Nearly 10 years ago, on a cold and snowy night in Chicago, I
walked in to my local grocery store with exactly $20 to spend on food for the
week for my then-boyfriend (now husband) and me. I remember walking the aisles and trying to
find items that would last through multiple meals, that would be filling and
affordable on our extremely limited budget.
This wasn’t a one-time occurrence, but I think it stands out in my
memory because of how worn down I felt that night: I was hungry, I was cold, we
couldn’t afford to heat our entire apartment, and despite working two jobs
(while going to school full time) I didn’t have a single spare dollar to chip
in for food.
Having grown up in a very low-income household, with parents
who worked hard but scraped by week after week, I was intimately familiar with
how much worse it could be; at least I had
$20 to spend that night. But it’s hard
to feel grateful when it can be such a struggle to balance the basic needs of
food and shelter. Preparing for the SNAP
Challenge has caused me to reflect a lot on the financial struggles I faced
growing up, particularly as I stood in the store all these years later, feeling
as though I was splurging on a large jar of peanut butter and wondering if my
SNAP budget would allow for two bags of rice or not.
In November, more than 250,000 fellow Utahns currently
receiving SNAP will find their benefits reduced or eliminated, and will have to
stretch their food dollars even further to make ends meet. Participating in the SNAP Challenge is an
opportunity to build awareness of need in our communities, to face the hard
choices that living in poverty presents each day. I hope you will read the experiences of those
who have completed the SNAP challenge and perhaps consider undertaking the
challenge yourself, and think about what role you can play in alleviating
poverty in your community. My husband
and I will be participating all week, starting Monday the 9th, and I
look forward to sharing our experience with you.
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