Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Food blogger sparks controversy writing about eating healthy on gov't assistance
I follow this food blog. She's challenging herself to feed her family on a budget similar to what a family might receive in EBT benefits, and ended up with a debate in the comments on the post.
http://networkedblogs.com/wn9hI
At times, she borders on Bumpie-ness (using benefits as a lifestyle), and also doesn't seem to be aware of the food desert issue, but I thought it was an interesting idea.
The other day I got into a conversation abut food stamps, or more specifically, EBT. Ok, how many people just got on the edge of their seat ready to get fired up about their stand on government funded programs? I?m not going to get all political, but to sum things up, I feel that government programs are wonderful when they are helping people who have come across hard times and need some assistance getting back up on their feet. However, I feel that too many people depend on them heavily as a way of life, not as assistance. Many times these people are also the ones buying soda and chips and complaining that it?s too expensive to eat healthy foods.
I won?t disagree that it is easier to eat healthy foods if you have a higher disposable income. Certainly eating organic can be pricy. I often argue, though, that you can choose where to spend your money; either spend a little more up front on quality nutrition or spend a lot later on prescriptions, surgeries and shots to help manage the destruction a poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle has done on your body.
But basically it was said that is was too difficult to eat healthy foods for every meal with the amount of money one receives through the EBT program. BAM. Consider my interest piqued. I love a good challenge. I decided that I could do it. I could feed David, Hailey and me a healthy diet for a week on only the amount of money allocated to a family of 3 via EBT.
So, we researched and found a website that would calculate your food benefits. We used made up numbers that seemed realistic to someone needing assistance.
So basically, we figured a household of 3, making $24,000 gross per year and having to pay $200 a week in childcare and $500 in rent.
This made our monthly benefit $409 dollars. So, divided by 4 (roughly 4 weeks in a month) gives me $102.25 to feed us for the week.
So next week, Monday-Sunday, I will feed my family for $102.25. Here are the rules:
- No using food I already have on hand
- Every bite we eat will be out of this allotted money. This means we?ll be eating at home (since most restaurants don?t accept EBT and farmers markets are just beginning to. I want to play it as conservatively as possible)
- No alcohol (since EBT funds may not be used to buy alcohol)
- If someone invited us over to eat, we can, since someone on EBT could also be invited to dinner. (soooooo anyone want to invite us over for dinner?!
)
I?m excited, and a little nervous. Though our weekly grocery bill usually is below $100, we do eat out fairly often. Also, David usually grabs a beer at the end of the night and I enjoy a glass of wine occasionally, but no alcohol next week for us.
I?m sharing it on here in case anyone is up for doing the challenge with me. If you are, holla! If you do it, too, I want to make sure to post your links on my wrap up.
Do you think you could feed a family of 3 for $102 a week?
Any tips that might be helpful?
PS- I?d really appreciate your feedback via this survey. It?s only 3 questions. Mucho gracias!
Re: Food blogger sparks controversy writing about eating healthy on gov't assistance
DD #1 passed away in January 2011 at 14 days old due to congenital heart disease
DD#2 lost in January 2012 at 23 weeks due to anhydramnios caused by a placental abruption
I kinda want to punch her. "We can't eat food we already have on hand"....um, how nice to have a safety net to fall back on check out someone's pantry who is really on welfare.
This play crap offends me and is demeaning.
No kidding. I would have a hard time not punching her if I met her face to face.
Agreed. I'd be curious if she documents how much time it takes her to shop to get under $102 - how much time it takes to clip coupons, go to multiple grocery stores, etc. Hell, there are people who don't even have access to one grocery store, let alone multiple ones to compare prices.
Just no. There is so much more that goes into being on welfare. Is she going to work longer hours, or at a more physically exhausting job? Where is she shopping? What about utilizing food from a food pantry?
And one week? We all could feed our family on $100 for a week. It's sustaining it. My grocery budget is $70 a week. I did awesome for the first month. The second month? Not so much.
exactly.
she needs to shove it.
Dude, I've been making this food blogger's point for all the time I've been on PCE but none of you believe me.
If you don't live in a food desert, you absolutely can provide healthy meals to your family on a food stamp budget. Even if a food desert it's possible if you go with frozen veggies and juice instead of fresh. Also, your budget will go further if you are on WIC at the same time.
FWIW, this isn't to say that food stamps shouldn't exist or that the people on them take advantage of them or any other nasty, stupid, or dumbass welfare queen supposition anyone else is trying to make. I am speaking only to the point of food stamp benefits allowing one to feed their family more than hot dogs and velveeta.
Click me, click me!
