Lunch Plans
So I went shopping on Sunday and here is what I bought:
What you are looking at is lunch for me, the other two VISTAs, and our amazing supervisor, Melody Porter, for the week. With the exception of a can of soup from yesterday—our entire meal plan for lunches is on the table. Monday’s lunch was the two cans of vegetables and melted cheese sandwiches.
This food and the meals we are eating this week are based on the guidelines of food provided to families that visit FISH, a local food pantry. Looking at this table of food I’m already hungry and mentally watching the supplies deplete with despair—and we are just eating on this system for a week, for one meal a day, knowing that we all go home to plenty of food. This is just a small picture of hunger in Williamsburg, a daily reality for 20.7% of the population who are food insecure and must make continual calculations about how to divide up their insufficient food supply and must continually face a table with not enough food on it. I know this week will change the way I think about hunger and again, it’s only a week.
If you want to know more about hunger and how students in Williamsburg are addressing the issue, check out Molly Bulman’s, Student Coordinator of The Campus Kitchens at William and Mary, video speaking up about hunger awareness: SpeakUP: Molly & Hunger Awareness.
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I was a bit surprised at the food shown. When I was in nursing school I had to feed a family of 4 on $20 for a week. Pardon my boldness but I think your choices are poor. Where is the peanut butter for protein? Too many canned goods! Where is rice? Where is a small bag of chicken wings for chicken and rice soup, to last for at least 2 or 3 meals? Not criticizing…just curious.
I read this article and laughed. This is the reason why everyone in the U.S. is overweight. I am paying my own way through W&M and I have a $30 a week food budget and I manage to feed myself just fine and am never hungry (and I love food too). It is easy to live on even $15 a week (my extra $15 I spend on overpriced iced coffee at Wawa as that is my indulgence). Time for all these spoiled rich brats at W&M to toughen up. Oh brother.
@CL—Thanks for following up. Our choices were mostly based on the guidelines of FISH, a local food pantry, as well as our own selections for the week. FISH provides a week’s food supply of 3 meals/day for each individual, but as we were just eating one meal each day based on these regulations, we only selected some of the food FISH provides. Items such as pasta and rice are provided by FISH, we just didn’t pick them for our lunches. We also attempted to choose foods with limited preparation/only a microwave required, as many food insecure individuals, particularly those living in hotels, are limited in preparation capacity.
Good catch on the peanut-butter; we did have a jar of peanut butter, but somehow it got left out of the picture. Perishable foods like chicken and fresh-produce are unfortunately not within FISH’s capacity to provide (although they are sometimes able to include fresh fruits and vegetables through a partnership with the local farmer’s market), so an individual would need to supplement FISH provisions to add those items. I hope that makes clearer our process of selecting what we ate for the week.
@Juliet—Our intention with the week was to gain a better understanding of the experience of food insecurity, especially as this issue is a daily reality for many individuals in the Williamsburg community. I hope my above comment to CL clarifies how we selected the items we did, and that the food pictured was to feed all four staff members who participated. Three of us participating in the week are staff at the College through an Americorps VISTA grant, a year-long program in which we are committed to anti-poverty work through capacity building. Part of the VISTA program is that we receive no wages, but instead are given a monthly stipend that equals 110% of the poverty threshold in Williamsburg. Even living on this small stipend, I found the week of eating food-pantry lunches to be quite challenging. It furthered my awareness and understanding of hunger, as I consider that there are many individuals in Williamsburg who have even smaller food budgets than me and must rely on organizations like FISH to provide meals.
While the acts of solidarity of my year as an Americorps VISTA and my week of eating food pantry meals is not the same as living in poverty, it continues to be a powerful experience for me personally to gain a greater understanding of the many realities of poverty in our community. I hope that in sharing just a snapshot of it, others may gain a greater awareness of these realities as well.
@Juliet- Eating on $15 a week is truly impressive. Would you mind outlining how each of your meals fits within that budget? I think we’d all benefit from learning how to spend only 75 cents per meal, if you’re eating breakfast, lunch and dinner!