The SNAP Challenge: Personal Reflections

           

                “Welfare makes people lazy” is one of the most common disparaging opinions shared by opponents of public aid such as The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). To large portions of the population, the word “welfare” has become synonymous with “deadbeat” and “parasite". Mainstream media shine spotlights on outlier stories concerning welfare fraud and deliberate unemployment and misrepresents them as the norm - effectively encouraging the call to dismantle social benefit programs. Uninformed remarks and media sensationalism undermine social welfare and stigmatize the poor in a culture where wealth and extravagance are often blindly praised and unquestioned.

A FEW FACTS
     According to the Food Research & Action Center, as of May 2015, nearly 46 million individuals and families - two thirds being households with children - rely on SNAP in order to subsidize the purchase of food. Though the program reaches a significantly broad category of low-income households, some, such as “strikers, most college students, certain legal immigrants, and any undocumented immigrants are ineligible for SNAP”. The Center on Budget Policy Priorities (CBPP) reports that the program’s eligibility requirements are based on household income, size, and assets in comparison to the Thrifty Food Plan, “a low-cost but nutritionally adequate diet established by the U.S. Agriculture Department”. Benefit allowances vary according to need and the assumption that, in addition to SNAP, families will contribute 30 percent of their income to the purchase of food. The program attracts a wide variety of circumstances including those affected by illness or the death of a loved one, pregnancy without access to maternity benefits, loss of income due to unemployment, reduction in work hours, or entry into a job training program. The notion that these participants are categorically “lazy” is unfounded. According to the CBPP, nearly 60 percent of all able-bodied SNAP participants work while receiving benefits — and more than 80 percent work in the year before or after receiving SNAP.

WHY IT MATTERS
    The SNAP Challenge aims to raise awareness for the general public and community leaders regarding the struggle low-income populations face while living on a limited food budget averaging four dollars per day. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 2013 the federal government spent about 80 billion dollars on SNAP benefits - “a little more than two percent of the federal government’s spending in 2013” - which is enough to grab the attention of the Congressional Republican Party. Recently, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported that if the Republican's proposed budget cut to SNAP - a 125 billion dollar cut to be spread out over 10 years - were to go into effect, it would force 11 million participants out of the program. Like all of government social welfare, SNAP remains vulnerable to budget cuts and defunding, which keeps its defenders constantly debating in order to protect the program and the families it serves.

THE CHALLENGE

    For one week, I attempted the SNAP Challenge and tried to live off the food twenty eight dollars would buy me. I planned my grocery trip days in advance, researching what would give me the best bang for my buck, and I recalled some recipes I ate in my youth while growing up in a lower income household. I did without

What my $28 got me.

my usual organic yogurt, all-natural-hormone-free chicken, delicious white peaches that cost nearly $2 a piece, daily almond milk lattes from a coffee shop, and I prepared my 3 year old daughter for the fact there would be no trips for ice cream this week - no matter how hot it got outside. I spent the day before the challenge doing a mini purge of my refrigerator, throwing away an unopened expired container of cottage cheese, an entire bag of browning Brussels sprouts, several old cucumbers from a local farm stand, and more. I cooked up a hearty lentil / potato based shepherd’s pie and a tuna-potato-canned-soup-casserole, divided up my loaves of bread into enough sandwiches for each day, rationed my morning coffee, and wrote up a meal plan that would be as satisfying as possible. I worried about my bananas going bad too soon and how I would heat my meals while away from home for the day. This kind of planning took real effort, a little creativity, total discipline, and some genuine sacrifice - none of which are “lazy” qualities.

Lentil Shepherd's Pie

Tuna Casserole

Whole Wheat Peanut butter & Jam

THE GAME OF POVERTY
     From the start of the challenge, I never actually expected to be granted genuine insight into the struggles of a welfare recipient. Even if I had managed to eat entirely off my allotted budget, I still had luxuries many actual SNAP users don’t, such as reliable personal transportation and secure shelter. For many people depending on SNAP, it is not just the amount of funds which is concerning, it is where the funds are able to be spent. Those without access to reliable transportation must often purchase food at higher priced corner stores putting them at an even greater disadvantage, or make the long journey to a discount store on the outskirts of town - a task made even more difficult for the elderly, those with children, during times of inclement weather, or with bus schedules that don’t coordinate with one’s work schedule. Many SNAP recipients are also living in temporary housing, which may have limited food storage and access to kitchenware. Probably the biggest luxury I had throughout the week was the luxury of choice. Playing the game of poverty is not the same as living it and I had complete control to “opt out” at any given moment, which in fact I did on the day my lunch was forgotten on the kitchen counter.

THE LESSON
    I wouldn’t call my personal experience with the challenge a success, but I wouldn’t call it a failure either. As the week went by, so did strict adherence to my $28 meal plan budget. I slipped here and there, accepted a cookie, and ate pancakes at my Mom’s house one day, but I didn’t just give up. Each day, I reflected on what I took for granted as someone more privileged than others. I examined my spontaneity with food spending and recognized some of my daily habits as wasteful. I thought about the spoiled food I tossed from my fridge and the $4 lattes I never even finished - extravagances many cannot afford. Just as it is important to periodically clear out the clutter accumulated in the closets of our homes, it is important to assess the accumulation of needless habits and behaviors. Most of us outside the safety net of social welfare could most likely do with a little less each day. Although I won’t be giving up organic food any time soon, I intend on making my own coffee every morning and cooking in bulk more often. At the very least, I’m grateful that my participation in the SNAP Challenge helped me to be less entitled in my day to day choices, more aware of my privilege, and a little less lazy.

THE UNWORTHY POOR

    I’d never claim to have walked in anyone’s shoes because of the SNAP Challenge, nor to know what it’s like to experience food hardship. I’d say the lesson in the SNAP challenge for me came not from asking what is too little? but instead, what is too much? Is keeping a tight hold on the daily latte more important than the dignity and health of the struggling poor? The conservative values America prides itself on - individual responsibility, hard work, and optimism, to name a few - do little to recognize the amount of responsibility, effort, and time it takes to survive while living in poverty - even with public assistance. It does little to recognize that the system has long exploited the disadvantaged and derailed progress for many populations it was built to serve, and diminishes those who work for poverty-inducing wages in order to create wealth for the powerful elite. It does, in turn, brand the poor as victims of nothing more than their own lack of motivation and calls them “undeserving”. In a culture with such extreme income inequality, where the wealthy seemingly have no bounds, and where exorbitant amounts of money is spent in the most frivolous of ways, surely we are capable of welcoming tax dollars into public assistance programs like SNAP without passing judgement. At least, I wish we were.