SNAP Challenge Day 4: Confessions of a Food Hoarder

This post is part of a series.  Read post one, post two, post three, post four and post five. 

I’m over halfway through the SNAP challenge, and at this point I’m quite confident I’ll have enough food for the week.  I’ve still got three servings of Thai Lentil Curry, two servings of Curried Cauliflower Stew, five slices of bread, three bananas, six eggs, an apple, a couple of carrots, a bit of broccoli (plus the stems!) and about half of the jars of peanut butter and jelly.  But you know, who’s counting?  Actually, I am.

Since day one (or since my trip to the grocery store, really), I’ve been carefully calculating and portioning my food to ensure I could made my rations last throughout the week (poor Courtney about lost his hand on Monday when he tried to take one of my bananas on our way to boot camp). This comes naturally to me, because believe it or not I’m actually a bit of a food hoarder.  I can’t imagine why, since I’ve never gone hungry a day in my life that wasn’t a result of my own distorted body image… but it’s true.  At any given time, I could probably stretch the food in my pantry and freezer to last at least two weeks.  And I never leave a race expo, airplane or a free hotel breakfast without sticking bananas, granola bars or a pack of peanuts in my purse.  So when I started this challenge, my inner food hoarder came out to make sure I bought enough food and wasn’t going through it too quickly.

Making SNAP benefits last for the entire month is a serious challenge for many recipients.  Many report using a variety of coping strategies to stretch benefits including restricting food intake, using coupons and comparison shopping to take advantage of sales, and changing the type of food consumed, for instance by relying on cheap starches and canned goods toward the end of the month.  Parents in households that receive SNAP benefits often report skipping meals or otherwise reducing their own intake so that their children can eat more.  Still, most participants run out of benefits by the third week of the month, and many turn to food banks and kin networks to help fill the gaps.

Today’s Meals:

Pre-morning workout snack: 1/2 Banana and 1 T Peanut Butter

Breakfast: Broccoli Omelet, Toast with Peanut Butter and Jelly

Pre-lunchtime workout snack: 1/2 Banana and 1 T Peanut Butter

Lunch: Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich with Sliced Carrots

Dinner: Leftover Curried Cauliflower and Chickpea Stew, Slice of Bread
If I put the same stew in different pretty dishes, it’s almost like it’s a different stew… right?

Johanna