{"id":3664,"date":"2012-07-02T06:04:58","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T13:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/?p=3664"},"modified":"2012-06-26T09:36:25","modified_gmt":"2012-06-26T16:36:25","slug":"lessons-learned-from-new-york-citys-food-stamp-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/lessons-learned-from-new-york-citys-food-stamp-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons Learned from New York City’s Food Stamp Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently in New York City, the Food Bank of New York issued a challenge to raise awareness of the plight of those who rely on food stamps to procure enough nutritious food for themselves and their families. That challenge to the general public was to eat for one week on only the food you can buy with the amount in food stamps the average person receives: $1.48 per meal.<\/p>\n

No, that\u2019s not a typo – $1.48 per meal.<\/p>\n

I realize that food stamps are intended as a subsidy and not meant to cover the entire cost of the food required for a meal. Their purpose is to help people achieve and maintain a suitable level of nutrition for themselves and their family when finances are especially tight.<\/p>\n

When I shop for groceries, $1.48 here or there doesn\u2019t make an impact in my overall purchasing decisions. Considered alone, $1.48 does indeed seem like a meager amount; but multiply it by 3 meals per day, 7 days per week and you have $31.08 per person. That\u2019s an amount I can relate to in my grocery budget.<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s Food Stamp Challenge raised my awareness of the fact that, when it comes to purchasing groceries, thirty bucks a week can make a big difference, whether it\u2019s the lion\u2019s share of your budget or, like mine, just a part.<\/p>\n

This led me to ponder this question: If low-income individuals are faced with the challenge of feeding their families with so little, what could a comfortably middle-class person like myself do with that same amount of money from my grocery budget? Could I be as frugal and responsible at procuring nutritious, affordable food with it as food stamp recipients must, by necessity, be?<\/p>\n

My Own Grocery Challenge<\/h3>\n

I devised a mental challenge of my own: Earmark an amount of my own grocery budget equivalent to the subsidy we would receive in food stamps and spend it as if it were the majority of my money for food. (As a family of two, we would receive a little over $62 a week in food stamps.) My challenge would stipulate that I would need to spend that money only on nutritious foods that would be acceptable under the food stamp rules and regulations.<\/p>\n

How would I spend carefully?<\/strong><\/p>\n