Food Stamp Challenge -- Monday > Rexroad.com

I can't say that I am loving this. My family all had a wonderful breakfast and dinner. I did not.

I also would like a Diet Coke.

Today I had a plate of rice, glass of OJ, and a tomato for breakfast. For lunch I had a big plate of rice. For dinner I had a plate of very plain pasta.

My pinto beans are soaking so I can cook them later tonight. We will see how that goes. I will probably have some broccoli before I go to bed. Jenn thinks I am crazy.

Note: The people at my business told me that I paid way too much for the OJ. Bummer. Off to the gym.

Comments

By rstown @ Monday, November 17, 2008 9:14 PM

But how is that healthy or balanced? I thought your point was that you could eat a good, healthy diet on foodstamps? Pasta and rice are in no way a balanced dinner! Is the point that you can eat or eat well? Do we want families on welfare to eat crappyand scrape by on minimally healthy food (and get by on the pittance we give them in food stamps) or be healthy?

These kids are having their development affected in a way that will follow them through their entire lives. The first 5 years, 80% of a child's brain develops (some studoes even say up to 90%). They have done studies that show kids who do not eat healthy during that time have smaller, less developed brains and that cannot ever be "fixed" later in life no matter what you do. A child is hard wired in their brain development by age 5.

These unfortunate kids are at the mercy of the system-shouldnt the system do everything it can to make sure they have a fair shake? They didnt ask to be born into a low income family.

By Matt Rexroad @ Monday, November 17, 2008 9:25 PM

It is not perfectly balanced but I think it is probably more balanced than most people eat that are on food stamps.

Further, if I could pool this over several people all getting $3 per day I could do even better. $90 for thirty days and the opportunity to fish and hunt would make this easy.

By rstown @ Monday, November 17, 2008 9:56 PM

Well that is not a challenge then in my book. Anyone could eat on that-just not healthy. So, basically we are saying we will give families enough to eat crappy but not healthy. Then when their kids end up obese we blame them.

Fishing and hunting are not cheap-they cost hundreds of dollars for gear and for licenses etc. Also, the average person working cant hunt or fish during the day and it is not possible at night. On weekends would have to pay for child care so they can go hunting or fishing. Child care is REALLY expensive and almost impossible to find on weekends. You need to look at this from the perspective of a family that does not have all the benefits you do-a spouse who can stay at home with the children while you go hunt or fish on weekends and you having a job that allows you to take off and hunt or fish during the day. This is not at all the normal situation for the average low income family.

Many of them live in apartments and do not have a place to plant a garden. We could use more community gardens and that would help a lot! Then parents could take their children with them, grow healthy food and children could learn science and nutrition and the family could have good, quality time together in a realistic way.

By rstown @ Tuesday, November 18, 2008 7:40 PM

So how is the food challenge going today? What was your Tuesday menu? Now we are trusting you here with the honesty system. You can be trusted-RIGHT?

I am actually very impressed you are doing this! It is nice to see a politi-guy walk the talk! Good on you dude.

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