola is one of the few things that settles my stomach, so it’s an essential. Anyone who wants to argue with me on that can try living on anti-nausea medicine for 3 years, like I did before discovering this.)
-Iced mocha
I make my own, and calculated once that with the milk and the chocolate mix, it’s around $0.45. I add coffee at work, where they give us coffee for free. (If I could stand regular coffee I could skip this, but I’m showing what I really do eat, not what I “could” eat.)

Lunch:
-1 can soup. $1.25
(Except when I stock up during the 10 for $10 sales, then it’s $1.)
-Cola. $0.25

Snack:
-1 Apple.
The last time I got Honeycrisp apples they were kind of small, and $2 a pound. Assuming 4 per pound (they were small enough it might have been 5 per pound) that’s $0.50 per apple.

Dinner:
-Homemade spaghetti sauce.
Uses home grown tomatoes (free!) and roughly $0.50 worth of seasonings. This price will drop after I expand my herb garden some more.
-Ground beef.
Currently $2.99 a pound according to my grocery store’s ads, a serving of my spaghetti sauce incorporates maybe 2-3 ounces. We’ll round up, so that makes it roughly $0.56
-Pasta.
10 for $10 sale, I would eat maybe 1/5th of a regular box, so $0.20
-Water
My house has pretty good tap water.

That’s $4.29 so far, and that’s with me spoiling myself.

[faithhopecharity]

of course, some people go “grazing” inside Costco ... for the price of a membership they can eat there every day

(free food samples in the grocery department)

most of the food they sell is reasonably good quality, too

I just buy my hot dog for $1.50 and let it go at that (with all four toppings of course, ha!)

but they do have a regular contingent of Grazers at their free sample tables

[greeneyes]

Yep. I can do it on about $2.50 per day without having to cook more than a few minutes of microwave. If I cook from scratch, I can do it for even less, and also even less when I use stuff from the garden.

[Repeat Offender]

Sure.

Will you also be providing me with housing, welfare, and WIC? Also, I'd like a free phone, medicaid, and social security for my debilitating laziness.

Then, since I'm on SocSec, I'd like for you to send me some additional checks for my children as well. This will help along with their free breakfast and lunch at skewel.

Please make arrangements with my local utility companies for a reduced rate as I will now be considered "low income." This will help cover some of the gas costs in my Escalade when I have to drop my woman off, to get her hair and nails done, on my way to the local food bank. I'd really appreciate it since this thing guzzles gas and money is kind of tight since taxes have gotten out of hand on the cigarettes I smoke.

Also, can you please send or call with any response after 1:00pm? I often spend late nights waiting in line for the latest pair of Air Jordans or video game release. Well, make it after 3:00 pm since I may be busy, as those new 24" rims don't exactly shine themselves.

[GeronL]

Just buy the biggest no-name bag of beans, bag of rice, bag of potatoes, cheapest ground hamburger meat, big box of tea bags and you will also need some sweetener and bread I guess but you would pretty much have two or three weeks of dinners for a person. Throw in mac n cheese or ramen noodles for variety.

[Black Agnes]

That’s not completely different than my diet when I was in grad school. I ate my oatmeal at home though and bought the big can-o-quick cooking oats. And added butter and a little salt. Store brand colas are not too bad if you’re looking for a caffeine hit on a budget.

for lunch I’d make tortillas from scratch (a whole bunch on the weekend) and a big pot of filling (rice, corn, beans, cheese, ground meat, seasoning) and heat those in the microwave at work.

I also made big batches of pasta with the shell, sauce, ground meat and chopped up veggies in season. Dessert was a slice of homemade banana bread or a muffin of some sort, usually banana (cheap on sale bananas are great!), from scratch.

I also managed to have a salad 2 or 3 nights a week.

My criteria were 1. Cheap and nutritious 2. Easily prepared in large batches and stored in fridge or freezer because 3. Need to heat/eat in a hurry because I was busy!

Later on I discovered sun tea was EXTREMELY cheap for the caffeine and ‘just something to drink’ and made that on my balcony nearly all year. I kept a gallon jar of that in my fridge and added lemon juice to taste.

[faithhopecharity]

some of the Costco Free Sample Grazers can stand there eating free samples for quite a long time...before going outside to their $100,000 Lexuses (or is it Lexii?)

ha!

I am happy with just a $1.50 hot dog with saurkraut relish and mustard

delicious!

[greeneyes]

Yep, beans and rice or taters with a slice of wheat bread or cornbread, but you can easily work in some bananas, milk, eggs, oatmeal etc. Lot’s of variety and still less than the $4.50 they talk about.

I buy canned veggies by the case when they are on sale for 39 cents per can. Most of the food dollars today are spent for stuff that is less than nutritious, because they are convenient.

I get the Always Save Mac and Cheese for 35 cents a box. Mixed with a little hamburger and a can of tomatoes and seasonings it makes a great casserole.

[GeronL]

Lexii

Now that is funny

[cableguymn]

What part of SUPPLEMENTAL means it’s to pay for ALL their food?

If it’s not enough then get off your a$$ and get a fricking job. I see help wanted signs all over the place.

I am sick and flipping tired of pulling this damn wagon while those ridding in it bytch up a storm about how I am not pulling it fast enough or not missing the bumps.

[faithhopecharity]

well, it IS.... hip·po·pot·a·mus ˌhipəˈpätəməs/ noun plural noun: HIPPOPOTAMI (so there!) 1. a large thick-skinned semiaquatic African mammal, with massive jaws and large tusks. Origin More Middle English: via Latin from Greek hippopotamos, earlier hippos ho potamios ‘river horse’ (from hippos ‘horse,’ potamos ‘river’). Scientific name: Hippopotamus amphibius Speed: 30 km/h (Running, On Land) Lifespan: 40 – 50 y Height: 150 cm on average (Adult, At Shoulder) Gestation period: 243.5 d Mass: 1,500 – 1,800 kg (Adult, Male), 1,300 – 1,500 kg (Adult, Female), 25 – 50 kg (Newborn)

[Secret Agent Man]

this is a bogus test.

every 4.50 a day, is still MY money. it’s not other people’s money.