Welfare Food Challenge: Preparation (16/01/2020)

Hello! My name is Austin and I have chosen to participate in the food welfare challenge. The challenge is very simple in nature, requiring the participant to stay within a budget of $21.00 for groceries over the span of one week. However, there are a few rules to this challenge, and a challenge it will be… Rules for this challenge are pretty straightforward: No use of food banks or accessing free meals supplied by charities and friends; refraining from eating food you already have or have grown. The driving force behind this challenge is to “raise public awareness about the poverty of people on welfare and the need for change” (Gerlings, 2017).

I chose to participate in this challenge for a few reasons. First off, I completely support the driving force behind the very reason for this challenge, being that it is essential to raise public awareness about the poverty that those around us face on a daily basis. Second, I think it is so important to recognize that food security is still a huge disparity across the globe. Speaking of the world as a whole, I want to bring this idea of food security back to the overarching idea of global health. Global health acts both locally and globally, it is not specific to any one country and is not contained by borders. To kick this challenge off, let’s look at an at-home statistic on food security here in Canada. According to Roshanafshar & Hawkins (2018) “The most recent statistics indicate that in 2011–2012, 8.3% of Canadian households experienced food insecurity.” Personally, I think Canada’s food insecurity rate is 8.3% too high, and for these reasons, I have chosen to participate in this challenge.

Before I begin, I want to give a little bit of a background as to how I am feeling coming into this challenge. I think it is important to let you know that I am in love with cooking. In fact, I find cooking is therapeutic for me as it brings me joy and comfort. It’s just something about a home-cooked meal! So, in short, I am REALLY going to miss the richness of the meals I cook for myself and even the “simple” ingredients I know I have come to take for granted like salt and pepper. I must confess that I am a little concerned that I won’t be able to stick to the challenge. I know myself, and I know that I eat often and am a huge fan of snacks! However, I am committed to completing this challenge, so with that, let’s get started!

If you know me, you know that I am a planner, so you can bet I looked at the weekly flyer to the grocery store I always shop at. Prior to going, I made a tentative grocery list, hoping that I was under, or at least on-budget for groceries this week. To my surprise, I had a few lucky things happen to me! A bag of apples had come up at the wrong price so I let the employee at the store know, and to my delight, she gave the apples to me for FREE! This means I had a little extra money to spend on food, so I headed over to another store. At the second store, a box of pasta came up as the wrong price, however, this time the price was adjusted to the correct one. My bill was just shy of the $21.00 limit. So, to kick off this challenge and to say goodbye to my good friend coffee, I headed over to the McDonald’s and bought myself a large cup of java which put me at the limit! I ended up spending $19.86! Heres what I came home with:

*** 1 jar of raspberry jam, 1 jar of peanut butter, 2 cans of chicken soup, 2 cans of vegetable soup, 1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables, 1 5lb. bag of apples, 1 package of hot dogs, 1 loaf of bread, 1 can of pasta sauce, 1 box of pasta, and finally 1 large coffee! ***

Before I end this pre-challenge reflection, I wanted to point out a few things about my shopping experience! First off, I was so excited to have that bag of apples given to me for free… I thought to myself that those who do live on this tight of a budget must really appreciate any break they can get, as I know I certainly did! Second, there is so much to consider when going to get these groceries. For instance, I went to three different places all across the city. Someone who is on a tight budget may not have the luxury of doing this much travelling. I haven’t even started the first day and I am already realising that this small of a budget is impossible to live on week after week…

That’s all for now! Throughout the week I will post a daily update on this blog with a few photos of what I ate, how I am feeling, and a general overview of my thoughts about how the challenge is going! For now, it is time to get on with day one (eek!).

Resources

Gerlings, K. (2017, October 2). 6th annual welfare food challenge. Retrieved January 16, 2020, from https://welfarefoodchallenge.org/2017challenge/

Roshanafshar, S., & Hawkins, E. (2018, September 17). Food insecurity in Canada. Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-624-x/2015001/article/14138-eng.htm