Back at work

Woke up from a strange dream where I was hungry and couldn't find any food to eat, and people kept eating in front of me and saying "Nope! yours is over there" while pointing at nothing.
Maybe I've become more than a little obsessed with food access now. Maybe I've been worrying a whole lot about the hunger of so many people, as I have felt hunger pangs for much of the past few days. Maybe I was thinking about my prankster co-workers messing with my mind as I had to work today. Likely all of the above.

As soon as I entered the kitchen though, my foggy nightmare ended and I swelled with gratitude once again. We do have food. We may be rationing to make sure we have enough to cover all the meals of the week, but, we have enough to cover all the meals for the week.

After tea and 1/2 banana I found out that my oatmeal skills have improved, as today's one cup portion was much better than our first day breakfast. Adding a boiled egg to the meal made it more filling.

 After getting Sasha ready and off to school, I came home to get myself ready for my walk to work. Before I left for the day I made another batch of oatmeal raisin muffin bites, with 3 small muffins for each of us to have as a snack at some point.

Watching all the ingredients diminish from the cupboard shelf can be nerve racking, until I open the fridge and see the leftovers that still offer us sustenance. While I waited for the baking to be done, I packed my lunch and dinner to get me through my 9 hours at work, then ate a snack of 3 muffin bites (from the old batch), and 3 small handfuls of roasted chick peas to energize me for my half hour walk.

When reading the experience of other challenge participants trying to get by individually on the $18 budget, my stomach rumbles in solidarity with their efforts. If Mark and Sasha had not agreed to try this with me as a family, I don't know if I'd have the stamina to tackle it alone, especially while living with other people who continue to eat things you can't.

I hope their are no people on assistance of some kind having to live with others who would eat while they went hungry. I'm sure it is a reality outside this challenge (where it seems common that individuals are trying this out on their own, though living with roommates/family who are not participating. That is ridiculously hard in my mind). The more I delve into understanding the individual human horror that living in genuine poverty is, by listening to perspectives of people who have lived it, are living it, have never known anything else, the more I know that there are a lot more people suffering than need to be.

Goody bag for Ian.

One challenge participant is someone I work with at Britannia Community Centre. Ian is the Food Security Coordinator and you should follow along on his blog if you want to learn about food access in Vancouver. gwfoodconnection.wordpress.com

He's always working so hard to make sure other people are fed, so after reading about his one meal a day to survive, I was compelled to bring him a few portions of our bounty. I believe the challenge rules allow participants to share with other participants, so at work I'm the only one who can share with him. and we have enough to do so, even if only a little bit.

Britannia is a place where needy people seek refuge in various ways. Every morning staff have to wake up all the homeless people sleeping in every available nook and cranny on the site that is dry. Many homeless people use the showers at the pool when they need to feel clean and warm. (Having a Britannia membership, which is $3 for an adult for a year, gains you access to free showers and the dry sauna in the change room, before 3 every day but Saturday). People rely on the library as a place to gain access to the internet, use the washrooms, and relax in a warm spot a while and read to nourish their minds. There are also various programs that help individuals and families, who are working poor, on welfare or disability assistance, or new immigrants needing support in their new homeland.

The Leisure Access Program is a Vancouver Park Board initiative that allows people who qualify as low income or on assistance, to receive a year pass which they gain free access to the public pools and rinks, and discounts on community centre programs across the city. As our office is a place where these passes are processed once approved, we are witness to the ways that access to these community facilities, services and programs can be life changing for people.

Another big thing at Britannia is food access. Ian shared a great post about the people who access his bulk food buying program who come from near and far for the two bags plus that he is able to supply them for $14. And there are many other food access programs that are run through partnerships on site between the schools, Eastside Family Place, and the Britannia Society. I know I'm leaving lots of stuff out here, so I'll try to follow up with links to all these resources for anyone who is following our experience, and could use the help in real life.

To wrap up my first post about work life I'm happy to say that my co-workers were nothing but supportive as always (I am fortunate to work in an office with an array of wonderfull people), and I made it through the day ok. I had two of my meals at work today, including soup (this Carrot/Lentil/Ginger soup turned out amazing, and for me is the best thing I've eaten all week. The ginger piece really was worth its weight in gold for me!) with soda crackers and a few veggy cookies, and then a small bowl of stew with a bun.

  

Back home tonight I see this bag of potatoes as my comfort, just to have it there. We have used less than half, and it signifies the opportunity for more food to eat when we need it, so we definitely won't be needing the charity loaf of bread in our freezer on Saturday. 

