Wilson
07-07-2007, 06:57 PM
Relief workers eat on $3 a day
http://blogs.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=3a28396b36523c13
By Laura Elder
The Daily News
Published July 7, 2007
Ted Hanley stood in the aisle at a Family Dollar store on the island Thursday and weighed his limited food options.
He could buy a 2-pound can of Dinty Moore beef stew for $2 and a couple of cans of Vienna sausages at 50 cents each to sustain him for a day. Or he could choose a four-pack of Dole mixed-fruit cups for $2 and a tin of sardines for 59 cents and stay within budget.
Hanley had only $3 to spend on food — $1 per meal. What he bought would serve as breakfast, lunch and dinner. Whenever he needed water, he’d drink from public fountains.
Hanley, co-founder and director of the faith-based social-services agency The Jesse Tree, isn’t impoverished, tightfisted or on a bizarre diet.
He’s among 50 leaders and employees of 30 area hunger-relief organizations who have accepted the Houston Food Bank’s “Food Stamp Challenge,” which begins today and ends Friday night.
They must try to live on the average food stamp allotment for a week — $21, or $3 a day.
Hanley’s participation is academic. His discomfort has a foreseeable end. For more than 24,000 Galveston County residents receiving food stamps, however, it’s everyday reality and there’s no end in sight.
The Food Stamp Challenge is a national effort to raise awareness about hunger and to influence Congress, which is writing 2007’s Farm Bill. The legislation outlines provisions in commodity, food stamps and other programs.
But Hanley and other leaders of hunger-relief agencies say they also want to dispel myths about food stamps, including one that the 30-year-old program provides sufficient funding for an entire food budget.
“That is the biggest misconception of all,” said Brian Greene, president and CEO of the Houston Food Bank.
“Most people assume that food stamps adequately meet the food needs of low-income families, and they don’t even come close.”
The minimum food stamp allotment hasn’t changed in 30 years, said Greene, who also is participating in the challenge.
The Nation’s Food Bank Network wants federal lawmakers to raise the minimum benefit to $32 a month, from $10.
It also wants the federal government to allow families and individuals to receive food stamps, even if they own some assets — a car, a house — or contribute to retirement plans, and is asking that benefits keep up with inflation.
And hunger-relief organizations are asking federal lawmakers to continue funding programs such as the Houston Food Bank, which last year provided The Jesse Tree with $1.6 million in fruit and produce, distributed through food fairs on the island, mainland and Bolivar Peninsula.
Some well-fed U.S. residents have trouble fathoming anyone being hungry in this country. But, because of rising costs of health care and utilities, The Jesse Tree sees people every day who have to make hard choices, Hanley said.
Hunger is in the apartment of an 80-year-old island woman whose pantry and refrigerator is empty because she had to choose between filling life-saving prescriptions and food, he said.
And it’s in the homes of working families across the county who have had to choose between rent and food or utilities and food. The elderly, disabled, homeless, mentally ill and struggling mothers depend on food stamps, Hanley said.
In Galveston County, the average food stamp allotment is $94.27 a month. Less than half the county’s eligible residents receive them.
Most recipients of food assistance at The Jesse Tree have jobs, Hanley said.
“They’re cutting grass, working at motels, hotels,” he said.
Consultant Caryl Sherman-Gonzalez, working in outreach and development at the Jesse Tree, said that, while such efforts as the Food Stamp Challenge are attention-grabbers, they also run the risk of oversimplifying poverty.
Living on $3 a day is more than sacrificing a costly cappuccino, advocates for the impoverished say.
In the next week, staff and volunteers at The Jesse Tree will approach the challenge in different ways.
Hanley will attempt to subsist on $3 a day of nutritious meals without a place to cook or refrigeration, such as a homeless person would. He will have the help of his daughter, a nutritionist and recent graduate of the University of Texas in Austin.
Other staffers, who will use refrigeration and stoves, will shop with $21 for a week, allowing for menu planning and the use of leftovers. Such a scenario most closely simulates the way an impoverished family would subsist.
The participants will make notes of obstacles they encounter in the challenge, such as transportation, that could make the process more difficult. They also will have a nutritionist analyze their menus and meals to determine the food’s caloric and nutritional values.
And they won’t be allowed to accept food from friends or family or dig through dumpsters for food, as many hungry do in reality.
Hanley already is aware that his approach will cause a dairy deficit in his diet.
Mark Davis, executive director of island hunger-relief agency Gleanings From The Harvest, also is taking the challenge. He said he’d approach it from the perspective of a senior citizen on a limited income with limited access to normal sources of food.
“I’d really like to personally understand more about what it’s like to be 65 or older and have a very limited income, and pay rent, utilities and prescriptions,” he said. “Food becomes the bottom of the totem pole.”
During the week, challenge participants will report their experiences to the Houston Food Bank.
If an agency representative goes through the entire week using only $21 for food while following the rules, his or her agency will receive a free freezer from the food bank and a one-year supply of frozen meals from the End Hunger Network, a food-bank partner.
If they don’t make it through the week, they can still enter a drawing for a freezer and meals.
