Michael Dine

Thursday, September 20

Nearing the End
I am writing on Thursday, for me the last day of the Challenge. It has not been fun. I have not starved, but most of the time I have felt unsatisfied. Sunday I spent the last of my allowance, buying ingredients for a soup (a bag of split peas and four carrots). Breakfasts all week have consisted exclusively of oatmeal. Lunches have been better: tuna sandwiches, some of the soup, and on some of the days, half a pear. Dinners have been particularly unsatisfying, general noodles, topped with peanut butter or tomato sauce, and a vegetable. I have just enough left to get me through the day (one more dinner to go). Tomorrow, I am dreaming of real meals, perhaps milk and fruit with my breakfast, a pastry mid morning, a reasonable lunch, a holiday meal before starting the fast.
There have been amusing moments. Shabbat dinner we had guests. I cooked an ample meal, and then sat to one side, eating my noodles. Saturday our synagogue held a Shabbat Shuva pot luck; again, I brought a popular dish to add to a beautiful spread, and sat with my tuna sandwich. I have, of course, thought a great deal about what poor people really experience. While some on food stamps can spend more than I did, they don’t usually have the stores available to them that I do, and products like fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads, and the like, are often not available and, when they are, frequently more expensive. My family did not participate, so I did not have to worry that my children were deprived of healthy foods or things they might enjoy (my thirteen year old, however, has announced her intention to do the challenge along with our Executive Director and Assistant Rabbi in October; she claims she will manage it much better than me). People asked me to compare this to fasting; fasting is easier. A week of constant discontent is different than a peaceful day of thought and prayer in the synagogue.

I have done some reading and writing on the subject also during this period. I would recommend a visit to the site
http://www.cbpp.org/pubs/fa.htm
where a great deal of (reliable) information on the program, its history and the current debate, is available. If you have only a few minutes, watch the video, which is quite moving.
I hope these efforts have made a small difference in the national discussion, and wish people a Shana Tova and an easy fast this Yom Kippur.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

This is a diary of my experiences with the Food Stamp Challenge, during the week between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

I have done most of the shopping, meal planning and food preparation for my household since my children were little. So I have a good sense what $21 can buy, at least in the affluent community in which we live. I am usually a frugal shopper. I believe in buying fruits and vegetables in season and locally grown, and I am similarly careful with other purchases. Even then, I spend approximately $20 per person per week on fresh fruits and vegetables alone. Our family keeps kosher; meat and poultry, as a result, will be an impossibility. In plotting how I will survive the week, I intend to take advantage of the specials my local supermarket offers for a full range of food items. Especially crucial will be to buy the least expensive fruits and vegetables, and even then, in small quantities.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Shifrah (my youngest, age 13) and I went shopping. We did regular household shopping and the shopping for my week. Our regular purchases (again, not including meat, which we purchase elsewhere) came to over $120. For myself, I tried to have a reasonably healthful diet, and also not to be hungry, but there is little fruit, no meat (there is canned tuna), and limited vegetables. I bought things typically on sale, or with full regard to price (cabbage was cheap; pears were the cheapest thing in the fruit section this week, and tomatoes were on sale).

The list:

Peanut butter: 2.00
Tuna: (3 cans): 2.64
Spaghetti (two packages): 2.00
Canned tomatos: .95
Green cabbage: 1.90
Frozen spinach: .88
Frozen peas: 1.75
Pears: 1.75
Tomato: .58
Bread (wheat, low end brand, on sale): 1.50
Lettuce: 1.79

Total: 18.32

This leave not quite $3 for emergencies or additional purchases when I sense there is something important or the food starts to run out.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Yesterday, in the High Holy Day prayerbook, I reread the familiar story of the Chassidic Rabbi who tells the rich man who would eat simply that he must eat well. When asked by his disciples why he said so, the Rabbi explains that, otherwise, the rich man would think that the poor can subsist on stones.

As a Reform Jew, I keep only one day of Rosh Hashanah, and I decided to begin promptly so as to have one day to recover before the fast on Yom Kippur. My day began with a bowl of oatmeal. For lunch at work, I packed a tuna sandwich and a pear. I pride myself on not being a fussy eater, or eating excessively, but by the time lunch was over, I was already feeling unsatisfied. I would have liked a cup of coffee, a bit more food with breakfast (perhaps fruit or cereal and milk), maybe a small snack in the afternoon. I found myself at work thinking about food, worrying that my supply would run out before the week was over, and plotting how I might use the remaining money (perhaps I’ll round up to $3?) to have a bit more to eat. The idea of a soup is very appealing, and I know this is something I can do cheaply. While I am hardly suffering, I am thinking what it might be like to be in a situation where there is not enough money for food. Also, I realize I am quite fortunate, even with the financial constraint: I live in an affluent neighborhood, where the stores carry a broad range of high quality food at a range of prices. Not far from here, there are entire cities without a single supermarket.