United Way of King County Hunger Challenge

I've been approached by the United Way of King County about participating in a Hunger Challenge to correspond with Hunger Action Week which runs April 20 through 24.

The challenge is to live off $12.00 worth of food a day for the week and to write about my experience.    Twelve dollars is the maximum food stamp benefit (known as the Basic Food Program in Washington) for a two person household.

My goal will be to make the three meals a day as nutritionally balanced as possible and tasty to boot!   Here are the details;

As far as ingredients go, salt and pepper are the only freebies  
All other seasonings, cooking oils, condiments, snacks, drinks count as expenses
I can't use food I already own
I can't accept food from family, friends or coworkers and no free samples from grocery stores
I should try to include fresh produce and healthy protein each day

The purpose of the challenge is to raise awareness of the problem of hunger locally.  Because of the recession, many families are not getting enough to eat and local food banks and meal programs are being stretched beyond their limits as more and more people apply for assistance.

Many of you know I work with Operation Frontline teaching healthy cooking, nutrition and food budgeting for individuals at risk for hunger and malnutrition.  I'm going to use this challenge as an opportunity to try to create some new recipes or adapt some of my older ones to be more budget friendly.  I spend a lot of time talking with students about budgeting, so now it is time to see if I can walk the talk.

So get ready for Hunger Action week.  If you'd like to participate in the Hunger Challenge, go here to sign up.  Otherwise, stay tuned and I'll keep you update on how my menu planning progresses.  One problem I can see right off the bat, is my addiction to diet coke is going to be sorely constrained by this budget. 

Comments

[mamichelle]

Wow, this will be quite the challenge! I'm anxious to see what you come up with. Good luck!

[alice]

Wow! I'm tempted to join you in the challenge!

[Eric]

Congrats on doing this project with the United Way. I will be participating as well. It's great to see Seattle food bloggers working for a great cause.

thank you,

Eric

[Nerdgrl]

$12 a day! Wow! And nothing you currently have? Makes it even harder. I'll be interested to see what you come up with for meals.

[United Way of King County]

Hey Gaynol,

Thanks so much for the post! It's going to be exciting to see how you handle the challenge and I'm confident that you'll be able to walk the walk :D

Also, I hope all your readers will also take the challenge! This is a big problem and we want everyone to get involved and raise awareness!

[Gayle]

Congratulations for taking this on! Having done something similar last fall, I know how tough it is. You can read about San Francisco Food Bank's Hunger Challenge here: http://www.HungerChallenge.com. There are also some recipes and good tips!

Best of luck with your challenge!