As a
college student, I thought I was used to living on a tight budget. However,
tonight for the first time I was worried about going to bed hungry. As a group
we were tasked with making dinner on the budget that a person living on the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would experience. SNAP,
formally known as Food Stamps, is government assistance for food based on
income. For dinner we were on the "thrifty" plan. We had $32.16
to feed 12 people in New York City. It was rough.
Many voices and limited options created tension throughout the shopping experience. With money so tight, suddenly the decision of whether to buy a cucumber or an extra banana become a contentious decision. Our formerly loving group debated in public about which type of spaghetti sauce to buy.
In the end, our spaghetti dinner provided enough food for everyone. The success provided a sense of pride but also the realization of how tiring it would be to be living on SNAP. It took 10 college students around two hours to figure out dinner. Exerting that amount of effort after a long day of working or with the pressure of children is unimaginable. Yet, many people do it every day because without living SNAP they would go hungry.
This experience showed me several things. Programs like SNAP need to retain funding even if it is at the expense of other programs. SNAP is intended to be supplemental. Barring a drastic change in how SNAP is set up it is up to the general population to make up the differences. Grocery stores need to donate perishable items to food pantries because buying them consistently on assistance is nearly impossible. If a package of meat is going to expire, the store can't sell it. And it costs them nothing to donate it to pantries. The same goes for the general household. You may not want to eat that recently expired soup but someone does. Helping those on SNAP is as simple as driving those cans to the local food pantry. If you feel particularly motivated you could write a letter to a representative about why programs like SNAP are beneficial. Providing healthy food will raise the overall health of people living in poverty--a change that would help lower the costs of Medicaid. The middle class perception that people are abusing the system and living easy off the government needs to end. As we experienced today, nothing about feeding yourself on SNAP is easy.
Many voices and limited options created tension throughout the shopping experience. With money so tight, suddenly the decision of whether to buy a cucumber or an extra banana become a contentious decision. Our formerly loving group debated in public about which type of spaghetti sauce to buy.
In the end, our spaghetti dinner provided enough food for everyone. The success provided a sense of pride but also the realization of how tiring it would be to be living on SNAP. It took 10 college students around two hours to figure out dinner. Exerting that amount of effort after a long day of working or with the pressure of children is unimaginable. Yet, many people do it every day because without living SNAP they would go hungry.
This experience showed me several things. Programs like SNAP need to retain funding even if it is at the expense of other programs. SNAP is intended to be supplemental. Barring a drastic change in how SNAP is set up it is up to the general population to make up the differences. Grocery stores need to donate perishable items to food pantries because buying them consistently on assistance is nearly impossible. If a package of meat is going to expire, the store can't sell it. And it costs them nothing to donate it to pantries. The same goes for the general household. You may not want to eat that recently expired soup but someone does. Helping those on SNAP is as simple as driving those cans to the local food pantry. If you feel particularly motivated you could write a letter to a representative about why programs like SNAP are beneficial. Providing healthy food will raise the overall health of people living in poverty--a change that would help lower the costs of Medicaid. The middle class perception that people are abusing the system and living easy off the government needs to end. As we experienced today, nothing about feeding yourself on SNAP is easy.
To help
show the general population there could be a national challenge day. Everyone
in the country could be challenged to live off of $2 a meal for one day. It
should help show how much of a challenge it actually is.
So how do we challenge the perceptions of those who judge those who benefit from SNAP? SNAP is intended to be supplemental, what other actions do we need to be taking as citizens?
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