Food & Recipes

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― Editor's Note: The San Francisco Food Bank 2009 Hunger Challenge runs from September 20-26. For seven days, participants will eat on $4 dollars a day, the budget of a food stamp recipient. CBS 5's own Sue Kwon is taking the challenge, and documenting her trials in her entries below. Share your comments or experiences in our eye on blogs section.

FRIDAY
On Day 6 of the San Francisco Food Bank Hunger Challenge, a big serving of help arrives to feed the hungry. First, it came in the form of 100,000 pounds of turkey and chicken. It's food that will go directly to soup kitchens and pantries stocked by the San Francisco Food Bank.

Tyson Foods kept a promise to deliver the donation after Hunger Challenge participants met a goal to send out 6,000 twitter messages with facts about hunger.

John Conalin with Tyson Foods said, "We recognize that hunger has a devastating effect on communities and feel a responsibility to find solutions to this problem."

A local San Francisco restaurant, Mission Street Food, supported the Hunger Challenge with a donation of its own. Chefs cooked up dishes containing ingredients totaling less than $1.33, the amount each meal costs on a $4-dollar a day food stamp budget.

Profits will go toward helping some of the 22,000 families who receive food from the SF Food Bank. For them, living on a tight food budget goes well beyond the one-week Hunger Challenge.

In this recession, Food Banks all over the Bay Area are seeing an increase in need. Local markets are seeing it too. 

"Every day we get a phone call with nonprofits asking us for a donation," said Ashley Paulson with Whole Foods Market.

The grocery chain also lowered prices on staple items, launched daily specials, and offers money-saving shopping tips on its website. While customers are looking to save more money, they have also started donating food for families who are a lot worse off. Collection bins are filling up, well before the store's holiday food drive begins.

Safeway is also hoping customers help neighbors in their community with donation bins starting in November. In addition, John Obrey with Safeway said, "We are looking to contribute half a million pounds of food as we've done the years prior."

So it appears, companies, stores, and consumers are becoming more aware of the issue of hunger in the Bay Area. This week, I did manage to stick to $4 dollars a day by eating lots of cheap starch like pasta and oatmeal and peanut butter and eggs for protein. There was not a lot left for fresh produce or luxuries like coffee or sweets. Shopping required tough choices. Eating took planning.

The payoff for about 100 of us who participated and thousands who followed along was hearing these words from Paul Ash, Executive Director of the SF Food Bank.

"The Hunger Week Challenge was terrific. Literally thousands and thousands of people have become aware of how it would be like to live on $4 a day," Ash said.  

Now, he hopes we will volunteer, donate, and become advocates for hunger by lobbying lawmakers to address the growing problem in Bay Area communities.

THURSDAY
Every week, families line up at one of San Francisco Food Bank's community pantries to fill bags full of free fresh produce and staples. 

"Without it, it would be hard to feed my family," said Maria Gomez, who gathers rice, fruit, and vegetables for her family of five. "My son is disabled. We need it."

The Gomez family is one of 22,000 households in San Francisco and Marin allong with thousands more across the Bay Area that would otherwise go hungry without supplemental staples from local Food Banks.

The $4-dollars a day food stamps allow per person is just not enough. I'm finding that out the hard way while taking the SF Food Bank $4-dollar a day Hunger Challenge. I decided not to get extra food from a local pantry.

Instead, I made a strict eating plan with fellow Hunger Challenge participant and food blogger Amy Sherman. She showed me how to stretch pasta or chicken with $1 dollar homemade pesto and fill up on cheap starches and proteins.

I've been good about avoiding costly coffee and eating out until today. A lapse in judgment while running errands, and I splurged on a morning cup-of-joe. That $1.59 cent mistake meant all I had left for the rest of the day was a 34-cent 1/2 peanut butter sandwich and a small Tupperware with leftover broccoli/chicken pasta.

So, for today, I'll go to bed hungry like so many others in the Bay Area trying to live on $4-dollars a day.

It's a reminder of the fact that there is no extra cash for eating and drinking out on this tight budget. Follow this link or call 211 for information on Bay Area food banks where people can learn about the free community pantries. If you're in a position to help, they could use donations and volunteers to pack and distribute food.

WEDNESDAY
The San Francisco Food Bank provides food to more than 400 distribution centers all over the city. For thousands, it provides the extra produce and staples needed, even with $4 dollars a day in food stamps.

"We typically see food stamp clients at our pantries, because food stamps aren't enough to live on. It will be difficult, as people will find out with the Hunger Challenge, to live on the amount of money you get on food stamps," said SF Food Bank Executive Director Paul Ash.

Paul hopes the Food Bank's Hunger Challenge will be an eye-opener. And by looking at the discussion board on CBS5.com, so far it has been.

Sarah wrote, "Eating on a budget like this is tough."

Kimberly said, "While it's true many abuse food assistance, hunger is still a real problem…"

And there's a lot of shopping advice from people who truly are on tight food budgets.

Ajay told me to check out "Ethnic markets in the Mission." So far, I've packed my diet with inexpensive starch like bread and pasta and cheap protein like eggs and peanut butter. And even though I'm taking in as many or more calories than usual, Paul Ash gave me this warning. "You'll find your energy going down. If you kept it for a month or two you'll see health side effects."

