Bryan House staff takes Food Stamp Challenge

During the week before Thanksgiving, a holiday many Americans spend eating, six Bryan House staff members ate on a food-stamp budget.

They challenged themselves to spend only $21 a week per person on food, which is the estimated weekly food stamp-allotment for an individual in the United States.

The Food Stamp Challenge was part of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week and served to spread awareness of the 22.2 percent of Monroe County residents who live in poverty and can’t afford to eat lavishly, according to the Stats Indiana Web site, a database of demographic information about Indiana.

“It makes you aware that there are people who can’t afford a big Thanksgiving dinner,” said staff member Tami Davis.

Davis, along with Elaine Finley, Diane Jung, Trudy Jacobs, Barb Metz and Devin McGuire, volunteered to participate in the challenge from Nov. 17 to Nov. 21. IU First Lady Laurie Burns McRobbie asked them to volunteer in her absence. McRobbie said it was unrealistic for her to eat with only $3 a day, given her schedule and social obligations. But she said she wanted to be a part of the cause, so she encouraged her staff to take part.

“They’ve been doing it, I have not,” she said. “I said repeatedly, ‘you really don’t have to do this.’ But never once did anybody have hesitations about this.”

The six staff members spent the week eating only two meals a day – breakfast and lunch – and they shared them as a family would.

Metz, the chef of the Bryan House, did the shopping and the cooking for the meals. She looked for the cheapest fresh produce she could find at Kroger, Marsh and Bloomingfoods Market and Deli and avoided meat because it is expensive. 

“You can eat healthy on a small budget,” Metz said.

She made oatmeal for the staff most mornings and a soup or salad for lunch.

On Friday, the last day of the challenge, they sat down to a potato peel soup and a tossed salad. They reflected about the week behind them and the experiences they had.

“It brought back a lot of personal anxiety and despair for me because I’ve been homeless and on food stamps with two kids,” Metz said. “So it really struck me in the heart.”

Metz said now there are more facilities for the poor compared to when she used food stamps, and the food available to the poor is better. 

Not only did they eat on a food stamp budget, but they made a point to visit the facilities available to the poor to get a personal perspective of the poverty-stricken lifestyle.

“We ate at the Shalom House on Wednesday,” Finley said. “And that was a revelation to me. When you saw the people there who come there every day, it was revealing.”
Metz said she gave the last of the onions and tomatoes to an elderly woman who stood in line at Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, which gives food out on a first come, first served basis. 

“I gave it to her because I know we can eat onions and tomatoes next week,” Metz said. “But you can only go there once a week.”

Jung said visiting Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard was one of the highlights of the week for her, and Jacobs said she agreed.

“That makes you more aware than just eating less here,” Jacobs said. “We do this for a week, and then we’re going to go back to eating. They don’t have that option.”

While the Bryan House staff will have full plates and stomachs this Thanksgiving, they are left with the memories from last week’s challenge.

“I think it’s going to change the way I look at food,” Jung said. “I’m going to try to be the person I want to be with the food that I use on this planet. It’s been a really helpful experience.”

Metz said she intends to volunteer after this experience.
“You have to,” she said. “You have to do it in order to sleep at night.”