Greene said he was pleased with the level of local participation in the challenge, “when you consider what we’re asking people to do.”
http://blogs.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=3a28396b36523c13
By Laura Elder
The Daily News
Published July 7, 2007
Ted Hanley stood in the aisle at a Family Dollar store on the island Thursday and weighed his limited food options.
He could buy a 2-pound can of Dinty Moore beef stew for $2 and a couple of cans of Vienna sausages at 50 cents each to sustain him for a day. Or he could choose a four-pack of Dole mixed-fruit cups for $2 and a tin of sardines for 59 cents and stay within budget.
Hanley had only $3 to spend on food — $1 per meal. What he bought would serve as breakfast, lunch and dinner. Whenever he needed water, he’d drink from public fountains.
Hanley, co-founder and director of the faith-based social-services agency The Jesse Tree, isn’t impoverished, tightfisted or on a bizarre diet.
He’s among 50 leaders and employees of 30 area hunger-relief organizations who have accepted the Houston Food Bank’s “Food Stamp Challenge,” which begins today and ends Friday night.
They must try to live on the average food stamp allotment for a week — $21, or $3 a day.
Hanley’s participation is academic. His discomfort has a foreseeable end. For more than 24,000 Galveston County residents receiving food stamps, however, it’s everyday reality and there’s no end in sight.
The Food Stamp Challenge is a national effort to raise awareness about hunger and to influence Congress, which is writing 2007’s Farm Bill. The legislation outlines provisions in commodity, food stamps and other programs.
But Hanley and other leaders of hunger-relief agencies say they also want to dispel myths about food stamps, including one that the 30-year-old program provides sufficient funding for an entire food budget.
“That is the biggest misconception of all,” said Brian Greene, president and CEO of the Houston Food Bank.
“Most people assume that food stamps adequately meet the food needs of low-income families, and they don’t even come close.”
The minimum food stamp allotment hasn’t changed in 30 years, said Greene, who also is participating in the challenge.
The Nation’s Food Bank Network wants federal lawmakers to raise the minimum benefit to $32 a month, from $10.
It also wants the federal government to allow families and individuals to receive food stamps, even if they own some assets — a car, a house — or contribute to retirement plans, and is asking that benefits keep up with inflation.
And hunger-relief organizations are asking federal lawmakers to continue funding programs such as the Houston Food Bank, which last year provided The Jesse Tree with $1.6 million in fruit and produce, distributed through food fairs on the island, mainland and Bolivar Peninsula.
Some well-fed U.S. residents have trouble fathoming anyone being hungry in this country. But, because of rising costs of health care and utilities, The Jesse Tree sees people every day who have to make hard choices, Hanley said.
Hunger is in the apartment of an 80-year-old island woman whose pantry and refrigerator is empty because she had to choose between filling life-saving prescriptions and food, he said.
And it’s in the homes of working families across the county who have had to choose between rent and food or utilities and food. The elderly, disabled, homeless, mentally ill and struggling mothers depend on food stamps, Hanley said.
In Galveston County, the average food stamp allotment is $94.27 a month. Less than half the county’s eligible residents receive them.
Most recipients of food assistance at The Jesse Tree have jobs, Hanley said.
“They’re cutting grass, working at motels, hotels,” he said.
Consultant Caryl Sherman-Gonzalez, working in outreach and development at the Jesse Tree, said that, while such efforts as the Food Stamp Challenge are attention-grabbers, they also run the risk of oversimplifying poverty.
Living on $3 a day is more than sacrificing a costly cappuccino, advocates for the impoverished say.
In the next week, staff and volunteers at The Jesse Tree will approach the challenge in different ways.
Hanley will attempt to subsist on $3 a day of nutritious meals without a place to cook or refrigeration, such as a homeless person would. He will have the help of his daughter, a nutritionist and recent graduate of the University of Texas in Austin.
Other staffers, who will use refrigeration and stoves, will shop with $21 for a week, allowing for menu planning and the use of leftovers. Such a scenario most closely simulates the way an impoverished family would subsist.
The participants will make notes of obstacles they encounter in the challenge, such as transportation, that could make the process more difficult. They also will have a nutritionist analyze their menus and meals to determine the food’s caloric and nutritional values.
And they won’t be allowed to accept food from friends or family or dig through dumpsters for food, as many hungry do in reality.
Hanley already is aware that his approach will cause a dairy deficit in his diet.
Mark Davis, executive director of island hunger-relief agency Gleanings From The Harvest, also is taking the challenge. He said he’d approach it from the perspective of a senior citizen on a limited income with limited access to normal sources of food.
“I’d really like to personally understand more about what it’s like to be 65 or older and have a very limited income, and pay rent, utilities and prescriptions,” he said. “Food becomes the bottom of the totem pole.”
During the week, challenge participants will report their experiences to the Houston Food Bank.
If an agency representative goes through the entire week using only $21 for food while following the rules, his or her agency will receive a free freezer from the food bank and a one-year supply of frozen meals from the End Hunger Network, a food-bank partner.
If they don’t make it through the week, they can still enter a drawing for a freezer and meals.
Greene said he was pleased with the level of local participation in the challenge, “when you consider what we’re asking people to do.”