Finish Line

FINAL COUNTDOWN: This is our last official day of the United Way of King County's Hunger Action Week. Tonight, the tattered receipts and scratch paper scrawled with computations went into recycling. 

I do believe it's our third year of participating in "hunger" week - spending one Monday-Friday week living on a "food stamp budget - and each and every year it's an eye opener. 

The good news for us is, we didn't go hungry. Due to our easy access to relatively affordable and abundant food choices, we were able to stay well under budget all week long and we didn't have to live off ramen, bread and tortilla chips. We had a limit of $22 per day, and by the end of Thursday, we had a cumulative total of $38.97 under budget. 

We were relatively austere again for breakfast and lunch on Friday. 

Breakfast for the kids was a yogurt (40 cents apiece). CJ also had a Lara bar for a snack ($1), Annabelle had a cutie (.12). Christian had 5 oz. of grapes (.62) and a cutie(.12). I had peanut butter on toast (24 cents). We had our usual 58 cents worth of coffee. Grand total for breakfast: $3.48.

Lunch for the kids and me was a small bit of ham, 70 cents total. Christian apparently splurged and had 5 ounces of ham and three eggs, 3 ounces of mini peppers an ounce of cheese and a quarter of a green pepper. It cost $1.20 total. Lunch total: $1.90

After Friday's breakfast and lunch, that left us with $16.62 to go for the rest of the day. When you combine that $16.62 with our surplus of $38.97 for the other four days, that gave us $55.59 for dinner on Friday. So we went out - but not without a significant coupon, of course, because that's how we roll. 

I'd paid $12 for a $25 coupon to Nickerson Street Cafe. So we knew we would have one entree free, in effect. The cost of our four dinners and drinks tonight was $36, less the $25 credit, which made for $11, plus the $12 cost of the gift cert, bringing it back up to $23, however, we tipped (well) on the entire amount of the bill, which brought it back up to $42,. But even though we went out for a non fast-food dinner, we still came in significantly under budget for the week ($55.59-42 =$13.59 surplus). Mission accomplished! 

Reflections: Amazingly  the ridiculous "I'm hungry" feeling I've had all week was gone upon upping on Friday morning. And it's not because I ate a big breakfast (which I didn't). I have no doubt the faux hunger pangs evaporated because I knew today was the last day of Hunger Action Week, and so I'm not feeling food insecure any more. 

A school teacher who faced hunger as a child made an astute observation in "A Place at the Table," the documentary we watched last night. "It messes with your head," she said of food insecurity. 

The hunger problem is widespread and close to home. Between June 2011 and June 2012, there were more than 8.6 million visits to food banks across Washington. That's 500,000 more visits than in the previous year.  And, according Washington's Superintendent of Public Instruction, more than 40 percent of King County public school students participate in federally assisted, free or reduced-price meal programs. 

To end our week, we made a donation to the United Way of King County. They do great, life changing work in the community, and we thank them for the annual opportunity to participate in Hunger Action Week.

CRAMMING: We're in week four of our physics class, and somehow we found ourselves a little behind in this week's lectures. Actually, there are more lectures and they are longer, that's why we're lagging a bit. Turns out seesaws are complicated things. ;)

We watched 90 minutes of lectures today, reviewed all of our notes for this week, read some lively discussions on the class' discussion board about this week's lectures and test and then steeled ourselves for our quiz. 

I was pleasantly surprised that I actually felt GOOD (for the first time) when hitting the submit button for my test. I thought I might have actually gotten 100 percent. (In every week past, I was roughly half that confident.) 

I ended up missing one of the 10, but a 90 percent? I'll take it! The kids did as well or better. 

CJ celebrated his physics success by playing a little Minecraft in 3D

PRETTY THINGS: Annabelle picked me a bouquet of lovely yellow flowers this afternoon. 

And yesterday, during yoga (which often includes an art element), CJ colored this pretty scene on vellum.

It looked so pretty with the sun shining through it today. It's supposed to hit 70 this weekend - w00t!

