I love a good challenge, especially if its a food challenge! But this isn’t an Iron Chef type challenge, in fact just the opposite. Starting next Monday, the United Way of King County is sponsoring Hunger Action Week (April 20-24). The goal is to live off of $7/day worth of food for 5 days and share your story. The reason why its only $7 is that it is the maximum food stamp benefit (known as the Basic Food Program in Washington) for an individual. Below is a chart of the food allowance based on your family size.
Here are the Hunger Challenge rules:
* Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner spending only $7 per day.
* Salt and pepper don’t count but all other seasonings, cooking oils, condiments, snacks, drinks, and everything else do.
* Don’t use food you already own.
* Don’t accept food from family, friends, coworkers and others. Not even the free samples from Costco!
* Try to include fresh produce and healthy protein each day.
* Keep track of expenses, food choices, etc. and share your experiences on United Way of King County’s blog.
I will be participating in this challenge using the budget for a family of 5. I am also very excited because there are several fellow FoodBuzz bloggers who are also taking the challenge and will be blogging about their experience. Eric Rivera of “Eric Rivera Cooks” ,Gaynol of “Self-Rising Flour” , and Nurit of “Family Friendly Food” are just a few that I know of. I’ll update the list if I find more. Here are a few more to add. Sig of “Live To Eat”, Julie of “Julie Jams”, “Foodista”, and “Gastrognome”. And from Canada, the “Curious Domestic” will be participating. Go Canada! For a complete list of food bloggers participating, click here.
The Hunger Challenge is really about empathy and to bring awareness of how to fight hunger in the community.
I think this is a beautiful challenge because I grew up in a poor family being 1 of 6 kids. I remember those days when all we had to eat were whatever canned goods came from the food bank. You know the ones with all white labels and big black font letting?! Let me tell you about the “mystery meat” can. Oh wait a minute, I can’t.. because its still a mystery till this day.
Growing up with little really helped me to appreciate all I have today. I think it is why I look to cook and bake so much. Of all the kids, I was the one who often cooked for my family. I would use whatever we had and put something together. And it was always a “creative” challenge to make a one pot dish with using whatever we had on hand. In fact I think the first casserole I ever made was with a Shredded Wheat topping. I was in elementary school when I would prepare meals like this. It’s the reason I feel comfortable in the kitchen, not having to follow recipes, and why I prefer to cook free-style. It was free-style back then and its the same today. So follow me and the other Seattle Food Bloggers through out next week and show your support with some blog love.
If you would like to take the Hunger Challenge, you can find more information here.
oh… but there are year round produce markets. there are two of them north of seattle that i know of that are open year round.
When you really pay attention to the places around you (and a 18 mile commute from seattle to the north end) and you find all sorts of things out about your neighborhoods!
You must be willing to travel for a good deal. It’s true!
Good luck to everyone participating, I hope that you all take something from this project.
As a person who has to feed 2 people on less than 12 dollars a day, here ae some pointers. (keep in mind, we only eat 2 hearty meals a day instead of three).
This is what i do:
Shop your grocery ads every week. When something is on sale, like protein products, buy as much as you can afford on sale. Remember that a pork tenderloin can be cut into chops, or made into a roast. Versatile cuts of meat are good to have. You could even get that cubed round steak for very inexpensive, , you can make your own ground beef out of it. Not great for burgers, but fine for meat sauces and meatballs, or any recipe that calls for ground meat.
Divide your sale protein products into meal portions (a good guideline I use is about 1/4 pound max per person, whether that be for 2 or for 10) and freeze them. You can freeze just about anything these days, even eggs. Just crack them, beat them, and freeze in individual freezer bags. About 2 tablespoons of beaten egg equals one large egg. Thaw them in the refrigerator for a day before use.
SHOP LOCAL PRODUCE!! There are a few in our area that are open year round. As long as you don’t have any hangups about dents or dimples on your fruit and veg, you can get A TON of produce for a much lower price than the grocery store. Just make sure not to buy more than a week at a time, as produce from these discount stands don’t tend to last longer than that.
DON’T BE SCARED to shop at Ethnic Markets!! Some Asian and Mexican grocer’s have amazing deals on proteins and staples like oil, vinegar, and sauces, and ALSO sport good prices on produce (although produce stands tend to be lower)
My biggest advice is to discover your local Food Outlets… While they do not carry tons of selection on stuff, they have GREAT deals on canned and frozen food, and often carry many organic products.
Also, try going at least one, even 2 days a week MEATLESS. Learn to love things like beans, tofu, whole grain pastas and rice.(yes, you can afford whole grain on a budget!) With the amount of veggies you will have on hand, there are a lot of possibilities for delicious, satisfying meals.
These are some good general guidelines, and although you wont be able to afford Filet Mignon, you will be a able to provide yourself and your family with well balanced meals.
Wyzinskin: Great tips! I completely agree. I haven’t frozen eggs before but its good to know that I can. We don’t have an all year round market except for Pikes Place which in inconvenient for me but the farmers market will be starting up again soon. And I agree with your comment about ethnic markets. You can find amazing deals on produce and meat there.
Wow, what a tough challenge. But, I have to say I am intrigued to see how you make it work. I’ll be back for more 🙂
I’m going to try it but it sounds pretty hard. I’ll try to come back and let you know how I did.
WOW! What an interesting challenge — I would probably learn a lot. If I didn’t already have longstanding lunch and dinner plans next week, I’d do it too. I’ll have to follow your reports and possibly do it alone another week. Thanks for the information! Good luck to ALL.
Shelly Borrell, Nibbles of Tidbits
I’m actually excited to try this challenge and see what I can learn. Thanks for the tip!
Hey Alice,
Thanks so much for the post! It’s so great that you’re taking the Hunger Challenge. This is all about raising awareness for this important cause so I’m glad that you’re involved!
We have a blogroll on our blog of all the food bloggers that are participating, just in case you want to see who else is taking the challenge.
Thanks Again!
SuperChef: DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!
Curious Domestic: I think its wonderful that you’re going to participate too. Looking forward to your magical ramen.
UWKC: Thanks for the link. I’m adding everyone from you blogroll to mine here.
Jamie: I’m also curious to what I come up with. :p
great!! ive been thinking of joining this as well! 🙂
I am so excited you will be participating in this project as well. I didn’t grow up poor or rich but I can appreciate what it means to live on limited resources (My wife has been laid of twice in the last year and a half and we also had to close down our business). It’s been tough for me but it doesn’t compare to the position people who depend on food stamps are in. I don’t know how I would be able to do this for longer than a week. It’s hard to fathom that people actually live like that but it is reality, which is sad. Nobody should live that way.
Thanks for being a part of a great cause,
Eric
Wow! That would be so hard. I’m curious to see what you come up with!