Tonight I go to bed with a faint touch of hunger, but my spirit is full of gratitude. 

If following along with our efforts, and the struggles of other participants has you marveling at the difficulty of getting by on so little, remember that this is daily life for too many thousands of people in BC. 

Please sign the petition calling for a rate increase as it is inhumane to expect people to live on $610 a month. 

(Note: I started this post late after work Tuesday night, but finished in the morning as I was too tired by midnight to finish making my words make any sense. Now I'm off to work again, day 4 of the challenge, and I made some biscuits and coleslaw this morning before leaving, and will try to post again tonight when home from work.) 

Sasha's Thoughts. Day Three.

Hi folks!
Day three rolled around today. Meals were oatmeal (But better than last time!) for breakfast, and soup for lunch. Dinner was at my after-school-club, because Tuesday and Thursday I stay late for programs. Tonight's dinner was mac and cheese with salad. Mini muffins and "Veggie Cookies" stood in as snacks, plus an apple in my lunch.
Other than that, there isn't much else. Before the challenge I thought I would starve and be super hungry 24/7 all week. I'm not even that hungry, and when I get hungry, I set my mind on distracting things like homework or dad's hokey game on the computer.
Today was a Tasty Tuesday! I can't really think of anything for Wednesday, but I know it will be tasty too!
I will be sure to fill you in on my tasty details of our week!
                                                                      -Sasha

Kitchen duty continues

Nice to wake up and have a few options already prepared and a game plan for day two and all there was to do. We didn't really buy a lot of ready made ingredients, so to keep eating this week required more kitchen work today.

First thing was a cup of tea and 1/2 banana, and then breakfast was a nice treat of two slices of fresh bread toasted with peanut butter.

Then I got on making Sasha's lunch. I made a basic egg salad with eggs and a few of her cucumelons chopped up and some of the pickle juice to flavour with salt and pepper. Sandwich, carrot sticks and a few more cucumelons, plus an oatmeal raisin muffin (the 3 muffins I made yesterday were snacks for each of us today) and one apple were what was packed for her.

I also had my muffin for my mid-morning snack, and had the same lunch, only no apple or cucumelons for me. :(

Mark carried on the Monday afternoon ritual of having lunch with his dad while they watch some footie together. Lunch is always a sandwich, and coincidentally he ended up with egg salad and carrot sticks too!

     

Once Sasha was at school I took a fair bit of time to just relax for the morning to continue to ease my back. I threw it out a week ago and have been dealing with pain to varying degrees ever since. Standing in the kitchen for most of the day yesterday was not helpful to the healing. Still had to muster energy to get back to prep mode, I know I will be grateful for it on my work days to come!

Turns out the loaf I made, though tasty and dense, was rather small. What remained, after using 10 slices of bread (3 of us had 2 pieces of toast for breakfast, and 2 of us had 2 slices for sandwiches at lunch), is enough for one slice each. I think I have enough flour and stuff for one more small loaf, but no baking for me today.

Today I was trying to get a handle on how the rest of our food was actually going to spread out over the rest of the week. I knew it was possible, I just needed to remember to breathe and start doing something once again.

Like measure out enough oats, cinnamon, sugar and raisins for 2 more morning breakfasts for us all. Done!

Then some time cutting up garlic, onion, celery and carrot for 3 separate dishes I wanted to prepare.

 Today was all about lentils, beans, carrots and cabbage! Over the course of a few hours I created a bean and cabbage dish (and plenty of it!) to have with rice for our dinner tonight, a carrot/lentil/ginger soup for us to have for lunches, and a 'veggy cookie' (like mini potato pancakey pakora kinda thing) I baked up for us to have as snacks, made from potato, carrot, onion, garlic, lentil, cabbage and a few tablespoons of flour - and these are pretty great, but could use a dip.

    

Overall, using many of the same ingredients I was able to get a nice range of texture and flavour to mix things up over the next few days.

Basically, all of the food has been prepared except for a tomato sauce to go with pasta for a meal or two (not sure how many portions we'll have), and another batch of muffins or bread.

We will now be rotating between the leftover vegetable stew, beans & rice, pasta & sauce or soup with crackers for lunch and dinner in the next 5 days. There is one more thing I want to make in the morning to add to this mix which is a simple coleslaw we can divide up for a portion each day.

Breakfast will be oatmeal  and a boiled egg for 2 days, eggs (& toast?) for 2 days, and potato pancakes for breakfast on Saturday.