A Place at the Table

DAY FOUR: We're chugging through United Way of King County's Hunger Action Week. Thursday means we're four fifths of the way there, with the finish line in our sights. No time to slack off now!

Breakfast was a "free" strawberry muffin (OK, cupcake, but doesn't muffin sound better for you and more breakfasty?) for the kids and me (we paid for them on Tuesday), and 6 ounces of grapes for the kids (.67, as the grapes were $1.98 a pound). Christian had 96 cents worth of yogurt, and between him and the kids, they finished of $1 worth of strawberries. Coffee was 58 cents for the pot. Total: $3.21

Christian had leftover chicken nuggets (paid for yesterday) for lunch, and a couple of (silk tie dyed) hard boiled eggs for snacks (.16 cents total). The kids had ants on a log, which they made themselves. We calculated the cost of the celery (13 cents), the per-tablespoon cost of peanut butter (16 cents, and we used four tablespoons), and an ounce of raisins (19 cents).

When scooping out a tablespoon of peanut butter, we talked about what a REAL tablespoon is (the actual, even with the top of the scoop measurement). Here, CJ is contemplating fudging that number a bit ...

Before I started weighing raisins, I asked the kids to show me with their hands how much they thought an ounce of raisins would be. CJ showed me something about the size of a 50 cent piece, while Annabelle cupped her hands into a small bowl. CJ was closer. ...

Dinner tonight was a delightful - and pretty darn cheap - Coca Cola Ham (I tweaked the recipe and was VERY happy with the results. Best Ham Ever). I chose ham for dinner because I remembered that Albertson's had (with a coupon) ham on sale for 99 cents a pound this week, due to Easter's proximity. So off to Albertson's we went!  (There, my nemesis, the nosy cashier that ALWAYS. Every. Single. Time. asks why the kids aren't in school was the one and only checker today. Of course. He did not disappoint. My response to him today was "Spring Break." I swear, next time he asks I am going to ask him WHY he asks every single time we come in. What's it to HIM? OK, end of rant.)

So we got our ham and came home (where the kids continued their college physics course, did tons of math, guitar practice and then we watched a live launch of a Soyuz rocket. Mr. Nosy Albertson's checker). Counting the ham, onion and cola used to sautee it, dinner set us back $5.28. (The ham was so good, we had absolutely nothing but ham for dinner, if you can believe that.)

The day's total: $9.13. When I added it up and found we did so well, we walked down to the convenience store 2 blocks away and bought the kids celebratory ice cream bars, bringing our revised daily total to $11.31.

Reflections: Another day of successfully staying on our "food stamps" budget of $22 per day for four people.

I swear, all week I've had a major case of Food on the Brain. For instance, for whatever reason, after years of thinking about it, I decided today would be The Day to organize my ridiculously disastrous recipe 'book'. To date (and that means for 20+ years), it has consisted of tattered printed papers and faded pages from magazines stuffed in an old photo album with those awful peel back sheets. My new and improved system would be recipes in sheet protectors in a three-ring binder, actually arranged in categories (from appetizers to desserts). It's a much improved system, but ...let me tell you, Hunger Week is NOT the time to be poring over dozens and dozens of your favorite recipes. I was literally drooling at one point. (I know, TMI, but I'm just trying to keep it real.)

I have to think it's no coincidence. Worries about food security mess with your head - even when it's a temporary, 'tried on' experience.  

Also, all this week I have been thinking about a movie trailer we've seen the last couple of times we've gone to the theater. It's for a movie called "A Place at the Table."  I'm not going to lie, the first time I saw the trailer, I found my throat swelling shut and my eyes tearing up. 

Unfortunately, it's in very limited theatrical release, but I learned from the documentary's Web site that it's available OnDemand.

Per the trailer, one out of every two kids in America will, at some point in their lives, be on food assistance. (That shocked me. Does it shock you?)  But it's not due to food shortages. It's about messed up priorities when it comes to funding.  As Jeff Bridges said in the movie, "If another country was doing this to our kids, we would be at war."

