The concept for the SNAP Challenge is to “raise awareness” of the food choices that low income Americans have to make with the food stamp benefits they receive.  The idea is to take the average food stamp benefit (about $30 per person per week) and use only that much money to buy all your food for the whole week.

That’s fine as far as it goes. Awareness is good. But I wanted to create something that went further than awareness. I wanted to actually map out a plan on how to eat on a low-income budget over a decent period of time. When my own income dropped suddenly, I realized it was the perfect time to do this.

A “full benefit” for SNAP varies by state, but $34 per week is a widely accepted target.

This project isn’t about making a point. It’s not about saying “this isn’t enough to live on”. It’s not about advocacy. If this is how much people have to live on, I want to know how to do that.

I have to live on this budget. We need to balance bulk food purchasing with variety, we need to “get ahead” by making more food one week and saving it, we need to make this for real.

With that in place, I built the challenge with the following assumptions:

• Starting with week 1, there is no food in the house. No spices, no staples (bread, milk, eggs) at all.
• Money can carry over from week to week. Week 2 was about 50 cents over the $34 budget, but week 1 was 50 cents under, so I called it a wash
• Participants have skillets, pots, mixing bowls, baking pans, measuring spoons and cups, a stove, a fridge / freezer, and a microwave.

So jump into week 1 or look at the ground rules and let’s get started!