Nov 2011 Food Stamp Challenge -- US$31.50 per week

[Amaranth]

A new food Stamp Challenge has started. From what I can tell this appears to be an empty cupboard challenge with the standard constraints of starting from scratch, avoiding free food, etc. Organized as a nationwide US challenge, participants have US$31.50 per week. (CA$31.95, 21.86 euro, 19.70 pound, AU$30.40, NZ$39.72)

Most of the current media articles are an announcement about the challenge with a note about a participant in a particular region. An article with more details is here
http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...0MM_story.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/3s7u39f

Peg Chemberlin who is mentioned in the article is compassionate and organized as you can see here , plus she has an intriguing sense of humor. I remember hearing that when she graduated from seminary, she made divinity candy to share since she was now a Master of Divinity.

Since this FSC is happening at a different time of the year than most of the previous ones, there is a different set of potential frugal seasonal ingredients. What would you choose for this one?

I'm thinking winter squashes as well as more diverse cooked greens could be included in northern hemisphere challenge menus. In the southern hemisphere there might be spring onions, radishes, carrots, new potatoes, spinach, beets, and spring peas on special.

[Marianne]

Empty cupboards makes a huge difference as was mentioned on another thread.

I'd probably get regular potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, apples, cabbage, beans, rice, lentils, salt and some milk if there was any money left. On a major splurge, I'd get flour, oleo (couldn't afford real butter) and maybe sugar. I'd also be fairly cranky without coffee, but I'd survive.

I used to make Lefse, a flour tortilla looking bread made with mashed potatoes, flour and salt. You also use a bit of milk, but could do without that. It'd be a simple bread.

[daisy]

I'm never clear on these things... Is that US$31.50 per week for a household or per person?

[Amaranth]

Daisy, it's US$31.50 per week per person.

Marianne, sounds like a tasty shopping list. I like how you got both orange and green vegetables in there. Lefse would be tasty. Plus they could be used like a wrap. Just had a thought. do you think it would work to cut them up like tortilla chips or do you think they might be a little too limp?

[mara61]

Going off my family of four that would give me $125/week, I honestly think this is easier with more people in the household.

Going off of where I live (it's not in a fancy area, many people have to take the bus to the grocery store) I would go to a bulk store and I would certainly buy my spices there. My grocery list would include:

eggs (3 dozen)
whole milk (2 gallon)
bread flour
white whole wheat flour
whole wheat pastry flour
soy milk (half gallon)
1 quart of yogurt (with plans to build off it weekly with my own homemade yogurt)
1/2 pound chunk parm. cheese
1# butter
peanut butter
honey
olive oil (not nec. organic but at least the first cold press)
rolled oats (from bulk if possible, enough to make some granola and oatmeal)
1 pkg. chocolate chips (is enough to make 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies and 24 mini muffins)
bulk beans (soups, Mexican dishes, breakfasts)
thin egg noodles
angel hair pasta
tomato sauce (40 ounces)
roasting chicken
bacon
bananas
what ever fruit is on sale (currently I am getting apples for $.59/#), I do hit the dent shelf for bruised fruit/veggies and depending on what it is will buy some to freeze or bake with
head lettuce
carrots
a couple acorn squashes, couple pounds sweet potatoes, bag of onions
tea

There would be more, I'd have to have a menu in front of me but off the top of my head I know I can get what I just posted for around $80 without coupons. If I had coupons I could lower the price of the soy milk, tea, olive oil, pasta, peanut butter and butter. I would be making my own bread which I currently do and would give tortilla shells a shot.

[cdttmm]

I've been thinking about this and crunching some numbers to see if I could do it without compromising on too many of my standards surrounding what I will buy for food. If the allotment is $31.50 per week, that's $126/month. If you are receiving food stamps, do you get the entire monthly amount in one lump sum or is it divided up and distributed to you week by week? IMO this makes a huge difference. With a lump sum for the month, I could more easily buy in bulk and plan for the month. Week by week payments would make it much harder for me to eat a nutritionally sound diet without having to compromise on some of my standards.

[daisy]

cdttmm, I can't speak for certain about the current method, but when I worked in a grocery store in college, the Texas food stamps were all allotted at the first of the month and our sales were timed to coincide with them.

[mara61]

I believe in Michigan you get a lump sum once a month, which I agree would make it easier to stock up. So for my family that would be $500/month. But isn't the full amount determined off of other factors? Not everyone gets the full amount, often it's less.