The movie, sub-titled of "One Nation, Underfed," shows the economic, social and cultural impacts of how hunger affects America.
"A Place at the Table" trailer here: http://video.takepart.com/previews/Mcam9iPd-Y3bNKxgM

It seemed only fitting we watch the movie during Hunger Action Week, so we paid the $6.99. (I do believe that's the first time we've ordered an 'OnDemand' movie.)

Well, that was 111 minutes of heartache. We're number one! - when it comes to being the most food insecure country as compared to the list of other 'advanced' nations in the world per the International Money Fund.

"It outrages me," CJ said as the credits rolled at the end.

"I almost didn't want to watch that at some parts because it made me so angry or it made me so sad," Annabelle chimed in.

There are a number of reasons things are so terribly wrong.

"Oh god, farms are turning into factories," Annabelle declared during the part where the movie explained how 70 percent of subsidies are directed to 10 percent of food producers - the giants who end up churning out processed rather than whole foods. One of the horrid by-products of such a reality is that Mississippi ranks as the most hungry state in the nation, yet its residents are also, per capita, the most obese. Wow. (Another horrid stat - 1 in 3 of the people born in 2000 in the US will eventually be diagnosed with Type II diabetes.)

The stat that surprised/stunned me the most was that in 1980, pre-Reaganomics, there were 200 food banks in the nation, per the film. Today, there are more than 40,000 - and more people than ever are going hungry. As one physician said in the film, more cans of food for the food drive is not the cure. And as Jeff Bridges pointed out, "Charity's a great thing. But it's not a way to end hunger."

We've got a big fat systemic problem.

"A Place at the Table" is definitely food for thought, and a highly recommended movie.

FIRED UP: This afternoon we tuned into NASA TV for live coverage of a historic launch of a Soyuz to the ISS.

On board were NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, and Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos. They lifted off with a roar and rocket fire at 1:43 p.m. our time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome (it was 2:43 a.m. their time).http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=161375381

What makes their journey is historic is it marked the first time a manned flight docked with the ISS on the same day.

It was a beautiful launch, and what I love is not only did we watch it, I texted Rick and Kennedy about the launch and suggested they and their classrooms tune in and because of that dozens of other kids watched it live, too. When I first texted Kennedy about it, he wrote back that maybe they could sub the launch for part of their social studies video about pilgrims. I write back asking which he thought kids would remember more, some produced for schools pilgrim video or a LIVE ON FIRE ROCKET LAUNCH?! Me thinks the rocket fire. The happy news is they DID watch! No doubt for many, it was their first time watching a live, manned rocket launch. Oh how I love having a hand in spreading the word and the excitement. :)

When I talked to Ken tonight about it, after school, I asked him if the kids started calling out the countdown. He said, "Oh, you think?" :) I also pointed out to him that the pilgrims and astronauts actually had something in common - they were/are explorers. He said they talked about that, too.

We tuned in tonight after dinner for the historic rendezvous of the capsule with the ISS. At 7:28 p.m., less than six hours after lift off, and three minutes ahead of schedule, they had contact and capture!!! Success! It was a good day for space flight.

And then tonight, at about 9:30 p.m., the two hatches between the ISS and the capsule opened and the ISS now has three new residents. Amazing that we watched it all happen on one historic day.

SEEING RED: Check out this awesome, interactive 4-BILLION PIXEL panoramic of Mars created by Andrew Bodrov using images Mars Science Laboratory has transmitted to Earth. Super Cool!
http://www.360cities.net/image/mars-gigapixel-panorama-curiosity-solar-days-136-149#-91.61,0.08,15.0

Halfway There

APPLES OF THEIR EYES:  We're on day three (of five) of the United Way of King County's Hunger Action Week. We're in a rhythm at this point, we all know everything has its price.

Like these lovely Pink Lady apples for breakfast. The kids were oh-so-happy when we went shopping and found them on sale for .98 per pound - they're often twice or more that much, so we usually pass them up. This morning they each enjoyed one for breakfast, after computing the cost. 

As usual, it turned into a good math lesson. We talked about educated guesses and things they could do to make a better estimate of their apple's weight. (For instance, pick it up and compare it to something you know the weight of.) After doing so, CJ guessed his apple at 6 ounces. Annabelle guessed hers was 12 ounces. 

