We did the SNAP challenge since we were working with SNAP participants to improve their nutrition through the SNAP-Ed program. We did it as a team and our nutritionist started us with oatmeal for breakfast. It gets boring but it's nutritious. It gets hard with fresh fruits and vegetables and by the end we had a much better understanding of the difficulties of eating on SNAP.
I wouldn't have counted the cooking spray in the total. You paid for a lot more than you are going to use. Condiments, cooking spray, and other once-in-a-while purchases shouldn't be counted.
I've shared this, thank you. I'm a senior with high cholesterol, high blood pressure and Type 2 Diabetes, all familial. I live only on my monthly Social Security check. Until last summer I accessed the local Food Bank but stopped because 1) I felt others needed it more and 2) the foods offered didn't fit my restricted diet and the quality was generally poor, like potatoes but no fresh vegetables. I deeply resent being told that the White House knows more than my Diabetes Educator about the proper diet for me. This diet of white rice and tortillas offers scant fiber from the broccoli and very few vitamins coming from arrogant elites who aren't faced with these choices. No thanks.
This infuriates me. We ought to buy what we want when we want and how much we want! I do listen to my doctors; I’ve cut out processed foods and am getting more fruits and veggies into my diet. But that’s not the govt job. It’s mine. (Friggin assholes: go pound sand)
Thank you for this. We have a Winco with great bargains in bulk purchasing. It would be interesting to see if there could have been more variety for $26 with small amounts of a greater variety of beans, lentils, seasonings......
Have they made America great again? I tell my three grand kids how lucky they are, every day. They, in no way, suffer food insecurity. The oldest, I don't think gets it, the youngest gets it a little, but the middle one, 9 yrs old, seems to really get it. When he goes to soccer practice I mix him some Gatorade and water. He carries it in a non-transparent water bottle so the other kids won't know. Why? Because most of those kids (majority hispanic) can't afford the luxury of something so expensive. Are we great again?
Jared, thanks for doing this and bringing in the nutritional expert. I like that you chose the banana as "something else..." Also, I am thrilled you discovered broccoli and chose to use your remaining $3 on another bag of frozen broccoli. SAM...give this young man a generous gift certificate to his favorite restaurant.
I personally know people who were raised on a diet based on the cheapest cold cereals, cheapest white bread, cheapest ramen, and a lot of "government" cheese (the big blocks), with additions like powdered milk, iceberg lettuce, onions and celery (primary flavor enhancers), chips, canned veggies (a lot of green beans) and others. Bad teeth and excess weight by the time they are adults are the most visible result. My youngest son had a couple friends who sometimes could not eat the meals I served because their teeth were rotting and hurt. I don't personally know anyone who developed diabetes and cardiac complications, other common results, but I know those are massive problems.
The discussions at USDA, all of government actually, need to focus on long-term solutions, not a sample diet to stave off hunger for a few days... or a couple backyard chickens (lol), which I can assure people as a flock owner for a good couple decades, is laughably far from the answer. If anything, it costs more to keep them than not.
Eating good food, both delicious and healthy, costs a lot of money many people don't have and likely never will have. The fix is not to provide a narrow sample list of cheap foods. It is to get more money into people's hands. A universal income did that. The Covid "bonus" did that. Fixes can be found.
The real problem is that people are underpaid. If there are nearly 50 million food insecure people, that means we aren't paying people enough.
The federal government spends around $1.75 trillion a year on income supplementation. That includes SNAP, but it also includes Medicaid and other programs to help people make it.
Republicans constantly want to cut government spending, but people who are food insecure can't just magically make up that money. In order to cut federal assistance that much, all workers would have to be paid about $4/hour more for each hour they work.
The reason people aren't paid more is because people have no economic power. And now that collective bargaining is all but a thing of the past, the only practical way for people to get adequate income is through political action.
When Republicans talk about cutting government spending we need to ask them how they plan to get employers to pay more. That's the tradeoff.
