Food Stamps are good medicine.

Diana Becker Cutts, M.D., is a staff pediatrician at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota.

Food Stamps Help Kids Lead Healthy & Productive Lives

Too many children are hungry in a state that helps feed the world.

If you think childhood hunger is something seen only in places like Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region or drought-stricken Kenya, think again. At Hennepin County Medical Center, as the Minnesota lead investigator for the Children’s Sentinel Assessment Nutrition Program (C-SNAP), I and a national network of pediatricians, child development experts, and public health professionals have evaluated the health of more than 26,000 low-income babies and toddlers in six states, including Minnesota.

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From Senator Tony Lourey, Kerrick

Last week, I attended the first meeting of the Legislative Commission to End Poverty in Minnesota by 2020. This commission was established legislatively during the 2006 session and is guided by the principle that all people deserve adequate food and shelter, meaningful work, safe communities, access to health care, and education. The legislators serving on this commission will work with faith-based and non-profit organizations, the business community, and government entities to determine the best approach for ending poverty in our state by 2020.

I think it’s significant that the first meeting of the commission occurred during the week of the Minnesota Partners to End Hunger Coalition’s “Food Stamp Challenge.” This was a statewide event that challenged families to limit spending on groceries to $3 a day per person. This amount is derived from the average federal food stamp allocation of $87 per month per person. My family of five participated so at three dollars a day for five days, we could spend a total of $75 on groceries. We went out for groceries on Sunday night and spent about $68, leaving a little extra in case of an emergency later in the week. Our diet for the week was obviously going to have a good deal of inexpensive carbs like rice and potatoes. For protein we relied on eggs, beans and a pork roast on sale for $1.45 a pound. We made the roast last for three days. Thank goodness June is Dairy Month, meaning milk is less expensive, because otherwise, I’m not sure that we could have afforded it.

In the end we made it after using our “emergency” funds to replenish milk and bread late in the week. The reality of this situation really hit home when my son asked me the familiar question: “Hey Dad, can I have an apple?” I had to tell him no, they cost too much. Fresh fruit and vegetables simply don’t fit into this tight budget. This is why the work of the Commission to End Poverty is so important—children’s nutritional needs cannot be neglected because their families can’t afford healthy foods. Families shouldn’t have to live in unsafe neighborhoods or substandard housing. They shouldn’t be forced to choose between paying their bills and taking their sick child to the doctor.

Although I only lived on this fixed income for a week, I now have a deeper understanding of the struggles and tough decisions that some families must endure to make ends meet. The government and private sector need to work closely together to overcome poverty. I’m pleased to be part of the Commission to End Poverty, which will establish the necessary alliances and approaches to best help those who do not have enough to get by.

I’ve always held firm the conviction that regardless of income, all families deserve a high quality of life and equal access to education and health care. This ideal will continue to guide my work in the legislature and on this commission.

From Marlana Benzie-Lourey, Kerrick

I'm hungry. But, I think I'll wait another hour to boil up my ramen noodles for lunch. It's deadline day at the paper and I want to be sure I don't eat too soon and end up wanting a snack between lunch and dinner.

This week, I can't "afford" one.

When I told our kids that their dad and I agreed to take the "Food Stamp Challenge," they were eager to jump on board.

"We'll help you. Don't worry," Chelsea declared, seeing the anxiety in my face.

"I can eat oatmeal every day," Stuart jumped in. "I can eat it for every meal."

"P-B and J is cheap," Colton added. "I can live on those for a week, no problem."

"This isn't a survival game," I tried to explain. Sure, technically, we'd all live through the week if we ate oatmeal, peanut butter, and ramen noodles, but the goal wasn't simply survival. We needed to do our best to create healthy meals on $3 per person/per day-the average food stamp budget.


We had to plan, I told them. We had to really think ahead and write down every purchase. The aim of the challenge is to raise awareness of the issues facing the poor who receive food stamps to help pay for their food.

