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$2.57 a day buys food, perspective/'Food Stamp Challenge' a catalyst for personal change

Friday, September 14 at 12:00 AM

By Ari Armstrong, Westminster

A two-person household can receive as much as $284 per month in food stamps, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Nevertheless, my wife and I spent the month of August eating for $159.04, or $2.57 per person per day.

We wanted to best the “Food Stamp Challenge” of three months ago, in which public figures spent a week on the “average” food-stamp budget of $3.57 per day — less than the resources recipients have available for food — and promoted more tax spending on the program (“‘I couldn’t afford an onion’/Food stamp test leaves city exec hungry and tired,” June 11).

We ate a fairly regular diet, preparing dishes such as soup, baked chicken, burritos, meatloaf, salads, cookies and flan (my specialty).

We didn’t accept free food, buy food at Costco, or even eat our home-grown tomatoes.

We didn’t go out to eat.

Our purchases included fresh and frozen vegetables, brown rice, organic milk, real butter and flax. And the total bill included $6.64 for taxes.

I said we could eat for less than $3 per person per day. I was right.

I bragged that it would be easy (“Food Stamp Challenge will be a snap,” Speakout, June 22). On that score I was wrong, so I accept my portion of humble pie.

The diet would have been far easier had I paid more attention to our counts of calories, fat and protein from the start.

We both lost around five pounds over the first nine days. My wife felt great throughout, but I started to feel fatigued. The lesson, regardless of your budget, is to learn your nutritional guidelines and stick to them. We corrected our balance of foods for the rest of the month and regained weight. I learned more about the nutrition of different foods, and our diet henceforth will be better than it was before August. For details, please see the Web site FreeColorado.com.

We said we’d donate whatever we came in under budget to the Ayn Rand Institute, and others agreed to match our donation. Instead we wrote a check for $180 and encouraged others to do likewise.

I was reminded at a very personal level of the importance of a free-market system of capitalism, in which the rights of the individual to control his own life, resources and property — as consistent with the equal rights of others — are fully protected by law. It is because of that system of liberty — and to the extent that we maintain it — that we prosper and thrive. We can rejoice that most of us have to worry about eating too much food, not too little, and that we have ample resources to save for emergencies.

Welfare — the forcible transfer of wealth — should be phased out and replaced with voluntary charity such as food banks, even as political controls that hamper economic opportunities are repealed.

Voluntary charity is consistent with individual rights, and it is more likely to promote responsible giving, administration and consumption of resources for the poor. The goal should be to help people become independent rather than dependent on politicians and bureaucrats.

Something I didn’t expect was for the diet to become a catalyst for me to rethink my priorities. As my wife and I spent time together discussing our diet, we talked more about the broader course of our lives. And I will be making some changes, not only to my daily diet, but to my daily use of time. Food is the substance with which we build our bodies, and time is the substance with which we build our lives. And I will try to stop taking both things for granted.

We are what we eat, and we are what we do. I will strive to hold every morsel of food, and every minute of time, as precious.

Ari Armstrong, a resident of Westminster, edits the Colorado Freedom Report (freecolorado.com).

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Posted by kljeldvlzk on November 24, 2007 06:17 PM

What? Blacks have been stripped from the welfare roles? Holy crap!, someone better tell that to the lady buying twinkies and soda in 7/11 the other day. She popped out that welfare card so fast, she may have snapped a ligament. oh, and she was black. She needs to get the memo.

Posted by Dravur on September 24, 2007 07:05 AM

I am soooo tired of seeing politicians jump on this band wagon and act like the survived something, when they really should be funding shopping education, in addition to nutrition education. We had a whole discussion of this a few months ago here:
http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/daily-living/28737-oregon-governor-might-need-our-help.html

It's really a shame that we have hungry people in one of the largest food producing countries in the world. It's time for us to start thinking differently about how we fight hunger.

Posted by hotcouponworld on September 22, 2007 01:17 AM

"We are what we eat..."

I've been posting that same message right here with considerable frequency. Stay away from those overpriced, organic, all natural, no preservatives, no MSG, no artificial coloring, range-fed health food stores. The bean sprouts and granola bars will eat your brain.

You'll lose all control. You'll join a union, go liberal, turn communist get a tongue ring, die your hair green, partake of the weed, share needles, hang with school teachers, march with Cindy Sheehan, mount an Al Gore poster in your bathroom and sell carbon credits in Havana. And if you are a guy, your boy friend Ralph will live in San Francisco. You'll go totally nuts.

You are what you eat.

Posted by Hank on September 20, 2007 01:33 PM

Truthy, when was the last time you saw a wealthy fat woman?

Posted by on September 18, 2007 11:15 PM

Well done. Knew you could do it. You are also right that those who are truly poor would have the ability to combine purchases and make long term plans. Just finished setting plans for my family menus for a month. Bought 25 pounds of ground beef on a rain check for 99 cents a pound. (even the fatty kind can be de-fatted by stirring it in an ice cold steel bowl. Grease sticks to the bowl.) Am making ground beef mix and meatloaves, meatballs and burgers.Going to try to match your success with a diabetic diet for two and food added for a disabled son and an 8 year old grand daughter. Using your suggestions and experiences for guidance. Thanks. Still fielding calls from Social Services about food stamps. Will have to enroll the little one in them to qualify her for school lunches and breakfasts as well as to prevent her mother from enrolling her and totally messing things up while she steals from the government. Little one needs the social skills from the lunches to help her get past four years of extreme neglect. Have to enroll her, but don't have to spend the darn things.
Unfortunately don't think there will be any real effort to learn from your experience. Someone in government would have to admit the wasteful nature of government programs and policies. Now show me someone in politics who really wants to cut back on waste and maybe we will have one vote.

Posted by momma y on September 18, 2007 01:15 AM

When is the last time you've seen a skinny, malnourished poor person? Especialy a female.

The real problem we have is the current STUPID epidemic. Perhaps the state could issue "common sense" stamps.

Posted by truthy on September 16, 2007 06:18 PM

A pat on the back ..for you and wifey..Ari.

Posted by on September 16, 2007 12:41 PM

Your mom must be proud of you.

Posted by on September 15, 2007 10:05 AM

Ok, 40 Acres..whatever.

Posted by on September 14, 2007 09:07 PM

Ari, Clinton stripped my fellow blacks from the welfare rolls, however, he left Mormons on this cash-cow. Bush comes along with his faith-based initiative, which is an additional welfare cash-cow for Mormons. "ALL" of the federal funded contracts and jobs in the Fitzsimons redevelopment project were scarfed up by companies who are mebers of the Mormon Church. Prez campaign welfare? These corrupt (federal funds fraud, waste, and abuse) construction contractors are making huge finacial donations to Mitt Romney. Allrd, Owens, BoPeep, and K. Salazar, greased the skids for Mitt. Owens and Allard were recently hired by Mitt.

Posted by draftdodgingisntafamilyvalue on September 14, 2007 04:59 PM