BTW, asking people to spend less on food, pencils, and dolls also hurts the economy. It's a recipe for decreasing the GDP. We should not be asking people to spend less. Instead, we need to find ways to raise worker incomes and cut the cost of living.
The Trump people are leading a race to the bottom. They want to have everything, and they want you to have nothing.
I'd like to see the simulations Brooke Rollins claims they ran. And I'd like to see if they met the dietary guidelines for adequate fruits and vegetables and the newly increased protein recommendations. Didn't they also cut the education programs that help with designing lower cost meal plans for those utilizing SNAP? Seems like that would be a useful program...
This doesn't take into account all nutritional needs. It looks like it is based on getting enough protein and carbs. Is this even healthy? Does it have trace minerals? Does it support a healthy microbiome?
And there's no consideration of how the food will be stored and prepared. This looks like it was aimed at people who live in the suburbs and already have a well-appointed kitchen, i.e., Republicans.
And, of course, as Jared pointed out, this is monotonous. What about mental health?
Another note: While it's commendable that Brooke Rollins adjusted her estimate upwards from the unrealistic $3/meal to $15+ per person per day, she does not address externalities, like the increasing labor shortage in the ag sector, intimidation and removals of immigrant labor, ever-increasing costs, climate shocks, ongoing deterioration of transportation infrastructure, population decline across much of America's breadbasket, etc. All of these will continue to affect the cost AND availability of food. She is sharing a remedy based on a snapshot in time.
Based on data from the MIT Living Wage Calculator, the typical living wage in the U.S. is around $83,000 per year ($38/hour). This is the level needed to just get by, with no luxuries at all. Someone spending $3 per meal has to be living far below that level, well down in the depths of poverty.
And $9 per day wouldn't pay for three meals at McDonald's. You'd be lucky to pay for one.
I suggest we put Congress on this diet until they boost worker income enough for people to make ends meet.
Great piece, minus the Ole Miss zip up
We did the SNAP challenge since we were working with SNAP participants to improve their nutrition through the SNAP-Ed program. We did it as a team and our nutritionist started us with oatmeal for breakfast. It gets boring but it's nutritious. It gets hard with fresh fruits and vegetables and by the end we had a much better understanding of the difficulties of eating on SNAP.
I wouldn't have counted the cooking spray in the total. You paid for a lot more than you are going to use. Condiments, cooking spray, and other once-in-a-while purchases shouldn't be counted.
I've shared this, thank you. I'm a senior with high cholesterol, high blood pressure and Type 2 Diabetes, all familial. I live only on my monthly Social Security check. Until last summer I accessed the local Food Bank but stopped because 1) I felt others needed it more and 2) the foods offered didn't fit my restricted diet and the quality was generally poor, like potatoes but no fresh vegetables. I deeply resent being told that the White House knows more than my Diabetes Educator about the proper diet for me. This diet of white rice and tortillas offers scant fiber from the broccoli and very few vitamins coming from arrogant elites who aren't faced with these choices. No thanks.
This infuriates me. We ought to buy what we want when we want and how much we want! I do listen to my doctors; I’ve cut out processed foods and am getting more fruits and veggies into my diet. But that’s not the govt job. It’s mine. (Friggin assholes: go pound sand)
Thank you for this. We have a Winco with great bargains in bulk purchasing. It would be interesting to see if there could have been more variety for $26 with small amounts of a greater variety of beans, lentils, seasonings......
Have they made America great again? I tell my three grand kids how lucky they are, every day. They, in no way, suffer food insecurity. The oldest, I don't think gets it, the youngest gets it a little, but the middle one, 9 yrs old, seems to really get it. When he goes to soccer practice I mix him some Gatorade and water. He carries it in a non-transparent water bottle so the other kids won't know. Why? Because most of those kids (majority hispanic) can't afford the luxury of something so expensive. Are we great again?
Jared, thanks for doing this and bringing in the nutritional expert. I like that you chose the banana as "something else..." Also, I am thrilled you discovered broccoli and chose to use your remaining $3 on another bag of frozen broccoli. SAM...give this young man a generous gift certificate to his favorite restaurant.