We studied our receipt and figured out the per ounce price of the apples was 6 cents an ounce (.98/16).  After weighing the fruit, we found CJ's estimate was spot on - 6 ounces- and he calculated his apple's cost at 36 cents. Annabelle's apple weighed in at 6.5 ounces, so she was off by a considerable margin, and her apple cost slightly more, 39 cents. 

They also enjoyed a strawberry cupcake this morning, but that was 'free' since we paid for all 18 of them out of yesterday's budget, when we made them. (Have I mentioned they are The Best Cupcakes Ever?)

The adults' breakfast breakdown:  Christian had yogurt and grapes again, $1.35 total; I had a strawberry cupcake (true confession time), but it was "free" - we paid for it yesterday. We had 58 cents worth of home brew (coffee). Total breakfast for four: $2.67

Lunch for each of the kids was a $2 slice of crappy, cardboard, burned pizza from a"Quality" Food Center in south Shoreline. Perhaps not the best choice. I had an apple, 36 cents. Christian had three eggs (.24), 3 oz. of peppers (.36) and some already-paid-for-by-us-on-Hunger-Challenge-days-previous potatoes and taco meat thrown in. Total lunch for four: $2.96

Dinner was home made, oven baked chicken nuggets. We used $3.98 worth of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 35 cents worth of cornflakes, 8 cents worth of milk and 16 cents for eggs. On the side were .50 cents worth of strawberries for the kids. Christian had leftover salad on the side (paid for yesterday). Dinner total $5.37, including .30 cents worth of ketchup for the kids. 

Wednesday's total: $11 on the nose, exactly half of our $22 budget. 

When we were cruising through QFC this afternoon, as we walked up the baking goods aisle, I pointed out the cutest little bag of flour EVER to the kids. At just 2 pounds, I could hold it one hand . After I was done gushing about its micro-adorableness, I asked the kids to check out its price. It was $1.99.  I then grabbed a 5-pound bag and pointed out to them it was $2 - virtually the same price, except the 5-pound bag actually had a 'save now' coupon on it for,25, so it actually cost LESS than the wee little bag. Imagine that. We then talked about how bigger is sometimes better, and how you need to be able to figure out a per-unit price, so you can compare apples to apples (or flour to flour, in this case).

Of course by now, the kids are used to me going on and on about the price of flour. Here's a less-than-glamorous shot of Annabelle yesterday in Fred Meyer, trying to read the per-ounce price on the bag of flour for our cupcakes. 

Too bad they make the prices so darn hard to read, sometimes. 

Daily reflection: We are not going hungry this week. Truly. Not at all. However ... 

I have found myself supposedly more hungry this week than I can remember in recent memory  Why? I think it's because even the knowledge of the limit and the looming of potential scarcity makes me fixate on food. What would it be like to live like this every day? Wondering if you and your family would have enough?  

Food for thought, courtesy of a morning email from United Way of King County:

• 41% of all Western Washington households that visit food banks have at least one adult with a job, and 20% of those jobs are managerial.
• Two years ago, 13% of King County residents did not have dependable access to nutritious food.
• In the past four years, food bank visits have gone up 30 percent, but donations have gone down 31 percent.

Naturally, this makes me realize we should be donating regularly to a food bank. It was great to be able to give pounds and pounds of fresh produce from our organic garden to a local food bank last fall, but it should be more than a once a year event, for sure. 

TIE-DYED: We found ourselves driving by a Goodwill on the way to school, and had a few minutes to spare, so we popped inside to pop some tags (as Macklemore would say). 

We were in the market for some silk ties, because everyone in our house wears ties all the time. Not. 

What we really needed them for was an art project I saw awhile back in a Martha Stewart magazine, I do believe. 

You take raw eggs, wrap them tightly in a scrap of a silk tie (print side toward egg shell), wrap them again in white cotton (we used old socks), and then boil them.

So, first we opened up the ties .... 

then we cut them into patches big enough to wrap around an egg. 

Next, we wrapped an old sock around them, and into the drink they went. 