I have seen this done well. When people try to show how hard it is to feed a family on food stamps, when the purpose is to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes", when the goal is to empathize, it can be an effective tool. But her goal is none of that. It's to somehow prove people wrong, to prove she is right, that's what's unseemly about it. She's not trying to show solidarity, she's trying to one up people on food stamps. That's all kinds of
.
Plus her experiment doesn't take into account that many people on food stamps are wearing many different hats (single parent, multiple children, multiple jobs, job hunting, illness, disability, etc.) that often preclude the ability to just "bake your own breads and muffins" (actually a suggestion in the comments!).
And as mentioned above, her attitude is a little cutesy. She's a little too smiley face, wink-wink about it all.
I do follow a blogger that is actually poor and is trying to eat well despite her financially grim situation. It's not just for funsies. It's her life. I think at one point she was on assistance, if not still on it. If anyone is interested, it's www.poorgirleatswell.com.
am i just in one of those Zen places where this doesn't bother me? yes, she's obviously uneducated but so what? we've been saying on here (ie: TN) for YEARS to stupid people, "if you think it's so easy, TRY IT YOURSELF!!!!!11!11!!!" well, she is.
go on there with all of this info and tell her what ELSE she needs to do to get it totally right. that way she's really doing it instead of halfassing it.
FWIW: i really am in one of those Zen places. i've been so crazy at work all week that i've basically punched out and am f*cking around on FB because i just don't care anymore. hence, the zen.
ETA: i just posted
So, I agree that she needs to document where she is getting the food. I'd like to see her cook from a food pantry or get a box from Angel Food Ministries (since you don't get to pick what they give you) and see what she comes up with. I anticipate a lot of, "Oh, wow, the arugula and baby spinach mix was $1 more than the romaine, so we had to switch out our salad this week!" type of posts.
BUT $100/week IS my budget, give or take. For 2 people. Who don't eat meat. That includes toilet paper. And I said give or take because a week we need to buy olive oil and vodka is obviously going to be more, and I know that having the ability to PAY more is obviously something that sets me apart from someone who needs assistance.
40/112
i know why she's bugging!
this is mitt romney "some of my good friends are NASCAR owners," except foodstamps.
They are separate programs so it's possible a family could decide to apply for FS and not for childcare if they can get by without the childcare assistance or if they are in a childcare situation that would not be eligible for use with the program.
To me, the food stamps number seems right but I've not had any experience with the amounts in almost ten years.
Click me, click me!
I am not in a food desert, although I have lived in one. But holy cow, that is a high weekly budget! Ours is less, and it inclucludes diapers. Per diapers, we ate on 60 a week. I rarely buy processed.
Now, I have the ability and knowledge to cook as well as the equipment. That is often the bigger issue.
Dude, not everyone who is on food stamps is a single parent or a two income household, doesn't have a car/access or any of the other things you're supposing here.
The reality is poverty/low income doesn't necessarily look the way PCE supposes it looks. Nor is it primarily in the types of areas PCE supposes it is either.
I know you guys hate the place but walmart for the damned win.
Click me, click me!
She's only feeding three people, it won't be hard. Food stamps are the only part of welfare that is generous. You get a lot of money if you get full food stamps. The problem is that there are so few other benefits that people end up using most of their money for rent, transport, etc, and even if they're not eligible for full food stamps they try and live on what food stamps they get.
She should let her readers give her "challenges." I work at a college with lots of (awesome!) single moms, many of whom receive food stamps. I teach a class on poverty, and, during the class, a decent number admit to selling their food stamps because they need gas to get to class, they need to pay the electric bill, etc. I 100% agree that they are in a bind, and I'm sure I'd "cheat" the system too, if I were in their shoes.
So, challenges like, "Your daughter really wants to join the math team at school but she needs $30 for the tournament entry fee. Your sister offered to pay the entry fee if you buy her $30 worth of groceries. Subtract that from your food budget.
OR
Your one year old flushed your glasses down the toilet and you can't see (or work) without them. A replacement pair will be $45. Sell $45 worth of food stamps to pay for your glasses.
In my state, 24k for a family of 3 is too high of an income to qualify for childcare assistance for new applicants.
In fact the cut off for food stamps in my state is at or below 130% of the federal poverty level. A household of 3 making $24000 is right at 130%. Since they are so close to the cut off, they wouldn't receive near the max benefit for a family 3 which is somewhere between $400-500. Not to mention that an hour of overtime or a small raise would leave them without benefits completely.
This is an amazing new piece of data to add to the puzzle. I have never heard about this before but it makes SO MUCH sense.
Anecdote time, I have a friend whose family of 5 gets like 600$ a month. They get full benefits. I don't know what their income is but they get the full amount for their family size. They eat all organic on that but she is a well educated SAHM with time to do coupons and bake from scratch, etc. I think in addition to the SAHM with time to do it part, is the nutrition education part. She grew up MC (at least).
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.