Day 1, Thought #2 from a Food Stamp Challenge Participant
This food stamps challenge is making me hungry……
Choosing not to eat and not having the money to eat are two completely different things.
Before deciding to do the food stamps challenge a few weeks ago, I was sure I didn’t think about food a lot. I still don’t think I eat very much but knowing I can’t reach out for that granola bar or that chocolate stash in my desk drawer around 10 or 3, something inside of me starts to get hungry. Which is why I’m glad everyone in my office (and my roommates) know I’m taking the food stamps challenge and if I snuck something, someone would gladly call me out!
So far, this experience has made me think about what it would be like to be a student and go to school on an empty stomach – would I really be able to concentrate and focus when I’m thinking about my next meal and where it might come from? Or what it would be like to work a manual job and be on food stamps – burning calories I don’t have to burn.
It’s not even been 24 hours and I’m already starting to get a very slight ‘taste’ of what many of the 1.4 million New Yorkers who don’t have enough food, struggle with everyday and that going without a morning coffee is the least of anyone’s worries….
