Food Stamp Challenge

Jonathan Albers

Socy105-0801

Professor Cox

3/23/15

SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge

After completing the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge I was able to understand some of the many difficulties that stem from having little income. I decided to choose the easier route by constructing a food plan as opposed to actually participating in the full challenge. Although I didn’t actually have to live off of the food that met the measly weekly budget of $28, it was still a very difficult and frustrating task. Even though I pinched the penny pretty hard while I grocery shopped online, I am sure I would be displeased with my plan for the week if I were forced to commit to it and survive only off of those items.

Before the assignment I had never even thought about how much money I spend on food each week. Now, I realize how much I took that fact for granted. It was so stressful trying to get a decent amount of food for the week that allowed me to stay in my budget. I managed to do this, and I think I ended up with a good amount of food for each day. Then again, I wouldn’t really know because I chose option one. What if it isn’t enough? Maybe I would have been miserable that week because I had hunger pains and no energy to do anything. If one thing is for sure though, it’s that my food plan had little variety and contained relatively unappetizing/boring meals each day. I would soon get sick of having Pop tarts, Bananas, and a glass of milk every day of the week for breakfast. The same goes for eating pasta with tomato sauce every night for dinner with only alternating between having steamed carrots or sausage on top of it every few nights. That is no way to eat and no way to live. Yet, it is a reality that over 15% of American families face in their day-to-day lives (Leon-Guerrero 2014).

One specific thing that I kept in mind while creating my food plan, in addition to choosing cheap food, was that I wanted to have a relatively healthy selection. This is another factor that made this difficult assignment even more difficult. It is not often that you hear the word cheap with other adjectives such as healthy or quality. In contrast to the limited amount of healthy food products sold in stores at a cheap price, the selection of cheap junk food is virtually limitless. This leaves many of the low-income families that are food insecure no choice but to feed their families poor quality food they know will damage their health.  I was fortunate that the store I shopped at (ALDI’s) had incredible deals, which allowed me to be successful in obtaining a healthy grocery list. However, large portions of Americans live in areas where you may not be so lucky to find such deals. That brings me to the last difficulty I discuss.

According to our textbook “Social Problems,” “Grocery stores in central cities and rural areas, where the poor reside, have higher operating costs and tend to be smaller.” This explains why the higher price of groceries in the city of College Park’s stores. To me this sounds like the poor are getting kicked when their already down; not only do they have a low-budget for their weekly food, but the prices of food in the areas where the poor live are higher? That is truly outrageous and unfair.

In conclusion, the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge highlighted the difficulties of eating a healthy and sustainable diet on the current food stamp budget. Participating in this challenge was an eye-opening experience and I think everyone in the United States should try it.  It would surely create more sympathetic feelings towards the lower class and maybe even influence enough people to work together and demand change.