Up to the Challenge?

EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS:  You're going to be seeing a lot of photos featuring the scale, a calculator and price tags from us this week. We're counting the cost of every last morsel our family eats as part of the United Way of King County's Hunger Action Week.

Today marked the start of what has become an annual event for our family. Hunger Action Week is designed to raise awareness about an issue that affects 13 percent of King County residents, and 1 in 6 people nationwide. And at the present, 1 in 5 kids in King County is at risk for hunger.

Even one hungry child is too many, isn't it?

According to UWKC's blog, over 4,000 are participating. Hey, there's even a link to our blog in their blog!

If you’ve signed up for Hunger Action Week, you’re one of 4,000 King County residents who have come together to learn, talk, share and take action against hunger in King County. Maybe, like Mayor McGinn, this is your first Hunger Action Week. Maybe, like mother of two Kristine you’re a Food Stamp Challenge veteran and have been doing this for years. Regardless, thank you for making Hunger Action Week 2013 our biggest year ever

The first day of Hunger Action Week is the hardest, because you have the most math to do. For instance, we labeled all of our eggs, a bag of mandarins, calculated what a tablespoon of butter and a cup of milk costs, and so on - all items we'll be consuming multiple times the rest of the week.

The bottom line: our family of four has $22 a day to spend on food during the challenge (that's the equivalent to the assistance amount a food stamp eligible family of 4 would receive).

For the tall people in our house, the day starts off with coffee. Living dangerously, I didn't buy the canned store-brand stuff, I bought the cheapest 'designer' coffee ($6.99 for 12 ounces) I could find, and carefully measured out one ounce into our coffee filter, learning the grounds were going to set us back 58 cents.

As I filled the pot, it occurred to me the water isn't free. We pay the city for our water. That sent me to the computer to do about 20 minutes of research to find out our per-gallon water rate. From the city's site I learned  we're charged $4.50 per 100 cubic feet of water, which translates to $4.50 for 748 gallons, which means it's .6 cents per gallon, and I used 40 ounces in the coffee pot, so that was .2 cents for the coffee water. Maybe not enough to worry about on a daily basis, but by the end of the week, we'll have used 1 cent worth of water for coffee.

Breakfast was coffee, 2 soft-boiled eggs for the big people (32 cents total), and some Krave cereal (yes, I know, NOT a balanced breakfast) for the kids (three ounces for CJ, two for Annabelle, for a total of 55 cents, plus a half cup of milk for Annabelle, for another 10 cents). They also each had a mandarin orange, at 12 cents per. Total for breakfast for four: $1.79. So far, so good.

You'll note in the picture above that we didn't get organic milk this week ...

Lunch was a banana for Christian (.30), and the kids and I split a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese (.68 for the box, plus a 7 cent tablespoon of butter, and 5 cents for a quarter cup of milk). Total for lunch for four: $1.10. Excellent, even less than breakfast.

The kids each had a bag of snacks in the afternoon. That was a splurge at $1.19 apiece. And they each had a Pepsi ($1.88 for both). Snacks: $3.07. Not good. Not good for them, and more than their meals. We won't be doing that on Day 2, for more than one reason.

Dinner was tacos. A box of shells (99 cents), 1.5 pounds of ground beef ($2.99), cheese (5 ounces at 17 cents an ounce), and a little lettuce (.30 cents worth). Dinner grand total: $5.13.

Grand total Day One: $11.09:  Yes!!!!  Well Here's hoping we can keep on the right side of our $22 a day budget.

Reflection: The activity has already heightened our awareness that everything has a price. When I asked Annabelle to feed the fish, she immediately blurted out, "How does this affect our food budget?"

I had to laugh, because just a few minutes earlier, I was thinking the same thing while feeding the pups.

United Way of King County works year round to help feel the hungry. Here's a short video starring Seattle sports celebrities participating in a fund-raising cooking contest using food bank ingredients.


They raised over $100,000 that evening. Good on them!