The snacks we have are roasted chickpeas & raisins we can have a few handfuls each over the next few days, about 8 veggie cookies each, some carrot & celery sticks with hummus, and 1/2 banana each per day. Mark and I still have 2 apples to share. Sasha gets a full apple per day and random cucumelons as she likes. Plus whatever I end up baking in a couple of days.

Now I can relax a bit because I have shown my family we really won't starve (they were worried), but it is a lot of work to have achieved this basic level of comfort at this point. I have been food & budget obsessed for weeks now trying to prepare, which culminated in us finding just the right amount of ingredients and just the right price to get what we could, and the work seems to have paid off - I believe we'll make it through ok.

But $54 goes farther than $18 (for all the individuals doing the challenge) and both of these amounts are truly below the amount people on benefits receive and are expected to survive on, and who has the time for this diligence all of the time? Actually feeding my family this week on this amount is very difficult, but compounding the stress of meager amounts of food with all the other systemic stresses for people on welfare, disability or working poor, means daily stress for longer than I can imagine. I'm exhausted from the effort to even try to relate to this reality and it's only been a short while.

My gratitude is abundant for everything we have to eat this week. My thoughts are with all of the people going to bed without having healthy food in them today, and those with empty bellies.

Sasha's thoughts Day Two

Hi.
Today was the first day of school while doing the challenge. It was also my student-conference today. When I told my teacher about the challenge, she seemed pretty interested in the subject of spending $54 on food all week. She said it would spark conversation on how much we eat and how often we go out for dinner, and the challenge has done just that for me. I am going to present this blog sometime to my class. This will be interesting for them to read.
Breakfast was better today: Homemade bread with peanut butter. Much better! (Still want waffles! :[ )
Lunch was egg salad sandwich and Dinner was beans and cabbage and rice. Today was a munchy Monday!

I will be sure to keep you posted on my Welfare Week Challenge!
                                                                                -Sasha

First day in the kitchen

Last night I hid all of the stuff we can't use for the week. For the past while I was only buying what we really need because I didn't want a surplus of supplies in the kitchen, but we still have pretty well stocked cupboards of dry goods and spices. So I put some things in the freezer, and then concealed the shelves we can't use. Random tea towel art hides what we can't use, and now we are down to 2 small shelves. Here are the snapshots of before and after.

Lots of options and flavours.

After hiding everything, far less choice.

That pile of food pictured on the table from yesterday certainly looked like a lot less food once I put it away. A few things on the counter, our 2 small cupboard shelves, and then there is the fridge with the few things needing to be chilled. The top shelf is full of things we can't use, and condiments in the door, and the drawer that has cheese - all off limits! 

A sharp eye will notice the bottle of apple cider vinegar, and this is because we have apple cider vinegar and baking soda in stock at all times as we use these to wash our hair. Everyone else has shampoo and conditioner in the shower, so do we, and that's why I haven't counted these items in the budget for the week.

The only way to tackle all the anxiety this emptiness in the kitchen was creating for me was to do something, so today I spent most of the day trying to turn some of our ingredients into actual meals we might enjoy.

Confession time on a few last cheats:

One wee sweet potato for the stew.

Since we had $1.80 leftover I 'bought' the piece of ginger we had, and a sweet potato leftover in the fridge which had already been peeled and needed to be used, so we could keep both of these. I was amazed that the idea of keeping a piece of ginger was all of the sudden worth more than gold to me.

Where tea is made

For Sasha I chose to let her have the last half glass of juice left in the fridge this morning, and the choice of one already opened box of herbal tea that would be for her to have a cup a day, and also used to make some iced tea for her.

And last, I forgot about tea for us when we shopped yesterday, but we have a large tin full of tea in our cupboard (along with many other teas), so I rationed out tea bags for Mark and I to get a caffeine dose daily, which are in the tin.

To recap, all of the cheats I have chosen to make this week more bearable for my family include:
- salt, pepper and oil we already have on hand
- using leftover portion of applesauce and yogurt in the fridge
- Sasha gets to snack on her jar of pickled cucumelons
- tea rations from our current stock of tea in the cupboard

All day I was putting out food to eat, but I was always a touch hungry. My morning started with a cup of tea and 1/2 banana. We usually have a whole one every morning, and now sharing one. Then I cooked up a small pot of oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins and we each had a portion of just over a cup.

Once I had a smidgen of food in my belly I began the process of baking bread, and non-stop puttering in the kitchen for the day. Soaking chick peas, baking bread and muffins, and prepping for meals.

