This was written yesterday, the 16th of August, the third day of the OASHF SNAP Challenge:
Today marks day three of the SNAP Challenge. Like most of the staff, I am missing my normal diet. Conversations around the office include things like “I know I have enough food to get me through the week, but I cannot begin to say how much I do not want to eat it”. Or “cabbage used to be my favorite vegetable – now it is the devil”.
Our social lives have also been disrupted. For one person, the weekend usually meant a dinner out – this Friday was spent in. Last weekend, before the challenge, I spent over $21 on pizza, chips, and drinks for a meal with family members who came to town for a visit. At the time, I did not think about how that one meal cost more than one person gets to eat for an entire week. I am thinking about it now.
We all seem to have the same thought in the back of our minds: FOOD. Not so much because we are hungry but because we know it is limited. One coworker admitted that they think about food more than normal just because they are aware that there is not much left.
I feel like I am in one of those frozen dinner ads where people are comparing the crazy unhealthy things they had for dinner the night before. One coworker had a meal entirely of peanuts, another coworker described their overripe banana situation, and still another had the same pasta for dinner for three nights in a row.
I have been skipping breakfast all together and at first I tried to skip lunch as well – but I failed. I now halve the amount of my normal lunch instead. This has allowed me to save money for dinners – which get to include chicken and a few fresh veggies. I also imagine what even a small reduction in my allowance of food dollars would mean: no breakfast and no lunch weather I could handle it or not.
I feel like I am in some sort of sick diet commercial– where I get nothing for breakfast, almost nothing for lunch, and slightly more than nothing for dinner. I think about how many people pay for the experience of having this diet (only theirs might come with supplement shakes and fortified candy bars) – and then wonder why it has failed them.
Most of all, I am feeling weak, not just physically, but in strength of character. Many Ohioans struggle with food security everyday and do so with much more grace and much less complaining than I do.
Today marks day three of the SNAP Challenge. Like most of the staff, I am missing my normal diet. Conversations around the office include things like “I know I have enough food to get me through the week, but I cannot begin to say how much I do not want to eat it”. Or “cabbage used to be my favorite vegetable – now it is the devil”.
Our social lives have also been disrupted. For one person, the weekend usually meant a dinner out – this Friday was spent in. Last weekend, before the challenge, I spent over $21 on pizza, chips, and drinks for a meal with family members who came to town for a visit. At the time, I did not think about how that one meal cost more than one person gets to eat for an entire week. I am thinking about it now.
We all seem to have the same thought in the back of our minds: FOOD. Not so much because we are hungry but because we know it is limited. One coworker admitted that they think about food more than normal just because they are aware that there is not much left.
I feel like I am in one of those frozen dinner ads where people are comparing the crazy unhealthy things they had for dinner the night before. One coworker had a meal entirely of peanuts, another coworker described their overripe banana situation, and still another had the same pasta for dinner for three nights in a row.
I have been skipping breakfast all together and at first I tried to skip lunch as well – but I failed. I now halve the amount of my normal lunch instead. This has allowed me to save money for dinners – which get to include chicken and a few fresh veggies. I also imagine what even a small reduction in my allowance of food dollars would mean: no breakfast and no lunch weather I could handle it or not.
I feel like I am in some sort of sick diet commercial– where I get nothing for breakfast, almost nothing for lunch, and slightly more than nothing for dinner. I think about how many people pay for the experience of having this diet (only theirs might come with supplement shakes and fortified candy bars) – and then wonder why it has failed them.
Most of all, I am feeling weak, not just physically, but in strength of character. Many Ohioans struggle with food security everyday and do so with much more grace and much less complaining than I do.
No comments:
Post a Comment