Could be cheaper, you can get 80 packets of ramen for $27
I personally know people who were raised on a diet based on the cheapest cold cereals, cheapest white bread, cheapest ramen, and a lot of "government" cheese (the big blocks), with additions like powdered milk, iceberg lettuce, onions and celery (primary flavor enhancers), chips, canned veggies (a lot of green beans) and others. Bad teeth and excess weight by the time they are adults are the most visible result. My youngest son had a couple friends who sometimes could not eat the meals I served because their teeth were rotting and hurt. I don't personally know anyone who developed diabetes and cardiac complications, other common results, but I know those are massive problems.
The discussions at USDA, all of government actually, need to focus on long-term solutions, not a sample diet to stave off hunger for a few days... or a couple backyard chickens (lol), which I can assure people as a flock owner for a good couple decades, is laughably far from the answer. If anything, it costs more to keep them than not.
Eating good food, both delicious and healthy, costs a lot of money many people don't have and likely never will have. The fix is not to provide a narrow sample list of cheap foods. It is to get more money into people's hands. A universal income did that. The Covid "bonus" did that. Fixes can be found.
Seriously, though, there are some pretty good ramens out there. And you can throw in some veggies and make it a meal. I'm big into Momofuku.
I add a soft boiled egg to my Tingly Chili
I'm vegan, so I add tofu :-)
Please do more videos like this!
great starvation diet challenge. After shoveling snow all day, I'd be left wanting 3 times as much for one meal.
The real problem is that people are underpaid. If there are nearly 50 million food insecure people, that means we aren't paying people enough.
The federal government spends around $1.75 trillion a year on income supplementation. That includes SNAP, but it also includes Medicaid and other programs to help people make it.
Republicans constantly want to cut government spending, but people who are food insecure can't just magically make up that money. In order to cut federal assistance that much, all workers would have to be paid about $4/hour more for each hour they work.
The reason people aren't paid more is because people have no economic power. And now that collective bargaining is all but a thing of the past, the only practical way for people to get adequate income is through political action.
When Republicans talk about cutting government spending we need to ask them how they plan to get employers to pay more. That's the tradeoff.
BTW, asking people to spend less on food, pencils, and dolls also hurts the economy. It's a recipe for decreasing the GDP. We should not be asking people to spend less. Instead, we need to find ways to raise worker incomes and cut the cost of living.
The Trump people are leading a race to the bottom. They want to have everything, and they want you to have nothing.
Spot on and incredibly well said!
I'd like to see the simulations Brooke Rollins claims they ran. And I'd like to see if they met the dietary guidelines for adequate fruits and vegetables and the newly increased protein recommendations. Didn't they also cut the education programs that help with designing lower cost meal plans for those utilizing SNAP? Seems like that would be a useful program...
This doesn't take into account all nutritional needs. It looks like it is based on getting enough protein and carbs. Is this even healthy? Does it have trace minerals? Does it support a healthy microbiome?
And there's no consideration of how the food will be stored and prepared. This looks like it was aimed at people who live in the suburbs and already have a well-appointed kitchen, i.e., Republicans.
And, of course, as Jared pointed out, this is monotonous. What about mental health?
Another note: While it's commendable that Brooke Rollins adjusted her estimate upwards from the unrealistic $3/meal to $15+ per person per day, she does not address externalities, like the increasing labor shortage in the ag sector, intimidation and removals of immigrant labor, ever-increasing costs, climate shocks, ongoing deterioration of transportation infrastructure, population decline across much of America's breadbasket, etc. All of these will continue to affect the cost AND availability of food. She is sharing a remedy based on a snapshot in time.
Based on data from the MIT Living Wage Calculator, the typical living wage in the U.S. is around $83,000 per year ($38/hour). This is the level needed to just get by, with no luxuries at all. Someone spending $3 per meal has to be living far below that level, well down in the depths of poverty.
And $9 per day wouldn't pay for three meals at McDonald's. You'd be lucky to pay for one.
I suggest we put Congress on this diet until they boost worker income enough for people to make ends meet.