S is for Supplemental

As we pointed out in our initial blog post the S in SNAP stands for Supplemental and that the government expects SNAP recipients to contribute 30% of their own income to the food budget.  We all know that is not reasonable in some cases.  That the SNAP money is all some families have for this use so they must eat only what they can buy with those funds or supplement at food banks and other charitable and civic organizations.

A friend volunteers at a local food bank and supplied us with the following information regarding that organization.  If we had gotten food on November 5:

1  2 lb. smoked turkey breast

           2 breads (1 pkg buns and 1 small loaf of bread)

1 doz eggs (we don't usually have eggs but we did get them yesterday on the truck)

            2 desserts (1 pkg cookies and 1 small cake)

             1 pkg of dried pinto beans and 1 can of pintos

5 cans of green veg. (green beans/green peas)

                5 cans of non green veg. (carrots /corn)

            1 small can of mandarin oranges

1 jar peanut butter

1 lb. rice

2 cans of soup ( veg. beef or chicken noodle)

2 pkg. mac & cheese

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 bag of cereal

1 sleeve of crackers

What we have depends of what Second Harvest sends us.  People who come early on  Wednesday get lots of things as the truck comes on Tuesday and Friday at noon.

This is probably enough food for 3-4 days.  The pork patties are USDA (you would qualify for that)  and we are required to give all USDA "families"  3 pkg. regardless of family size.  Some weeks we get pork patties and chicken leg quarters - then all USDA "families" get 3 pkg pork patties AND 2 5 lb. pkg. chicken leg quarters.  Some weeks we don't get any USDA meat so we give out the other frozen meat we have and/or tuna fish.

We are also aware that many churches and other charitable/civic organizations give out food, particularly this time of year.  Last month our church gave out 90 bags of groceries.  We also gave bagged lunches, but don't know how many.  Both the groceries and lunches are given to anyone that asks.  There are no qualifying conditions, no questions asked, no need demonstrated.  The grocery bags differ from week to week depending on what our membership donates.  Most every week the bag will contain spaghetti & sauce, peanut butter crackers, canned fruits/vegetables, macaroni & cheese, canned chicken/tuna/ham and various other staples.  There will be at least 16 items per  bag.  The lunches have beanie-weenies, peanut butter crackers, a sweet treat and a drink.

  

We knew that these and other resources were available to us should we run out of ‘money’ before the 30 days lapsed.  We would have not actually taken the food, but purchased it and valued it a zero.  Since we are a little more than a week away from the end of this challenge and have plenty of ‘money in the bank’ we won’t be making use of this resource.

As of this writing, we have the following items still available in our own kitchen:

• ·         Cornmeal
• ·         Flour
• ·         Carrots
• ·         Broccoli
• ·         Potatoes
• ·         Onions
• ·         Apples
• ·         Eggs
• ·         Rice
• ·         Cereal
• ·         Saltines
• ·         Peanuts
• ·         Tea

On the last day, we will do a full inventory of what is remaining and the estimated value of what would be carried over into the next month were we doing this indefinitely.

Thanks for following us on this journey.  We value the responses we have received.  Please feel free to cast a vote as to how we wind this up.  See the poll to the right -->