We started a week early by writing the prices of food on everything we could. Bananas were 22 cents apiece. Fuji apples were running 85 cents-nearly the cost of a whole meal. Every serving of milk was about 25 cents. Watermelon would certainly be off limits. And, ultimately, so would, oranges, grapes, nectarines, and plums. We couldn't wedge them into $3 a day. We even skipped carrots. And Tony's gluten-free bread and cereal that he relies on because of celiac disease? Well, he would have to make do without.

I remember when we were kids-my two brothers, sister and me. Mom would load us up in the car and first make sure she had all her coupons, then head to the bank. Hopefully, we'd have enough for a grocery shopping trip. Mom always looked worried.

When fruit was on sale, she would stock up, obviously thrilled to be able to fill the bowl on the counter.

Within hours of arriving home, we kids would gobble everything down. Often, my mom had tears in her eyes as she watched the fruit disappear.

We'd tease her that you can't bronze the fruit, preserving it forever like a pair of baby shoes. It was to be eaten. Fresh.

But, oh, if she could have preserved it just for a few days. Just to know there was fresh fruit available for her kids, on hand, whenever they wanted it. Whenever they were hungry.

Looking in our cupboard, I felt like my mom.

We'd locked up every other cupboard with cable ties so that we wouldn't be tempted by the bounty we are blessed with-cans of vegetables, soup, jellies, tuna, olives, salsa-stocked up and ready at a moment's notice.

Our tiny food stamp cupboard, filled with $68 worth of food (we left $7 in our budget for emergencies and additional milk), was pretty bleak. Oatmeal, two small cans of tuna, rice, beans, noodles. Everything was purchased on sale. Everything was written down. There wasn't room for error. Our pork would have to last three days. Did we buy enough cheese or too much? Maybe we should have skipped the tuna and bought more rice. There would be no boxed cereal in the cupboard, for sure.

At most meals, the kids started eating first. Tony and I didn't dig in until we were certain there was enough to go around. Sometimes, there wasn't.

We could do it-survive the week- but it wasn't at all easy, especially with our hectic lives. When I mistakenly thought I could make it through a school board meeting without eating dinner until afterward, I found myself with a headache and starting to sweat. By habit, I dashed out of the meeting room and to the drink machine for an orange juice.

$1.25. I was about to faint.

It would have to come out of the emergency reserve. I felt guilty. I confessed my lack of planning when I got home. Colton offered to give up breakfast, but Tony assured him everything would work out fine. That's why we had $7 on hand.

I couldn't make that mistake again. When I did, I went hungry. The excessive planning made me weary. I missed fresh fruit and vegetables. I longed for lean meat.

Tony was great with the record-keeping and coming up with creative meals spun out of potatoes, eggs, and a sprinkle of frozen veggies. Shopping required a notebook and calculator and many returns to various aisles to rethink our selections. The kids rarely complained, and nodded somberly when reminded that this is just five days, not a way of life, as it is for so many of our neighbors and families across the globe.

As I write this, I have about 12 hours left in the "Food Stamp Challenge." We'll make it. But the challenge for other families-too many families-will continue long after we unclip the ties on our kitchen cupboards.

From Jessie Carlson, St. Paul

The overwhelming thing for me while I did this was this constant worried feeling....how was I going to get enough to eat on $3.00 a day? I also thought alot about how much more worried I would be if I was doing this for my children and not just myself. As I tried to eat on $3.00 a day there were so many things I could not afford to eat like fresh fruit, vegetables and meat. My husband would come home with all this fresh stuff to eat and here I sat w/my canned stuff. I basically ate alot of peanut butter, ramen noodles and canned soup. I splurged on a box of cereal for my breakfasts and was very careful with the amount of milk I drank--managing to get through the week on a 1/2 gallon. Again, I kept thinking about how much more difficult this would be if I had children to feed on this amount. And I also thought about food all the time...what I was going to eat, when I was going to eat---much more than I would ever otherwise think about eating. And I was hungry....almost always.