Here's how it's going so far. Sunday I hit $3.56. Monday I went over with $4.07. Tuesday I ate scrambled eggs and buttered toast for 76-cents, a peanut butter sandwich, 2 carrots and apple for $1.19. Dinner was pasta with lentils, half an onion and a carrot sautéed in butter for $1.46. Right before bedtime, my stomach felt empty, so I ate a big spoon of peanut butter for 12-cents. It all added up to $3.53.

Check out what other people doing the Hunger Challenge are eating. There are 28 participants blogging about it at www.HungerChallenge.com. This Hunger Challenge is to highlight the hunger problem among food stamp recipients, the working poor, children, and elderly all over the Bay Area. 

On Wednesday, I heard about special Recession Relief Food Pantries - call 211 for information. An operator will give you information on the nearest food pantry and what hours it's open. It's designed for people impacted by the recession. It's easy to get help. There is no complicated application process.

TUESDAY
For thousands of Bay Area families, riding out the recession means turning to food stamps. In 2008, an estimated 200,000 Bay Area residents were on food stamps. This year, the need has increased by 20%.

The Economic Stimulus Plan increased food stamp payments by about 13%. A family of four that received $588 a month is getting an additional $80 a month. The raise will last until October of 2010. For a single person, the boost brings the allotment from $3 to $4 a day. The SF Food Bank is raising awareness of how difficult it is to live on $4 a day through a week-long Hunger Challenge. I'm on Day#3.

For this challenge, I shopped at my neighborhood stores, Safeway and Whole Foods. I got a lot of feedback from viewers criticizing me for not shopping at FoodMax, FoodCo, and other discounters. Simply put, for this experiment, I'm buying for one person - not a family. I don't need 6-pounds of hamburger or a family pack of peanut butter. Yes, items like mac & cheese and cup-o-noodles can be cheaper than some of the fresh items I filled the basket with, but I really wanted to see if I could do this challenge with other options. By the way, everything I purchased was a lesser-priced store brand or on sale. I found out rather quickly, it's all about making tough choices and not always getting what you want.

For Betty Carson, who is not yet on food stamps, grocery shopping is not a simple errand. She normally picks up small amounts of food from the corner store, often on IOU's.

"It's kind of difficult. I live close by to the little store and they give me credit. They let me go from paydate to paydate until I got enough money to pay back," Betty said. 

She's in the process of applying for food stamps which would give her an individual benefit of $4-dollars a day or $28-dollars a week.

She's been on food stamps before, but a lot has changed since the last time she went on government assistance. It's now called SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Instead of stamps, it's an Electronic Benefit Card that looks like a debit card.

In California, a single person qualifies if they make $1,174 a month or less.
For a 2-person household it's up to $1,579. A family of four needs to make no more than a gross monthly income of $2,389. Based on the increased requests for food at Bay Area Food Banks, the Executive Director of the San Francisco Food Bank believes there are more Bay Area residents who qualify for federal help than are actually receiving it.

"California is the worst state in the union to get eligible people signed up for food stamps,"  Executive Director of the San Francisco Food Bank Paul Ash said. "That's a big problem here. It's a very long application. There is a lot of information needed. The application used to be 17 pages and now it's 11 pages."

While Betty waits for her application to be approved, she continues to shop for food that is filling, discounted, and within the food stamp budget of $4-dollars a day.

"It's hard. I like instant mashed potatoes and cream of wheat. I like coffee, but it's too high," she said.  

Like Betty, I passed over a lot of items I normally buy at the grocery store. On Day#2 here's what I ate:
2 Eggs fried over easy in one tablespoon of butter for $.97.
For lunch I ate 1/2 chicken breast at $.45 and a half bag of frozen broccoli cooked with a clove of garlic and a tablespoon of butter. By mid afternoon, I was still hungry, so I ate a piece of wheat bread with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter. All of that came to $1.79. I had a little over a dollar left for dinner. A can of tomato soup and a baked potato with butter cost me $1.31. I went over by 7-cents.

So Monday I hit $4.07. The day before I came in under at $3.56. So far, I'm not too hungry. But, I'm tired and have a pounding headache from not drinking coffee. These are minor complaints considering people who live on food stamps have to eat on $4 dollars a day for a lot longer than I have for this $4 Hunger Challenge. 

Click here to learn more about what it takes to qualify for the SNAP card.

MONDAY
It's only Day #2, but already I can see how difficult this week will be.

There are a million households or 2.8 million individuals in California who are receiving federal help through food stamps. Technically, they aren't really stamps. The USDA renamed the program the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP for short. Instead of tearing stamps to redeem at the checkout, users get an Electronic Benefits Transfer card which is like an atm card. In this recession, there's a 20% increase in people receiving this government assistance. 

The reason why the SF Food Bank is sponsoring the Hunger Challenge is because it wants to shed light on the fact that the SNAP program is not enough for many hungry Bay Area residents.  

