United Way Hunger Challenge
My dad has probably made one third of his usual income by this time of year, after all he’s in the construction trades, a cement finisher, and new building slows during recessions. When I log onto Facebook I see my friends make comments about how money is tight or a utility just got cut off. BUT When I saw an article written in March saying that seven hundred thousand more Americans started receiving food stamps in just one month even my jaw hit the floor. Look at it this way: 700,000. That, my friends, is a lot of zeros. That’s a lot of people. And that is just the one month increase of people who are receiving help to buy food in one of the best fed nations in the world. In March 2009 31.8 million Americans were receiving food stamps and in early April the number was already up to 32.2 million. So when I heard about the United Way of King County's Hunger Challenge I wanted to participate. I know how to eat on a budget. Remember my dad worked in construction all his life and in Illinois you don't pour much concrete in the middle of winter. Don't get me wrong, he made good money, but in winter things got a bit tighter. My mom didn't talk about meal planning much but we always had food even when money was tight. I've been in Canada nearly 3 years and my husband is Canadian. Last year we moved to Humboldt, Saskatchewan at the beginning of May. It took nearly a year to find a real good job out here. I don't go telling the whole world how much money we do or don't have but let me say that we made more in the four months we were in Alberta then our first nine months in Saskatchewan. We did have savings so we never reached a point where we needed help with things like food but I can certainly understand why so many people need help today and how hard it can be to remain positive and try to feed your family on a very limited budget. The challenge at hand is to feed two people for five days on a $12 a day budget. This number is based on what a family on food stamps would receive. Although this challenge is hosted by the United Way in Kings County, in Washington State I did not bother to convert the currencies. I am using $60 Canadian. As part of the rules I am not allowed to use anything for free except salt and pepper. I can not accept free food either. Continue to see my meal plan for the United Way Hunger Challenge. Want to talk to me about this challenge or freezer cooking? I'm on Twitter @FavFreezerFoods Return from Hunger Challenge to the homepage of Favorite Freezer Foods.  Custom Search
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