From Pam Johnson, MN Community Action

I am grateful for this past week’s experience taking the Minnesota Food Stamp Challenge. Minnesota’s Community Action network has been focused on fighting poverty for over 40 years, and works to address hunger through food support, food shelves, and outreach initiatives. My personal experience this past week underscored the grave importance of these programs—and their funding sources—as well as the need to keep educating and advocating for an end to hunger and poverty in our state. Here are some key insights I had while taking the Challenge:

While I was able to fill my stomach each day on a basic diet of: bread, peanut butter, rice, beans, potatoes and dry soups--dairy was out of the question. Fresh fruits and vegetables were also not within my $3/day budget, and I decided not to take greens from my garden because I had purchased the seeds in the Spring.

Food quality took a hit this week. I normally shop at my neighborhood co-op, where I try to make as many organic food purchases as possible. One loaf of bread at my co-op, though worth it to me, would have blown my budget for one whole day! I switched to a large food chain to make my meal purchases for the week.

While driving to a larger food chain to make my less costly purchases I noticed that I was spending more time and using more gas to get there! I thought about how many people have to drive to several stores in order to get the best deals and stretch their food stamp budgets. Doing all of this cross-city travel by bus would multiply the time factor, and I thought about how much time it takes to get everything done when you are living in poverty.

Several times during the work week I found myself hungry after my dried-soup lunch. My habitual run to the vending machine, or reliance on a stash of snacks wouldn’t work this week. No “quick fixes!” I should have planned ahead with an extra peanut butter sandwich, but instead I just drank more water and tried to ignore the pangs until dinner. I found it hard to focus at work during those times and thought about the impact this would have on a person’s job effectiveness.

I caught a cold early in the week and found myself needing to increase my Vitamin C intake. What does a person on $3/day about that? Orange Juice can be expensive, and I had no room in the budget. What about vitamins? I decided that a carton of Orange Juice was an “extra” I would allow myself this week so that I could kick my cold. So you can’t get sick on a $3/day budget.

The fact that I knew this was short term challenge enabled me to “get through the week.” . I wondered though, about the impact of ongoing under-nourishment and lack of food choices. What does this do to a person’s spirit?

Maureen Keen Final Day:

Well, after traveling for 12 hours and receiving about 5 hours sleep, I woke this morning realizing that I could splurge today! I still had a little over $6 to spend on my final day.

I quickly got ready for work (I work at home when not traveling) and started to work. The next time I looked up it was about 12:45 pm and I had another meeting at 1:00 pm, so I raced to my suitcase and grabbed the Wheat Thins and had a handful of those before my meeting. After my meeting, I was contemplating going to the grocery store to spend my remaining dollars and I got busy yet again. By the time I looked up again, I saw it was after 5:00 pm. Boy, was I hungry!

I sent my fiancé to the store and he came back with pre-packaged meals from the deli. For $2.99 I received a ground round patty, mashed potatoes, 2 sections of orange and fresh green beans. Wow! Had I known I could eat that good for $3.00 I would have tried to take some of those with me! The meal was enough food for two people so I could have used those for lunch and dinner and eaten much healthier all week! (Our local grocer caters more to seniors, so they are conscious of people on a fixed income.) Although I couldn't imagine eating the same meal all week every week like I did! That was the cheapest prepared meal they had. The others were $1-2 more.

So now that it is over, I can honestly say that I am glad! I spent all week hungry! Even though I absconded on Tuesday night and Thursday night, I still did not feel full or satisfied. Those meals were just 'filling the tank' and allowing my body to continue this brave new science experiment! Throughout the week, I could tell that my metabolism was slowing down, as it would take longer and longer for my body to tell me it was hungry. My stomach shrunk as well, as it is taking less and less food to get me to feel 'full'. I will need to be careful as I start to eat regularly again so that I raise my metabolism slowly! Also, the amount of sodium in my diet over this last week was well over the recommended daily requirements. I would wake everyday swollen!

Thank you so much Hunger Solutions for allowing us to participate in this challenge! I hope that our experiences help to open some eyes and allow for those that are truly in need get sufficient help to be able to live their lives with dignity!

