Are We Up to the Challenge?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Today marks Day One of our family's participation in the United Way of King County's Hunger Challenge.

Unfortunately, there's a whole lotta hunger here in the US. In fact, according to a New York Times story from last November:

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans who lived in households that lacked
consistent access to adequate food soared last year, to 49 million, the highest since the government began tracking what it calls “food insecurity” 14 years ago, the Department of Agriculture reported Monday.

The increase, of 13 million Americans, was much larger than even the most pessimistic observers of hunger trends had expected and cast an alarming light on the daily hardships caused by the recession's punishing effect on jobs and wages.

Our challenge this week is to live on the amount we'd receive if we were relying on the state's Basic Food Program (a.k.a. food stamps). Following the program's guidelines, that would mean $22 a day for our family.

I volunteered the family for the challenge for a couple of reasons, the first one being that if someone asked me how much our family spends a week on groceries, they'd be met with a blank stare and a very uninformed sounding, "Uh ..." followed by a stammered, "don't know."

Secondly, I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to teach the kids about budgeting. Obviously they'd be learning that everything you put in your mouth costs money, from the 50 cent piece of fried chicken to a 5 cent Hershey's Kiss. For that same reason, I knew it meant we'd be doing a lot of math this week, and working with money, which is also great.

Lastly, I think that it's a good lesson in empathy (which is one of the Challenge's goals). It should give us pause to think about people who are doing this not as an experiment or by choice, but out of need.

Though I don't have a good (or any?) handle on what we spend on groceries a week, my prediction is that we'll do OK. Why do I think that? Well, I'm already a fairly hardcore coupon-clippin', bargain hunting shopper. A 'clearance item' queen, if you will. ;) But who knows, maybe my perception is completely out of whack. ... Time will tell. I do know this - I am ever so happy that neither Christian nor I have a $10 a day Starbucks habit. ...

In anticipation of the challenge, I scoured ads and made some judicious choices about this week's eats. Today, we hunted and gathered many items. My goal was to include some protein, calcium, grains and fresh produce.

This afternoon we spent a good long while weighing and calculating and labeling, coming up with serving size costs of some of the foods that are eaten frequently in our home. Some things were easy. We knew a container of yogurt was 67 cents. Some things - like bananas - took a bit more work. I walked the kids through the process of determining a per-banana price of 25 cents (we paid 59 cents a pound for bananas, so we divided the bunch's total price by the number of bananas in it).

Other items - like pretzels - took even more consideration. (We bought a 15-ounce bag at the dollar store for $1. We put a bowl on the scale, noted its weight, and then added pretzels to it until we got what equalled a 10-cent serving.)

It was a lot of math for the kids (which is a good thing!), and they also got practice writing prices.

The Challenge is definitely raising awareness around here. For instance, at lunchtime when CJ was about 2/3 of the way through a container of yogurt, he announced, "I'm done, Mommy."

When I replied, "OK, but that's the last thing you'll have until dinnertime," he suddenly rallied and finished it.

Also, when at the grocery store today, I found myself watching every item being rung up, to make sure the price was right. It occurs to me I don't do that enough at all. I should be doing that all the time.

So how'd we do today? Not bad, not bad at all! ...

Breakfast = $1.87
CJ = banana and Pop Tart (.25+.20) = .45
Annabelle = Chocolate Cheerios in milk (.28+.125) = .41
Me = banana & piece of toast + margarine = .25+.10+.01 = .36
Christian = peanut butter toast = .20 + .20 + .25 = .65
Coffee = .60 coffee + water
Lunch = $4.04
CJ = yogurt .67
Bee = yogurt = .67
Me = banana = .25
Xtian = rice & chicken wings = .45 + 2 = 2.45
Dinner = $3.44
CJ = 1/2 apple, 1 cup rice = 19.5 + .30 = .495
Bee = 1 piece chicken, 1/2 apple, 1/2 cup rice = .50 + 19.5 + .15 = .845
Me = 1 piece chicken, lettuce, dressing, rice = .50 + .25 + .30 = 1.05
Xtian = 1 piece chicken, lettuce, dressing, rice = .50 + .25+ .30 = 1.05
Snacks = $6.45
CJ & Bee & Me = 1 dark Hershey's Kiss each = .15
CJ & Bee pretzels = .40
M&D pretzels = .40
Cake (2 slices - A&C) = $1.00
Sharps .67 a can * 5 (2 me, 3 Xtian) = $3.35
Becks NA = $1.15
Drum roll please ... and the total is $15.80 ($6.20 under budget)

And now, we will return to regularly scheduled MPA programming ...
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MEASURING UP: This morning while I was out and about, Christian got the kids started on some table work. On tap this morning: measuring. First they did some workbook sheets on the topic, then they forayed out into the real world. They were instructed to find five objects, measure them in inches, and then write the objects down along with their measurement.

You might as well have asked CJ to design and construct an experimental aircraft. (Wait, no, that's not a good analogy. He'd probably TRY to do that.) Anyway, CJ was a total space. I mean waaaay, out there, beyond dwarf planet Pluto.

So I suggested he go to his room and have some alone time to contemplate whatever it was he needed to think about and when he was ready to finish the work, to come on back out. (I also suggested that he clean his room while he was contemplating!) About 15 minutes later he emerged. His room was spotless (I kid you not!), and he sat down and finished his work within two minutes. Amazing.

GOOD EGG: Our days-long "eggsperiment" continues. This weekend we fished the egg out of the vinegar bath to find out that, indeed, its shell had completely dissolved. The egg was soft and round, its white and yolk encapsulated in a membrane. Swollen and squishy, the egg was actually bigger than when it was encased in its shell.

With our shell-free egg, we began an osmosis experiment. Per instructions in "Science in a Bag," we stuck it into a bag filled with corn syrup. Now, we're monitoring it for shrinkage. ...

THE BLOOM IS OFF THE "DOJO"?: Tonight was Tae Kwon Do for the guys. They are in the last week of a month long commitment/experiment. Apparently on the way home CJ announced that he's tired of it. His dad countered that it's not realistic to expect it to be easy, that it's hard work and that only after the hard work would the reward (oooh, colored belts!) come. At that, CJ apparently made noises about sticking with it. We shall see. ...