Eating Vegan Below the Poverty Line, Part 4, Final Installment

Saturday December 12th was the last day of my little experiment. It was also the day that my neighbor took me to where she picks up her boxes of food for the week. The first location was at Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. It is a drive through distribution set up with many volunteers. We were directed into a line and told to pop the trunk. It took about 20 minutes to make our way to the front and volunteers dropped three boxes into the trunk and that was pretty much it. She told me that typically there are only two boxes, but it was double veggie day, hence the third box. The following is a list of what was in her boxes.

Fresh Veggies:
2-5lb bags of red potatoes
2-3lb bags of onions
2-2lb bags of carrots

Canned and Dry Goods:
2-1lb boxes of spaghetti
2-1lb bags of black beans
2-1lb bags of white rice
2 cans of Hunts pasta sauce
3 cans of Chef Boyardee Ravioli
2 cans tuna fish
2 boxes of macaroni and cheese
4 cans of unsweetened applesauce
2 cans of mixed vegetables
2 cans of chicken broth
1 can of beef stew

I was a little surprised at the lack of fresh fruit, but overall it is quite a bit of food. Clearly there were a lot of items in the canned and dry goods that a vegan could not use, but those can easily be donated back to a food pantry or to neighbors in need. My neighbor took me to one other pantry, much smaller at a church, where she got more canned food (more tuna, canned soup, more pasta sauce), bread, cereal, milk, and even diapers and socks for her grandbabies.

While I did manage to eat vegan and survive on $10.50 for the entire week, it was very difficult. The quality of the food I had to purchase was poor and my diet was nutrient deficient in every area except for fiber and carbohydrates. I had no energy by the end of the week and generally felt terrible. One of my Spark friends, MRSLIVINGWELL, commented that "all legislators should have to try this". I cannot agree more. After having done this I think any elected official that is involved in making decisions about federal food assistance (SNAP) should have to live this way for a week. It is quite an eye opener. I am so grateful that there are programs and food pantries that can help out and I will be making regular contributions to pantries in my area from this day forward. EVERYBODY deserves access to nutritious food.