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Bloggers team up with food bank for hunger awareness project
Food insecurity is a lot of things.
For one, it’s prevalent. Not just in far-off places seen only in news clips. Here. In Austin. In your neighborhood. One in six people in Texas don’t know where their next meal will come from.
Second, people who face this problem come from all backgrounds and find themselves in this situation for a million different reasons. More than forty percent of people served by the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas are children. Almost half of their clients have at least one working adult at home. Only 18 percent of the people who get food from the partner agencies are homeless, and more than a third of their older clients go extended periods of time without food.
Third, food insecurity is growing. In eight years (2000 to 2008), the number of people who said they did’t have enough to eat grew by a third, and Texas has the second highest rate of food insecurity in the nation.
Statistics only tell part of the story. In an effort to understand more about the situation thousands of fellow Central Texans face, 30 local food bloggers have taken a week-long challenge to cook and eat from a typical bag of food that someone might get from a food pantry or other agency.
Let’s face it, a week doing a project like this isn’t even close to actually looking at your bank balance and realizing there’s not enough for both rent and food. Not one of the participating bloggers would pretend otherwise, but the goal is to get us all thinking and talking about a very real problem that is easy to forget, even in this food-obsessed society we cultivate.
So here’s how it will work: The Capital Area Food Bank of Texas gave us a list of what one bag from an area pantry might contain, and the bloggers will go out and buy the food from a grocery store.
I spent $36 at H-E-B last weekend buying rice, beans, pasta, canned corn and green beans, spaghetti sauce, oatmeal, store-brand cereal, potatoes, Tuna Helper, a chicken, ground beef, juice and canned fruit, an amount of food that a family could pick up once a month. (Every partner agency offers a slightly different choice of products, which often include bread, fresh fruits and vegetables, so keep in mind that this is just a sample list.)
Bloggers can also supplement with the amount of money that would be allotted to them if they were enrolled in food stamps or the Women, Infants and Children program.
I’ll be highlighting some of the bloggers’ posts, as well as my own experiences, on Relish Austin in the coming week, but the food bank’s blog will be the best place to stay tuned to all the posts.
Thanks ahead of time to the bloggers who have signed up to participate, the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas for being open to it and readers who follow along.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment Categories: Cooking, Food in the news
Comments
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By Steff
April 21, 2010 9:18 AM | Link to this
I think this is a great way to raise awareness about hunger in America. I look forward to reading the updates from participating bloggers.
By Kerri Qunell
April 21, 2010 10:02 AM | Link to this
Addie - Thanks so much for doing this! We so appreciate your attention to this and partnership. Kerri Qunell VP, Communications Capital Area Food Bank
By Andrew
April 21, 2010 1:25 PM | Link to this
This should be very enlightening. Is the full shopping list posted somewhere (or is the one in your post complete)?
By Nicole Ray
April 21, 2010 3:00 PM | Link to this
Disconcerting that the strong and thriving Texas economy consistently outranks most of the rest of the nation, yet Texans suffer the second highest rate of food insecurity in the country. $1,224 billion GDP (2008) and one in six Texans may go hungry tonight? Something’s definitely broken in this system. Thanks for highlighting the hunger issue.
By Addie Broyles
April 21, 2010 3:03 PM | Link to this
Hey, Andrew,
Here’s the list we received:
2 cans spaghetti sauce 4 cans veggies (choice of green beans and/or corn) 4 fruit cans (choice of sliced pears and/or mixed fruit) 1 meat selection: Anything and everything HEB has. Most of what was available was whole chickens, fryers and pork chops. But we really get everything from pig trotters to ham. 3 drink items: choice of large bottle of cranberry apple juice and/or powdered milk (shelf stable milk) boxes and/or apple juice boxes 1 bag spaghetti or bag of egg noodles 1 bag of pinto beans or white navy beans 1 bag of white rice 1 package of jalapeno slices 1 ready-made dinner (hamburger helper) 1 bag/container of rolled oats 1 bag of cheerios 5 lb bag of potatoes
By William Stott
April 21, 2010 9:48 PM | Link to this
Is the shopping list posted for a family for a week, or just an individual?
By Addie Broyles
April 21, 2010 10:06 PM | Link to this
Hi, William,
We found out tonight that the list of food is intended for a family for one month. To give you an idea of how much money a family might get in SNAP benefits or food stamps, the maximum an individual could get is $200, or $50 a week. I calculated that a family of four would probably get between $100-$130 a week.
By Charlena Mcgrapth
June 23, 2011 3:43 AM | Link to this
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