Food Stamp Challenge Case Study

Food Stamp Challenge:
Bonnie Holliday
Intro-Soc: MW 2:00

I was feeling pretty confident while going into this assignment. When I was 16, my family and I were living off of food stamps and I was able to learn how to shop with a small amount of money. This assignment was not as easy. Planning out meals for a child and myself proved to be difficult due to the fact that I had to think about another person. I felt like the most challenging aspect was to actually create meals. Picking out cheap ingredients is one thing, but creating decent meals out of them is much more complicated. A strategy I was able to use was to go meal by meal. For example, breakfast would consist of milk, cereal and maybe some fruit. Then I would pick out an ingredient
that was cheap and would last a long time. Repeating meals definitely is money saving. For lunch I got three main ingredients; tuna, bread and soup. The tuna would make sandwiches for the week and then could be accompanied by soup. Finally, for dinner I decided on choosing a ham. There were about 28 slices that could feed two people for a whole 7 days. Frozen vegetables were also a great option. A big bag of frozen squash or carrots was only around $3 and would last a while. For an average day we would start out with cereal, milk, and half a banana.
Since the bag of cereal that was bought provided us with enough to get us through the whole week, it was eaten for every breakfast meal. Then the milk was added for added nutrients and then a half a banana for a serving of fruit. Lunch was sandwiches, because we figured that if a cheap loaf of bread was bought then that would last us the entire week. Having sandwiches every day probably isn’t the healthiest, but the added calories from the white bread would keep someone going throughout the day. The tuna and ham was a great idea because tuna can be bought in bulk and is not expensive at all. The ham was a bit of a splurge but since it could be used in both lunch and dinner, it was worth it. Dinner wasn’t much different from lunch. Basic sandwiches were made but then the adding of soup or vegetables would add a sense of variety. The bag of frozen vegetables was probably the smartest thing bought. The bags were huge and contained several servings for little cost. The vegetables added nutrients to the meals and are vital to keeping someone healthy. Speaking of being healthy, this proved to be incredibly difficult while shopping. When shopping on food stamps you plan to buy the cheapest things, but those aren’t always the healthiest options. A big bag of chips could be on sale for $0.98 while a bag of carrots would be around $2.00. In the situation I was in, the cheapest seems to be the best bet.
Although the healthiest options seemed to be the most expensive, there were more options of buying those items in bulk, such as the frozen vegetables. In an everyday shopping trip I try to go for the healthier option, but in this food stamp challenge, the things that were most popular to buy were not as healthy. It is hard to fathom living off of something like this for an entire month, but people still do it. I feel like this amount of food would get you by for about 3 weeks. The last week would be incredibly difficult coming up with meals to eat, and a family going through this would probably have to turn to a soup kitchen or another type of charity. Even with this amount of money for food, it still would be difficult with transportation. Most likely a car would not be available just because of gas prices, so means of transportations for definitely rely on public transportation or just walking. Overall, I feel like this food stamp challenge was very beneficial. Even though I have already been through these experiences a couple years ago, it is nice to see how far I can stretch my money out. Maybe I’ll even use these tips to go shopping on my college budget!