This week, several members of The Women’s Foundation staff are participating in the Food Stamp Challenge, an exercise organized by D.C. Hunger Solutions that educates the public and raises awareness of the benefits of food stamps and the challenges recipients face while eating on a very limited budget. The staff will be sharing their experiences on this blog.

Yesterday, I took my 12-year-old son with me to my local Safeway to do my shopping for the Food Stamp Challenge.  I had $30 to buy food for an entire week for myself.  Just the process of shopping was highly enlightening and also frustrating.  First thing I realized was how much I take for granted when I am shopping for food in a typical week.  Yes – I always shop from a list, carefully crafted to enable me to prepare meals for my family over the course of the week.  But once the list is made, with only rare exceptions, I don’t really look at the prices of the things I am buying – they are on the list, they are part of the meal plan, so they go in the cart.  That is probably the surest sign of economic security and stability – and the anti-thesis of my shopping experience yesterday.

With only $30, the first thing I realized was I needed to get the maximum amount of food with the money I had.  That meant 1) fewer fresh fruits and vegetables; 2) fewer proteins – I purchased eggs, a five-pack of chicken legs, a can of black beans, a can of garbanzo beans, and peanut butter as my protein quotient; 3) more carbs – bread, pasta, rice; 4) organic was out the window, as were any consideration of sodium, carbs, fat, or nutritional content – it was all about cost.

The second thing I realized was how stressful it was to walk up to the checkout line knowing I had only $30 to spend and no more.  People were lining up behind me, and wondering why I was keeping some items in the cart as I waited to see what the tally would be.  When it came in lower than I expected, I added the items held back.  When all was said and done, I had $2.45 left – there was no way I was leaving that on the table.  So I completed check-out, left the groceries with my son, and went back in to find one or two more items for my $2.45.

The third thing I realized was that I could not afford the luxury of things like chocolate and caffeine.

This is going to be an interesting week.

Nicky Goren is president of Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

This week, several members of The Women’s Foundation staff are participating in the Food Stamp Challenge, an exercise organized by D.C. Hunger Solutions that educates the public and raises awareness of the benefits of food stamps and the challenges recipients face while eating on a very limited budget. The staff will be sharing their experiences on this blog.

I am midway through the Food Stamp Challenge—eat for a week for $30 per person, the average amount a person receives in food stamps in DC. I am fortunate that one son and my husband agreed to do it with me.  This meant I could afford to buy a pound each of kidney beans (for chili), black beans (for tacos) and split peas (for soup), as well as packages of rice, white flour (biscuits, muffins) and cornmeal (corn bread with chili—yum!), allowing for greater variety in our meals than is possible for my colleague who is “going it alone.” And I’m fortunate that my son is vegetarian and my husband and I often cook without meat, so I could leave meat out of the budget without missing it. And it really helps that during the first couple decades of our marriage we skated very close to the edge of poverty, so I know a few tricks about stretching a food budget—including actually enjoying leftovers!

All that said, I’m very conscious that we are playing a game this week.  We question the rules: Does gum count? Do kids’ week-time lunches count? Why can’t I eat cookies my colleague brought to the staff meeting? We cheat—one colleague with a glass of wine, me with a daily teabag provided at work. We complain about fairness: Why should I let that onion I bought last week go bad instead of putting it in my soup pot?  But mostly, we know there’s an end: After seven days we can go back to “normal.” We can eat fresh vegetables and fruit every day—even twice a day if we’re so inclined. We can choose the low-sodium organic tomato sauce if that’s our preference.  We can go out to lunch with colleagues. The “game” is over.

Not so for tens of thousands in our area—not just for those on food stamps, but also for the working poor. For them, this “challenge” is life. The rules are immutable. There’s no cheating. When the budget’s been spent, there’s no stocked pantry to fall back on; there’s no “My son had a football game and had to have high-quality protein to do his best;” there’s no luxury of ordering pizza when you come home too tired to cook.

Challenge, indeed.

Donna Wiedeman is the executive assistant to the president at The Women’s Foundation.

This week, several members of The Women’s Foundation staff are participating in the Food Stamp Challenge, an exercise organized by D.C. Hunger Solutions that educates the public and raises awareness of the benefits of food stamps and the challenges recipients face while eating on a very limited budget. The staff will be sharing their experiences on this blog.

Today I officially start the Food Stamp Challenge, but my week-long journey began last night with my trip to the grocery store to purchase my food. On a budget of $30 for the week (the average weekly food stamp benefit in the District of Columbia), I armed myself with a list of what I thought I could reasonably buy for $30. My complicating factors are that I’m a vegetarian, and I have a number of food allergies. Also, I have a small addiction to Mountain Dew (my only vice, my source of caffeine every morning), but I was pretty sure that my budget would not allow for this luxury.

