Posted on 11/19/2013 12:19:47 PM PST by wbill
GREENSBORO — Cathy Coons has been passionate about fighting hunger since she was a teenager in Westchester County, N.Y.
It was there that she first joined in a fast to raise money for Save the Children, the well-known charitable organization for children in need in the United States and around the world.
Since moving to Greensboro in 2004, Coons has continued to take part in a variety of volunteer initiatives to alleviate hunger and poverty, primarily through Starmount Presbyterian Church, where — as a member of the mission committee — she is actively involved in such local ministries as senior meals, refugee resettlement, backpack feeding programs, the church’s community garden, and Family Promise, to name just a few.
But she has never again attempted to experience firsthand the pain of hunger, at least not until now.
Coons said that when Stamount’s mission committee recently approved the church’s participation in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge, Nov. 17-23 —in which families and individuals pledge to use the average food stamp benefit as their total budget for groceries for seven days—she said there were few takers.
“Since I volunteer with working poor families who live on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) funds every day,” said Coons, “I thought I would give it a try.”
She said that she had no specific expectations, except that she would be hungry.
“For the past 10 years I have been reluctant to identify with those struggling with hunger by fasting or doing without,” Coons said. “The reason I came to feel that way is because of my interactions with those who deal with food insecurity. Whenever I have spoken with them about fasts or other deprivation programs, they don't always understand why someone would do this.”
Ruth Farrell, coordinator of the national Presbyterian Hunger Program, explains that the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge is a discipline to draw attention to the gross injustice of poverty and hunger in the U.S. and to open new opportunities for education, understanding, compassion and solidarity.
“This challenge is not only a call to hunger and poverty awareness, but also a call to action,” Farrell said. “We are called by God to be in the world and to seek to make it a better place. Changing hearts and minds is the starting point of building a movement and improving policy.”
Members of the key leadership bodies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)—including Linda Valentine, executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency—will also be taking part in the challenge. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), based in Louisville, Ky., comprises more than 1.9 million members in more than 11,000 congregations, answering Christ’s call to mission and ministry throughout the United States and the world.
“By joining in the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge—and intentionally living within these allowances together—we pray that awareness will be raised, consciences stirred, and actions taken so that all people have access to life’s basic necessities,” said Valentine.
Kevin Kattmann, who chairs Starmount’s mission committee, said that hunger can be hard to understand.
“The media report how many people in the U.S. go hungry every day,” Kattmann said. “Then the next night they will report how obesity is fast becoming the number one health challenge in the country. Hunger here doesn’t look like hunger in other countries.”
As Kattmann, Coons, and other Starmount members prepare to spend only $5.49 per person per day on everything that they eat in the coming week, Kattmann said that most people don’t think it is really that hard. “No better way to know that than to try,” he said.
Starmount’s pastor, John Odom, will also be joining the challenge
$5.49 a day = $38.43 / week. I'd do just fine by myself.
For a family of four = $153.72. That's way, way more than my weekly food budget, and a fair bit more than my weekly household budget (includes food, dry goods, paper products, etc). At that rate, I'd be able to add steak and seafood back into the menu, several times a week. Or, assuming that the money was fungible, we'd start eating out at restaurants again.
Am I heartless for not being all that sympathetic?
bfl
yup. with you. i tink these pieces assume people eat out all the time, eat extravagant foods normally and don’t buy any bargains. don’t cook big batches of meals to eat through the week.
/johnny
Nope. These nitwits don’t deserve sympathy, and like many such folks, they’re belching and farting over a problem without bothering to learn why said problem exists.
I doubt a single one of them knows how little the dollar is worth, how bad inflation is, what life was like on two dollars a week back when the dollar was backed up by tangible assets, etc etc etc. Either that or, like a lot of such people I’ve had the misfortune of dealing with, they don’t care because such facts clash with their view of how the world should work.
Am I heartless for not being all that sympathetic?”
...No. What the “hungry” really needs is a weight loss program.
We may be called to help and feed others, but that is a personal calling not a government mandate to feed others at the expense of our own.
The reason there were few takers on the challenge is because living on less than what snap provides is common for most families. Our family (4) eats on about $250 a month and we by no means go hungry.
Anyone who helps another out of compassion has my admiration.
Anyone who robs their neighbor by force under the pretext of helping others has my contempt.
You, sir, and others like you who accept the responsibility to support their family have earned my respect.
This reminds me of when my liberal ex-girlfriend was so proud of herself for reading a book.
“Nickel and Dimed”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_and_Dimed
It took me all of two minutes to debunk its premise.
I did get her to read “The New Thought Police” by Tammy Bruce, only after I told her Tammy was a Lesbian.
Oddly enough, when we split up I caught her trying to steal my copy of that book.
I am so glad you went first!
I was reading and wishing I had the nerve to say 30-35 dollars is a good week! Try being old and retiring 29 years ago. Medical bills wipe out savings and life goes on! I sure could do it and eat well!
I have no problem with helping the elderly, the disabled, and those who through no fault of their own are out of work. but the Protestant Ethic reigns, and those who won’t work should not get anything.
That is close to what I spend, and I am nowhere near starving.
Chicken or ground beef on sale. Beans, rice, canned tomatoes, spuds, carrots, frozen veggies, pasta, onions, bell pepper, tomato sauce, oatmeal, yoghurt. Frozen salmon when it is on a good sale.
Just have to shop carefully. I guess some folks think SNAP should pay enough for steak dinners. I know one guy on SNAP who blows his money on steaks and then bitches about running out of money by the end of the month.
153 bucks a week my family would eat like kings.
Currently spending $35 a week for two people.
No, you are not heartless.
Personally my give-a-damn is busted.
Granted, I eat out some meals, but that is about my weekly grocery bill times 3 mouths. And, while I don’t splurge, I certainly don’t go without. Besides, what part of ‘Supplemental’ don’t they understand?
The problem is that most of the EBT population has no concept of what was called “home economics” when we were kids. And the fedgov would much rather “navigate” them toward benefits than common sense living.
food stamps were never expected to be the only source of food for a family, these “challenges” are only challenging their gullability
They also believe that they should only purchase ready made meals, or at worse, hamburger helper in a pinch. It might have to do with them not having cooking skills as well...
Not to mention that, if they have kids in school or government day care, they are getting FREE breakfast and lunch, AND taking home a backpack full of food over the weekend. With that, you could have steak and seafood every night.
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