This question has come up: Is going to the free meal program a valid choice?
Our guidelines suggest No, not this week anyway. It's helpful to experience this as a recipient, but this week it would interfere with trying to eat on $3/day.
Of course, many people using food stamps eat there. We'll appreciate this even more after this Challenge.
However, most food stamp participants do not get these free meals. For examples,
The "Love Feast" in Mitchell serves 2 meals a month to under 200 people, while over 1300 people in Davison County using food stamps. The Cornerstone Rescue Mission in Rapid City serves 100-150 people although over 9,000 on the county use food stamps. In Sioux Falls, "The Banquet" serves about 400 people a night, while there are over 10,000 people in Minnehaha County using food stamps. Many people can't get there. Many towns have no free meals.
If you have a different idea, put your comment on here.
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2 comments:
My feeling is that it would be more meaningful to not just go hungry
because your food budget got cut for the week, but to put yourself in
the shoes of the family on food stamps. Take your family and go to The
Banquet and eat every day. - How does that affect the rhythm of your
life? What are you not able to do because you have to use 2 hours every day to walk to The Banquet, stand in line and eat. How does it make you feel inside knowing there are folks willing to feed you and your children, when you cannot?
We are so fortunate to have a resource like The Banquet here, but as you look around the dining room, think about all those who don't have the free meals - the folks in small towns across this nation - the ones here who can't make it to the Banquet because of transportation issues.
Take the extra sandwich at work when there's a lunch meeting. - How
does it feel to wrap it up, knowing you are taking it home so your kids can have a snack after school?
Make this a week to do what you would do if you were on food stamps
full time. The amount is never enough to make it to the end of the
month even with The Banquet. Cut out other things in your life that is excess. Pay car insurance, or feed your kids? You decide.
When my budget runs out for food stamps my brother used to drive me to the nearest food bank to get whatever they give out. It wasn't alot but it was something. He had never experienced this except through me, and he was so humiliated. I was like no big deal. I was hardened i guess. I think that it is definitely an eye opening experience if i think back to the first time I had to do that. I kind of think that might be a good idea for soemone to try on their own time.
Here on the reservation there is nowhere to go unless you are elderly, so that wouldn't be an option for me anyway.
If anyone taking this challenge is truly hungry for the convenience of a twinkie, then that is what this challenge is about.
I know what it is and am only taking the challenege to open some eyes. Shoot i don't like being hungry either, but as you know 3 bucks a day is nothing to sneeze at or live on.
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