They boiled for 20 minutes, we removed them from the bath, waited for them to cool and unwrapped them ...

to find this. ...

They're kinda pretty, and certainly not something we could do with a Paas kit, but, honestly I was a bit disappointed. I expected the colors to be more vibrant (we picked the brightest ties we could find!).

If I had it to do over again, I'd shop the Goodwill Outlet/bins store (where they sell stuff by the pound - a tie would be practically free that way), and/or I'd look for a silk blouse, which would probably have cost the same as a tie, and have given us more/better swatches to work with.

IN OTHER NEWS: We had a science filled day, as we listened to another of our "How Things Work" physics class lectures. It was really interesting - all about the center of mass and the center of rotation (sometimes they're one and the same, other times, not). Then this afternoon in their Shoreline science class, the kids worked with levers and fulcrums, and scales that measured effort, not weight. Cool stuff. 
.
ROCKET REMINDER: A Soyuz capsule will be launched into space tomorrow, at 1:43 p.m. West Coast U.S. time. You know we'll be watching on NASA TV: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html  

Per their schedule, it looks like pre-launch coverage starts around 12:30 p.m.

Tuesday Day Two

HUNGER CHALLENGE DAY TWO: Breakfast was cereal x 2 again for the kids (.65), followed by the more healthy bananas (53 cents for two). While calculating the cost per banana, we talked about how there was more than one way to peel a banana, so to speak. On the first math go round, we took the 68 cents per pound, weighed the bananas, found out they were 12.5 oz. combined, and then we found out that 12.5 ounces was 78 percent of one pound, so we took that proportion (.78) and multiplied it by 68 cents to get our total price, 53 cents. So bananas + cereal  = $1.18.

An easier way might have been to take the 68 cents and divide it by 16 (ounces), to get a per-ounce price, and then weigh the bananas and multiply their ounce weight by the per-ounce price.

Christian had a breakfast of yogurt (.99) and 3 ounces of grapes (.36 ). My breakfast of two eggs (16 cents) and 2 ounces of peppers (.24 ) came to .40 for me, plus our coffee pot ( .58) gave us a combined total of  $3.91 for breakfast for the family of four.

Lunch was 3 eggs for Christian (.24), 3 oz. peppers (.36), 1/3 of a green pepper  (.16); the kids each had a Lara bar ($1 apiece x 2), I had a can of tuna .347). TOTAL: $3.23

In the interest of testing the limits of our budget, I thought maybe we should try to do some baking today - you know, make something dessert-y or indulgent - certainly not a daily bread type item. Something that we would maybe make if we had a birthday or other occasion to contend with this week. I recalled a recipe for organic strawberry cupcakes that looked amazing. Given our budget this week, the full on version, complete with unrefined white sugar and blonde coconut sugar (what is that?) was out of the question. I was just glad Fred Meyer had strawberries and butter at great sale prices today. Even so, while standing at the cashier's station, checking out, Annabelle asked, loudly, "Can we afford this?"

I won't hesitate to admit it, I cringed and felt embarrassed. And then I was embarrassed that I was embarrassed. I just smiled and said, "I sure hope so."

When we got home, Annabelle chopped up some berries (under the watchful eye of pony Pinkie Pie) ...

while CJ enjoyed pureeing some. Strawberry swirl!

Decorating the cupcakes was lots of fun, as we had a kit to turn them into Easter bunnies (thanks Nonnie!)

The strawberry cupcakes cost us $2 worth of strawberries, 90 cents for butter, 88 cents for powdered sugar, 55 cents for flour, 33 cents for sugar, 5 cents for milk, and I'm over estimating the tiny amounts of baking soda, salt, and lemon juice at 15 cents combined. Total for the luscious indulgence, including homemade strawberry frosting: $4.86. I think maybe we could have done it for less if we bought a crappy cake mix and that awful canned frosting. But I digress.

Before telling them the total, I asked the kids to guess the cupcakes' total price tag. Annabelle said $10, CJ said $12.