From Rep. Shelley Madore, Apple Valley/Burnsville

My daughter, Erica age 16, and I went into this together. She wanted to know what this would be like and I think she is learning a lot. We started this program on Tuesday thru tonight (Saturday). We started this with grocery shopping on Monday night. It was very hard to first plan our meals and then find things that we could use with leftovers. We decided on this menu for the week:

Breakfasts
1 piece of toast
1 egg
1 glass Vitamin C Fortified Kool-Aid
1 glass Skim Milk
1 Cup (10 oz) Tea w/Milk

Lunch
1 slice bologna sandwich
10 grapes
1 glass Kool-aid

Dinner (here got creative)
Beverage: 1 Glass Skim Milk or Kool-aid
Tuesday: Spaghetti with Canned Tomato Pasta Sauce
Wednesday: Grilled Chicken, Baked Potato, Green Beans, Corn and Grapes
Thursday: Leftover Chicken in Vegetable Medley Soup
Friday: Szechuan Ground Turkey with Green Beans, Baked Potato, Corn and Grapes
Saturday: Onion Soup, Baked Potato and Grapes

We purchased enough food to make these meals. My daughter followed me around Cub with a calculator and we carefully purchased our ingredients. We came to $29.77, all items were eligible for the program. The email said that we could use our own condiments and spices so I was good to go. I was very grateful that Cub had a coupon for buy one, get one pound free grapes. This gave us our fresh produce for the week. I was also able to get in a car and go to a large discount grocery store such as Cub. If I had to shop at an urban small store, the prices may have caused me to rethink even these meals. Here are some things we could not purchase:

Bag uncooked popcorn for snacks
Head of Lettuce
Fresh Fruit of any kind (except grapes)
Fresh Juice
Yogurt
Cheese

What I found most difficult this week was the constant home cooking. It was difficult to add in the minutes to make our food for breakfast, prepare our bagged lunches and then come home to cook dinner. Never a break and the monotony of our menu has been difficult. I am lucky, I have been a "housewife" for many years and have learned to cook, disguise leftovers and understand what a good meal is made of. I used all those skills to make these meals as healthy as possible. I thought many times about how hard it would be if I lacked cooking skills or may have had a very young child who demands food several times throughout the day. I would have never been able to satisfy a starving young teen or child. If I were pregnant, this diet does not contain enough of the nutrients needed to help feed a fetus. I would imagine that diabetes would be a big problem. I also thought about the elderly. It is a lot of work to cook every meal, remember to cook enough food with variety to eat well. What about medications that require food with them. No prepackaged food is allowed, I cannot imagine being 75 years old and having to deal with all this.

As far as the diet goes, it has been hard. No snacks, no extras. Everything is measured out and when we were hungry and wanted more, we had to eat the leftover or have a glass of water. This is a hard thing to do in our society where all the TV commercials are food related, where it is almost grilled into our minds that watching TV, playing a board game or just relaxing has a food component. Tonight we are having our last meal and I am pleased to tell you that we made it, without much cheating. Only one night, Thursday, did we cheat. We went to a Zoo Trail opening at the MN Zoo and we each took one brownie off the dessert tray. We had that and a glass of water, it was very hard.What I did learn this week was what it feels like to be hungry. I, like everyone, feels hunger but we often are able to satisfy it quickly. For me, it is often a trip the vending machine for a quick candy bar or a gourmet coffee from the cafeteria. When I had to wait to eat, I could really feel hungry and even my daughter was surprised at that feeling.

Erica learned a great deal, especially about embarrassment. When we checked out at Cub, we were $1.34 over and we had to decide what to put back. The people behind us were a little rude and huffed and puffed at us. We had to decide between the cheese and popcorn and then we were at $28. It took about 4 minutes to check us out and it was very uncomfortable. If I had to then fill out the food stamp checks, it would have been just down right nerve-wrecking. Imagine someone in your neighborhood seeing you having to go through this process. I even found myself explaining why I had to get to $30.

Well, thank you for giving me the privilege of being a part of this challenge. It has opened my eyes to just what it takes to manage the government's help.

Shelley and Erica Madore