My younger daughter (age 9) accompanied me to the grocery store. Her task: keep me on budget by adding everything up on the calculator. We started in the fruits and vegetables section at our local Giant. Because of my allergies, I have always purchased only organic fruits and vegetables, but I knew that would not be possible on my budget.

I carefully searched through the produce. I knew that I wanted to get some things to make fresh salads throughout the week. At roughly $4.00, my usual organic baby spinach was out of the question. Instead I purchased two bags of “Veggie Medley” lettuce that included shredded carrots and radishes, thinking that the “extra” veggies might come in handy. Additionally, they were on sale—buy one get one free!

It took me substantially longer to make my way through the produce section because I had to weigh and calculate the price of every fruit and vegetable that I picked up. Sometimes I had to put things back (like the single yellow pepper that was $2.51), and sometimes I could add a little more (another broccoli crown because they were on sale). Luckily, the electronic scales made calculating the weight and price very easy.  However, human error caused another delay when my daughter made a mistake in entering a price in the calculator so we had to take everything out, reweigh and recalculate the price.

After finishing with my produce shopping, I then added pasta, rice, chickpeas, and spaghetti sauce to my cart. Each time, I was looking for the cheapest price. I was pleasantly surprised that one of my favorite spaghetti sauces was on sale so I was able to get something that I knew that I liked and tasted good.

I had really wanted to get some milk and cheese, but I also wanted veggie burgers to add some protein and “heft” to a few of my meals. At $4.19, the veggie burgers took me very close to my total budget. It took me a few minutes to make a decision, staring at the food in my cart and trying to calculate how this was going to work. In the end, I opted to forgo the milk and get the veggie burgers instead.

My final tally in the check-out line was $27.55. I had $2.45 to spare. My daughter asked if I wanted to go back and get something else. In a split second, I couldn’t decide what that final item would be and then I worried about whether that one extra item would put me over. I decided to stick with my purchases, and save the $2.45 for an emergency.  Cans of Mountain Dew are only 75 cents from the woman on the street corner by my office. I might be able to purchase a couple for those moments when I’m desperate…

Jennifer Lockwood-Shabat is vice president of The Women’s Foundation.

Earlier this month, I had the great privilege and opportunity to attend the London Olympic Games — fulfilling my lifelong dream of seeing the Olympics and having the chance to do so in the city in which I grew up.  It was truly the experience of a lifetime, and not just because I’m a lifelong athlete and sports fan. These games were historic in many ways, particularly for women, and it was truly an honor to witness them live. As the festivities in London continue with the start of the Paralympics this week, I wanted to share with you five observations about these games.

5.  I’m proud to say that London carried out its role as host admirably.  Our experience as attendees was stress-free, the transportation system worked perfectly, and the organizers had clearly put a lot of thought into the logistics.

4.  While I admire Britain’s National Health Service, and was a frequent user of those services as an accident-prone child and teenager, I’m not sure they deserved quite so prominent a role in the opening ceremony.  Just saying.

3.  It was interesting to learn how, for so many athletes, both here and abroad, winning an Olympic medal would change their lives forever, and in many cases, help lift them and their families out of poverty.

2.  It was equally interesting to learn about how many athletes in the US live at or below the poverty line. Few make enough money through sports to support themselves, and the US Olympics Committee – a 501(c)(3) – does not raise enough to sponsor every athlete.

1.  In so many ways, this Olympics was about the rise of women in sports, though it was still clear that there is, in some places, a long way to go (one example being the stories about the Japanese and Australian women’s teams travelling coach on the same plane as the men’s teams, who flew business class).  For Team USA, women ruled, winning 59 of the total 104 medals, and 29 of the 46 Gold medals won by the US team.  This was also the first time in history that the US sent more women athletes to the Olympics than men. The successful turnout has been attributed, in part, to Title IX.  An increase in women’s sports at the Olympics also led to every country present having at least one woman on the team for the first time ever.

We do have a way to go to ensure that male and female athletes are on equal footing when it comes to sponsorships and ticket sales. Increasing opportunity, interest and visibility is a wonderful thing – and not just for female athletes. A fundamental shift in sports can lead to more prospects and confidence for women and girls in all areas. Seeing a woman with talent and a dream holding up a gold medal on a podium in London makes so many more things seem possible.

Nicky is president of Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

With just two months to go before the annual Leadership Luncheon, Washington Area Women’s Foundation is gearing up for another great opportunity to connect with the community and share how, together, we can transform the lives of women and girls, the DC region, and the world! In this interview on Comcast Newsmakers, Foundation President Nicky Goren gives us a sneak peek at this inspiring and informative event.

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