Today, I am starting the SNAP Challenge, an exercise designed to gain an understanding of the difficulties of living on the food support we provide the poorest Americans.  One of the faculty in our Department of Health Policy and Administration, Dr. Patricia Miranda, did the challenge last year to illustrate its lessons for students in her Public Health class.  This year, she has challenged all of her students (and me) to try it.

On Sunday, I went out to make my purchases–less than $30 to buy food for the week. Tricia had shared some basic tips, but I did not take time to consult the handy guides provided by the government. I had hoped to stretch my dollars by getting some day old food, but a busy weekend meant I had to rush for my purchases later on Sunday, when many of the best deals were gone. I’ll see if those two mistakes will come back at me later this week. My final purchases totaled a little more than it should $33, in large part because the on sale peanut butter I had planned was sold out, so I grabbed the next bigger size.

Looking over my plan for the week, I think breakfast and lunch will be easiest. The menus don’t look much different than what I usually eat, though much more monotonous–peanut butter and tuna rule lunch, cereal and bananas dominate breakfast. Afternoon snacking–no more nuts and chocolate to keep me going; Dinner–my wife, Allison, prepares some great dinners and they are off the plate; And, my end of the evening beer and occasional snack is history. These will be the hardest times for me.

I bring some advantages to the table.  As a former high school and college wrestler, I am pretty familiar with an empty stomach.  My senior year in high school, I was dropping about 20+ pounds to get to my wrestling weight of 100 pounds. I’m not generally prone to cravings, so I think I’m OK on that score.

The week, however, will bring some big challenges. In fact, you probably could not pick a worse week for me to do this.  On Wednesday, I’ll be heading to DC for the Gerontology Society meetings, and returning Friday morning. On Friday, I have both a college alumni board dinner AND a church youth group “lock-in”.  The temptations at both will be difficult to resist. On Saturday, my son will be at his lock-in, so my wife and I were talking about going out to dinner, when I realized I would still be on my challenge.  I’m not sure my offer of a rain check was the best move.

Wish me luck, and even if you never do the challenge, I’d encourage you to try to shop for a week’s worth of groceries on $30!!