Now, time to talk dinner numbers. Burgers ($1 for two patties & .25 for two buns) for the kids, hamburger patty $(1.25) on salad (.88) for the adults, plus oven fries (1.5 lbs of potatoes @ 25 cents) for a total of $3.63. That's considerably cheaper than when we go out. ;)

And now (drumroll please), it's time for Day Two's total ... $15.63, and that's including 18 cupcakes, which we certainly didn't consume today (BTW, they were AMAZING - best cupcake I've ever had even without their fancy sugars). Bottom line: We're $6.37 under our $22 budget for today, cupcakes and all. Phew.

Today's reflection: I am aware that a major part of the reason we have been able to stay on budget is we have the means/mobility to get to stores where we can purchase food at a (relatively) reasonable cost. I chase sales, big time, and am fortunate I can do so. A lot of people don't have affordable, reliable transportation to get around to multiple stores, shopping for multiple bargains.

Another reason we do OK overall food-budget wise is we can afford to stock up/stockpile certain items when they go on sale, and that saves us a bunch in the long run. If you're scrimping just to get buy from day to day, you don't have this opportunity.

ON A ROLL:  The SpaceX Dragon capsule departed the International Space Station today (audio coverage here), while most of America slept. When we got up this a.m., we tracked the capsule's descent and splashdown via Spaceflightnow.

At about 8:55 a.m. our time, the Dragon's Draco thrusters were in the midst of their de-orbit burn (about a 10 minute process). Dragon brought, 2,700 pounds of cargo, including biological samples, station hardware and trash, from the ISS back to Earth in its pressurized cabin. It's the only robotic cargo freighter in the world able to return equipment from the ISS to Earth for analysis or repairs.

   copyright - SpaceX
Fun factoid: the cargo returned today included some LEGO sets that were delivered to the ISS two years ago via Endeavour - you know, back when we had a shuttle program. :/ Astronauts used the bricks in educational videos showing how machines work in weightlessness. Here's a fun time-lapse video showing Japanese astronaut Satosha Furukawa building an ISS on the ISS. You can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YYLMCepxNkU

While Dragon has departed, the ISS will soon have another visitor. A Soyuz rocket rolled out to its launch pad today. It will lift off on Mar. 29 from the Consmodrome in Kazakhstan, with cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, and Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy.  The trio is scheduled to be on station for 5.5 months.

                                           Very cool photo by: NASA/Carla Cioffi
The crew will launch and dock with the ISS the same day - a history-making event. Typically the trip takes two days. However, this mission will employ the same approach recently pioneered by three unpiloted Russian Progress cargo ships which made same-day trips to the ISS. Their flight path will have them orbiting the Earth just four times before reaction the station.

Live coverage of their launch starts on NASA TV at 2:30 p.m. (presumably Eastern time) on Thursday.

TEETERING:  We started week four of our six-week physics class today. Professor Bloomfield  was introducing us to seesaws or teeter totters for this series of lectures. That meant we were learning about rotational motion and rotational inertia (as compared to translational inertia). There was talk of Newtons First Law of Rotational Motion, and more. ....

Here's a peek at Annabelle's notes from today's talk.

One of the topics the prof talked about was angular position and how to describe it using an amount and a direction. He taught us the right hand rule, which helps when a vector must be assigned to the rotation of a body.  In today's lecture he showed how it was used to describe your motion and position, using the direction your right thumb is pointing (up or down), when following your right fingers while turning.

If you don't get it, it's my fault I did a horrible job of describing it, but the kids seemed to understand as they went through the motions.

NASA OR MOMA?: Here's a fun, quick visual distraction for you. An article in The Atlantic has images that are either shots Commander Chris Hadfield took from the ISS, or they're part of a creation by an Earth-bound painter. The Atlantic tried to be cutesy and called their article "NASA or MOMA," but the problem with that is that Hadfield is not a NASA astronaut. He's a Canadian Space Agency guy. Oops.

That blunder aside, the quiz is fun. See if you can tell which is which:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/nasa-or-moma-play-the-game/274212/

I got a 19 out of 20, which tells me I probably spend way too much time staring at photographs taken from the ISS. ;)
                                       

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!