The Hunger Challenge

A number of folks this week are participating in a challenge inspired by the United Way of King County's Hunger Awareness Week. It involves eating on approximately the budget of a food stamp recipient, which is $7/day for an individual. I'm not officially taking the challenge for a variety of reasons, including the fact that I often eat at work, where food is cheap and easily available, in fact, it's often almost free because I barter so much with my fellow market vendors.

On some level I have no right to weigh in about this since I'm not actually doing it, but I don't think I'd have much trouble feeding myself on that budget. I happen to genuinely enjoy many inexpensive foods, I like to cook, and I don't mind eating the same thing several days in a row. For breakfast each morning I usually eat a bowl of oat bran made with 1/2 cup dry oat bran, seasoned with a little bit of salt, and a cup of green tea. I use the cheap, organic green tea which costs about 6 cents per cup, and the oat bran--which is also organic--costs about 20 cents per serving.

This would leave be with about $3.37 per meal for the rest of my meals, which is quite ample if you're cooking mostly vegan meals based on beans and grains, with some fresh vegetables. Of course you have to pay attention to prices, and have time and reliable transportation to shop and cook. It also helps to enjoy this kind of food.

I appreciate this challenge and I'm glad folks are doing it. But I can't help wondering if it misses the point to focus on price alone. In Revolution at the Table Harvey Levenstein describes the frustrations of early twentieth century American social workers trying to teach poor immigrant families to spend less on food. They found that these households ate meat whenever they had the opportunity because they valued it more than other foods: it signified living well. If you're resourceful you can certainly eat well on $7/day, but it'll always feel like a sacrifice, unless you're doing it by choice.

I don't know how we can change the perceptions and preconceptions that make us value some foods more than other, equally nutritious alternatives. But if such a broad-based attitude shift could ever occur, it could go a long way towards alleviating food insecurity.