Paul Ash, Executive Director of the SF Food Bank said, "Food stamps are not enough to live on. It's very very difficult as people will find out with the Hunger Challenge to live on the amount of money you get with food stamps. They come to our pantries to get supplemental food."

While eating on $4 a day, I will not go to the Food Bank pantries to get extra food. I'm going to try and go-it-alone like so many working families, children and elderly. As my Hunger Challenge week starts off, I'm finding it's not just about being hungry. Part of the challenge is in planning meals and searching for bargains.

When shopping for a family on food stamps, it makes sense to stock up on bulk items at a discount grocery outlet.  Friends told me to check out FoodCo or The Grocery Outlet.  But, since it's just me shopping for $28 dollars for a week of groceries, I searched for a variety of bargains at two neighborhood spots - Safeway and Whole Foods.

That's where I enlisted help from Amy Sherman, a food blogger who has taken the Hunger Challenge and developed some money-saving recipes. She says the bottom line is for me to get ready to make hard choices and changes to my regular diet.  In a store known for its gourmet and organic selections, you realize how fast $4-dollars can be eaten up. 

"Look at the organic artichokes. They are great for a healthy lunch, but it's $2.99 each. That's a whole day or 3/4ths of your budget. So certain things like that you have to pass by," Amy said as we passed the produce. 

So we stick to the economical Whole Foods store brand and special sale items. I have to add here that most people give me a weird look when I said I shopped at Whole Foods with its fancy cheeses and gourmet prepared foods. (But, it's close to my house. I can buy small single serving sizes of ingredients. And, I've found the 365 line is about the same as other store brand generics. And, the chain is seeing an increase in customers using food stamps.) Also, I was curious to see how far I could stretch the dollar there.

Amy made a B-line for the Italian parsley. It's $1.49 for a big bunch. It's not an item I would have considered, because I use parsley to flavor, not as a main ingredient. She said she can help me cook 2-meals worth of pesto with one bundle for under $2.  It'll be flavored with garlic at 17-cents a clove and 24-cents worth of nuts or rather - seeds.

"These walnuts are $10 a pound. But look here and you can see pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds at $2.29 a pound. So it requires being creative and trying something different," said Amy as she filled a bag with about a handful of pumpkin seeds - also not an ingredient I would have thought to consider.

The truth is fresh produce doesn't stretch as far as starchy or processed foods but I want to see if I can stay on a relatively healthy diet with nutrients and fiber. (If I'm going to be hungry, I don't want to be "stopped up" for a week if you know what I mean.)  We load up a bag with individual carrots, priced at about 8 for under a dollar. Sticking to such a tight budget meant compromises like chosing frozen instead of fresh broccoli at $1.49 for a big family sized bag.  

We pass over the meat and head for cheaper protein sources including peanut butter at 12-cents a serving and eggs which ar less than a quarter each. Since there's not enough for spices or dressings, I splurge on one stick of 64-cent butter.

To live on $4 a day, I had to make dietary changes like regular instead of whole wheat pasta and filling my menus with carbohydrates like oatmeal and bread.  There's no money for chocolate, coffee, or wine.  When it's all added up, Amy and I are under my 7-day budget of $28 dollars. But there's still more shopping to do.

At Safeway, it's hard to pass up 1/2 priced chicken. At $5.35 for 6 chicken breasts, I tossed it in the basket.  I search for other popular sale-item staples which the store now flags with yellow tags like 50-cent cans of soup and grapes for 79-cents a pound.  At the checkout counter it's obvious I've gone over my $4-dollar a day budget when I add up both shopping trips. Even though sale items cut about 40-percent off the final Safeway bill, I'm over $28-dollars for the week.

Back at home with Amy, she takes items off the table including most of my grapes and half of the sale-priced chicken.  On my first day of the $4-dollar challenge, breakfast was oatmeal with a pat of butter and almond milk (because I'm not big on dairy). That came out to $.85. Lunch was a peanut butter sandwich and apple for $.89. I ate this while my kids noshed on leftover $15 pizza from Pizza Nostra. (I don't think I'll ever take eating out for granted after this week.)  For dinner, I cooked up 1/2 a chicken breast and 400-calories worth of pasta (2 servings). I smothered it with Amy's homemade pesto. Dinner cost $1.82 for a whopping daily total of $3.56.

I have to say, my stomach is not growling yet. Out of curiousity I added up the calories and found it was around 1450, the same or a bit more than I normally eat per day.  However, my head is pounding. I haven't had coffee in two days. I'm ignoring the free hot cocoa and coffee machine in the break room.

I walked right by Starbucks twice, once when I normally get a morning tall 1/2 caff and once when I normally order an afternoon soy latte. (That would have put me well over the $4 a day.) I'm passing up the candy bowl at the reception desk. I started to chew an old piece of gum from my desk, but felt guilty and tossed it out.  It's certainly a lot harder than I thought it'd be and also eye-opening considering this is a Hunger Challenge that lasts a lot longer for people who really are on the food stamp budget. 

Thanks to the viewers who have emailed me great money saving ideas and recipes! Check out the links to the USDA SNAP program, Amy's Hunger Challenge recipes, and the SF Food Bank. Try the challenge for a day and let me know how it goes for you.
 

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