food stamp challenge update from Jonathan Berg
September 18, 2007 – Day Four
I had a very scary thought last night. I was making my white and pink bean chili with diced tomatoes, which my schedule and budget say has to last me until dinner on Thursday, and I thought, “What if I drop this?”
One of the advantages to having some money to play with is that if I drop my chili, or burn my toast, or just flat out don’t like my soup, it’s ok. It might inconvenience me, mess up my evening, even ruin a plan or two, but in the grand scheme of things, it is not a big deal. I can just make something else. Living on $21 a week, that is not possible.
Had I dropped my pot of chili, I would have had to see how much I could gather back up, and how many meals I could stretch out of that. I would have to see just how far my two loaves of bread could take me, and where I could find enough nourishment to make up the difference.
I did not drop my chili, but somewhere out there last night, I am sure someone did.
That thought, more than anything so far, put this whole thing in perspective for me.
One immediate thought - your point about not dropping the chili is important. It shows just how close to chaos poor people can be. One mistake, or just dumb luck, and you're screwed. What that means is that people may have to go into debt, often at extremely high rates like 300%, in order to access the cash for food or that emergency visit to the doctor, etc.
Thanks again for this post and the new blog!
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