First snack time was a 1/2 apple. Sasha gets a whole one each day, and the few left over will be shared by me and Mark. One down, two to go.

Taking advantage of our big bag of potatoes today for two meals. First was a lunch of fries and scrambled eggs with celery, trying to get in a small dose of green. All good eats.

Afternoon snacks were 2 bite size oatmeal raisin muffins (I made 24 bite-size and 3 regular size muffins), then we split one of my fresh baked buns (which turned out super yummy!) and each had a third with a smear of margarine,

Once the chick peas were done I made up some hummus and we sampled with 7 crackers each. Hummus isn't quite the same without a hint of lemon and I had to water it down to smooth it out to conserve oil, so it is meh. I roasted the other half of the chick peas, which I forgot about in the oven and therefore they are overly crunchy and dry, but will have to do as the handful-now-and-then-tide-over snack it was meant to be.

The last meal of the day was potato stew with one bun. I used the chick pea water with a cube of stock for the broth, and used onion, garlic, celery, carrots and potatoes for the stew. I normally love my stews, and this one I loved mostly because I was hungry, and there was enough to have 2 bowls and almost fill up for a meal. Soon after I was hungry again, but stew has to last another meal so dinner was done.

Oats cooking.

Lunch

     

Baking goodness.

Hummus and crackers

     

Roasted chick peas

Vegetable stew

     

Overall, most of the food is tasty enough, and I was thrilled at how yummy the buns were! Simple can be good, but I already miss the treasure trove of flavour our spice rack provides. Thankful I managed to get cinnamon & raisins for oatmeal and baking.

Thankful tomorrow is another day off so I can spend more time in the kitchen prepping for the next few days of meals. When I'm back at work Tuesday I won't have time or energy for all this kitchen time anymore, and I lucked out the challenge began on my two days off so I could get us off to a good start. 

I'm thinking of all the other participants of this Welfare Food Challenge and hoping they have made it through the shock of the first day alright. 

Focus in the morning is making sure Sasha has enough for lunch at school. Now I'm exhausted and it's time to rest, but I'm feeling joy to be able to have a couple of slices of my bread toasted for breakfast!  

Sasha's Thoughts. Day One

Hi again!
The first day went like this:

Me: Whats for breakfast?
Mom: Oatmeal with raisins.

That was a nice wake-up.
I actually forgot the challenge started today, which is surprising since me and my family have been talking about the challenge since late September.
Lunch was Fries and Scrambled Eggs (With celery) and Dinner was Vegetable Soup. A few bite sized muffins lasted as snacks for the day. It was actually pretty normal, except mom was in the kitchen all day, prepping food for the week. At least it was better than shopping in the rain.

School starts tomorrow, and I really can't wait to see how tiny my lunch is. (Sarcasm) Also, another "cheat" has come up in my favour. I get one herbal tea of my choice from our cupboard for drinking over the week. I chose a fruity berry, because it was that or peach. I prefer berry. Speaking of cheats, and school tomorrow, I get my after school snack at after school club.

It surprised me how normal today was, and if this keeps up, it will actually be a pretty normal week, just less food. I will keep you posted on my view of the challenge for the rest of the week. Can't wait for more oatmeal tomorrow! (I really want some waffles :[ )

                                                                        -Sasha :D

What did $54 get us today?

$60-6=$54 aka our budget

We withdrew the cash we needed, and once we made our first purchase and broke one of these bills, I put away $6 to make sure we stayed in our $54 budget.

I felt a fair bit of anxiety holding this cash and knowing this was it. Things were gettin' real now.

The weather was miserable and kind of set the mood, making it even harder to muster excitement for this shop. I'll end my complaints there as we also had the comfort of a co-op car I had booked to get us around to all our planned locations in a few hours. A luxury on a day like this.

The shop is now done and here's what we've got:

The epic food find was a 10 lb bag of potatoes for $1.99! The journey to multiple grocery stores to get everything on our list under budget was worth it. My spirits were lifted after our first 2 stops and we had all of our produce, beans, lentils, chick peas for $18.80. 

The full list of acquired goods (will update with the amounts, etc in the morn):

Potatoes          Lentils

Carrots            Beans

Cabbage         Chick peas

Celery             Rice

Garlic             Pasta

Onions            Flour            

Apples            Oats

Bananas          Sugar

Raisins            Eggs

Crackers         Peanut butter

Cinnamon      Yeast 

Margarine

Vegetable stock  

Canned tomatoes

Milk (not pictured)

Well, that's what we've got to get us through. More tomorrow on what we're going to do with it.