This statement right here says it all: "Now I should disclose that I have low blood sugar. At the very least this means, I get cranky if I don’t eat, at its worst I get dizzy and pass out. On my food stamp diet, I was getting 300 calories per meal — 200 fewer calories than my body was used to. In order to function I needed to supplement my food stamp purchases with extra snacks."
Guess what, I don't get that luxury and neither does anyone else on SNAP. Try being diabetic, or some one with celiacs, or even having a food allergy.. That aside learning to be frugal with limited funds for food takes time and practice, not something someone is going to learn in a week. For those "new" to being on SNAP, it is a hell of and adjustment.
In my own trial, which would last a week, I decided to split the difference between the $50 weekly allotment that a New Yorker would get through SNAP with the national average of $33. Thus, I would only buy $41 worth of groceries. My plan was to rely solely on these groceries, and to avoid supplementing my SNAP-purchased goods with food already in my pantry. The exceptions would be sauces (like soy sauce, and BBQ) and cooking materials like oil, salt and pepper, which many household kitchens have.
At first, $41 seemed like a lot of money for a week’s worth of food, but this was $41, full stop — not $41 (unless I’m running late for work and need to stop by a coffee shop for a muffin) and not $41 (and then ordering from Seamless because the temperature has dropped and I wanted to cozy up with some hot soup). This was $41 to pay for three meals a day for seven days. This was going to require some planning.
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Trying to stretch my meager food budget, I found that while some healthy items were expensive — anything organic or gluten free jumped in price, and meat prices are very high — fruits, veggies and oatmeal were far less expensive than frozen meals or cereal. The most difficult part was preparing and portioning out my meals.
I made the baked pasta dish for my first SNAP dinner with the hope that it would last me at least seven non-breakfast meals. It only lasted me six: three days worth of lunch and dinner. At that point, I started to panic. Would rice, eight mini-chicken tenders, a pepper, and a small bag of Green Giant stir-fry veggies really last me eight more meals? I had no choice but to plan differently. Rather than cook giant batches, which I proved inept at rationing for long periods of time, I’d have to cook in waves of one or two meals at once.
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For my first meal post-food stamps I was craving something rice-less, healthy and obtained with efficacy. Living in New York, it was difficult to turn down the splurge-worthy allure of ordering food online. As I hit the purchase button for a kale salad with chicken and a “soup of the day,” I was viscerally shocked at the total. With tax and a decent tip, it came to half of what I’d spent in the previous week for all of my meals. With this awareness, I lost my appetite.
What I learned from a week on food stamps: Paul Ryan couldn’t be any more wrong - Salon.com
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