Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Food Stamp Challenge: Day 3

I am "midway" through my Challenge. Got home so late on Tuesday evening that I cut up the extra firm tofu and had about a third of it plain, then had three leftover turkey meatballs and water for dinner.

Had no time for breakfast Wednesday morning--grabbed 1/2 of the remaining ready-made deli sandwich, 1/2 a banana, and a yogurt and headed into the Capitol.

At noon, I was honored by a visit from Ginger Rutland of the Sacramento Bee. She had read our press release and came to visit me for "lunch". She asked me many interesting questions about the Challenge, including, why do this?

I explained that as a social worker, I believe both personally and professionally that we must remember what it is like for so many of our clients. We can intellectualize about difficult times, but many of us never really "feel" it. For me, the situation is temporary; for millions of Californians, it is a fact of life.

Our country and our state are going in the wrong direction. We are grateful for programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but should be working for the day when all those who can and wish to work have a job to provide for themselves and their families.

Will try to get home early enough to make stir fry turkey, spinach, and mushrooms with leftover angel hair pasta--will make chow mein by frying the noodles.

Stay tuned for Thursday--sorry no one is reading or adding on to this blog!

Mariko

1 comment:

  1. I know from experience how hard this is and when you add a growing teen girl it is even harder since there are rarely any snacks and you have a strict budget of 350 a month in stamps and 3 people to feed on it then you end up spending a good portion of your cash as well just to keep them eating well without junk food.

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