This morning, I brought in some eggs and cheese for breakfast and since I am going to be out of the office most of the day, I made myself another peanut butter sandwich to take with me for lunch.
As I think I mentioned in my first blog post, one of the rules of the challenge is that you are not allowed to take advantage of free food opportunities that may present themselves at work or elsewhere. Both Stacie and I had temptations yesterday, but were able to avoid them. Stacie was saying that at her office, they put out a bunch of leftover sandwiches from a lunch meeting. In my case, one of my colleagues just returned from a trip to New Zealand and brought a bag of goodies from her trip.
I also wanted to use today's blog post to address a couple of good questions that have been raised by blog followers. The first one - raised by a number of people - is whether we are able to take advantage of the WIC program because of Hailey's age. WIC stands for "Women, Infants and Children" and is a federally funded program that provides healthy supplemental foods and nutrition counseling for pregnant women, new mothers, infants and children under age five. If you are eligible for WIC, you receive not only nutritional information, but additional financial resources to buy foods such as milk, infant formula, 100% fruit and/or vegetable oil, peanut butter, cheese, eggs and cereal.
In order to apply for WIC, you have to be (1) a pregnant woman, (2) breastfeeding for up to one year, (3) postpartum for up to six months, or (4) infants (0-1 years old) and children (under 5 years old) with specific nutritional needs. Assuming one meets one of these eligibility requirements, an applicant must also demonstrate that they meet the income requirement, is a resident of the state/county to which they are applying for assistance and must have a nutritional risk assessment by a qualified health professional.
In our case, while it is possible that Hailey might qualify for additional assistance under this program, there would be no way to know for sure without her undergoing a medical evaluation to determine whether she has a nutritional deficiency. And since we have seen absolutely no evidence of that to this point, both Stacie and I believe we are better off simply moving forward on our SNAP budget without trying to avail ourselves of additional advantages. Also, Hailey's diet is really the same this week as it is most weeks. The only major differences are that she is getting regular whole milk instead of organic and for her morning snack at daycare, she is getting carrots instead of puffs. However, we are obviously monitoring Hailey during the week to make sure that all of her nutritional needs are being met. We have also informed her teachers at daycare that we are taking the challenge and have also asked them to monitor her as well and to let us know if they observe any signs of concern. However, because her diet is essentially the same, we do not anticipate that happening.
The other question that we have been asked is whether it is truly a worthwhile exercise to take a one week challenge when those actually living on food stamps have to do it every single week of their lives. In other words, isn't it just a gimmick; a week-long fantasy camp for people of means? Having taken some take to reflect on this question, I am really glad it was raised because it allowed me focus more on the actual reasons we are doing this challenge and why it is important.
The truth is that the main benefit of taking the challenge is philanthropic. Our primary goal is - and always has been - to raise as much money as possible for the cause of poverty and those living in poverty. As I write this, we have raised approximately $2,000 and I hope and expect that this will continue to increase. Again, for those interested and willing to donate, you can go to:
https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5145/c/627/t/13626/my/donate.jsp?supporter_my_donate_page_KEY=5203
I absolutely believe that our participation in the challenge has led to more donations than would otherwise have been the case. So for that reason alone, it has been worthwhile.
There is also a secondary benefit which is that our participation in the challenge has provided an avenue to raise awareness of the issue by giving me a forum to discuss the issue I would not otherwise have had. Because of the unique nature of the challenge, I have been able to reach out to two local newspapers (The Baltimore Jewish Times and the Maryland Daily Record) both of which asked me to write articles based on our experience. That allows us to reach significantly more people than would be the case if we had decided to simply raise money for the cause without investing ourselves personally.
This additional raised awareness not only helps with the fundraising component, but it also provides a forum to explain the importance of maintaining the SNAP program and the potentially catastrophic effects of reducing or eliminating federal funding for the program. Again, without Stacie, Hailey and I committing to undertake the challenge, the degree to which we would have been able disseminate the message and information would be greatly diminished.
I hope this helps explain the reason why the challenge itself is an essential component of our commitment to this cause and our attempt to raise awareness of it. Again, we really are grateful for all the questions and comments and for all the continued support and encouragement from you all. Thanks again.
Neil, Stacie and Hailey
I'm glad philanthropists of means are gaining perspective that they didn't have before by participating in this challenge. There are many using stamps for the first time ever and were considered middle class before the economic collapse. Some stamp recipients are single parents who were married but abandoned by their spouse and perhaps have also lost a job or became the victim of salary restructuring by their employer as an effort to avoid layoffs or going out of business. Many people receiving stamps also work and have always worked, but are now underemployed and/or underpaid and doing the same amount and caliber of work they were doing before this modern-day downturn occurred. The enlightenment gained by this challenge may help get some of the inadequacies of the system corrected and help strengthen the argument(s) to maintain or increase funding, and to change the way food stamp recipients are perceived by non-recipients. In no way should the successful bear or solve all the burdens of the 'fallen'. It is up to them to lift themselves up by the bootstraps but sometimes help is needed in this process and I guess that's partially what this challenge is about...bringing more awareness for those that need help along the way and that it's not such the easy ride some who have never had to use stamps may think it is.
ReplyDeleteI do appreciate your research. Here are a few things for potential donors and challenge takers to consider:
Shop at a market in an area where more food stamp recipients shop. This way, you can attest to the fact that the nutritional choices and substitutions the Dubovsky family was able to find and afford are more often not available in low income neighborhood markets. There are usually higher prices in these areas and nutritionally inferior foods are the ones with the highest availability most of the time (ex, processed cheese food product instead of real cheese). Many grocers in these areas sell rotting vegetation and there is limited variety to choose from. Because of this, that $25 emergency fall-back is not always possible and meals of cereal, or a less nutritive meal, such as oodles of noodles with not enough funds left to add things to it (vegetables, etc. to make it healthier)happens.
While the less fortunate can use public transportation to get to locations that stock higher quality and variety, it is not always practical since one would have to haul it all the way back home without the convenience of personal transportation. This is possibly done shuffling multiple children by a single parent with no help on public transportation or by foot, which makes the trek impossible or at least extremely difficult.
I whole heartedly appreciate the current efforts of those who are or have participated in this challenge and/or funding of the food stamp program in any way (yes, I mean all the tax-payers). As a person whose previous gross earning level was over $50k, I spent the last 18 months laid off, even with my education and stellar work history. While I have returned to my field of work less than 90 days ago, the position requires my level of skill but the pay is both entry and poverty level; I still qualify for a number of partial government benefits and some needs are still going unmet in my household. Before my return to work, I relied upon food stamps and got rid of any expenditure that was not a bare necessity. The markets I used to shop, I can’t afford any more and the transportation I was used to is depleted to public forms. We can’t afford cable or other such luxuries. I am still crawling among the wreckage of the economy and will be in the rebuilding stage for quite some time before my family recovers. The food stamp program gave us hope while it lasted because for another day, we had something to eat. My salary now is just over the cut-off by literally a couple hundred dollars, so it’s a long road up without the help of the stamps we were getting. It’s heart wrenching, but the cut-off has to be somewhere.