I was reminded of it today when Sam started planning how he would get food if he was hungry through the day, on this, our first full day of the "Do the Math Challenge". He wondered if he was allowed to bring apples home to eat here if he wanted or perhaps he could go to each snack bin and grab a little bag to stash away. It struck me that here was a 10 year old boy, planning on how to feed himself if the food he was given wasn't enough. This is something he has never in his life had to worry about before. I had thought mostly about this challenge as something an adult would worry about, but that the kids would trust that I would make sure that they always had enough. What I learned today is that food insecurity has consequences that not only affect the family needing access to good food, but that a stressed out child is not going to be a productive student or classmate. Luckily Sam made it through today. He talked about taking donations from friends at the lunch table, and accepted some food, but realized that really he shouldn't be. We talked about that though. That there might be classmates who accept food from friends casually, but that the food they accept might be food they really need, and they don't want anyone to know how much they really need those little bits of nourishment. I'm so proud of them for taking this in stride, and my heart almost burst when Sam observed today that while the food part was of course a bit hard, it was only part of the picture. He noted that he had his whole family at the table with him and that we live in a nice house and have nice things. That someone living in poverty might not be so lucky. And they both told me that while the beans tonight were good, my homemade beans were much better!
And that brings us to the end of day one. Today saw me take another trip to the grocery store to return both molasses and tea. With that money, I was able to buy broccoli for the week and a loaf of bread for tonight's dinner. I made yogurt today with one litre of our milk and 1/4 cup of the store bought yogurt (head over the the eat page for the recipe and the preparation method ... it's genius!). I managed to make one can of tuna feed three of us for lunch, and our dinner felt like a feast! I even put together a little dessert that had me feeling like Ma Ingalls! I'm worried a little about our milk situation ... I made the kids drink water at dinner, and bread might be an issue come Friday. I also made beef stock today in preparation for our beef barley soup on wednesday (recipe will be on the eat page on Wednesday).
I'm thrilled that I thought to buy brown sugar ... it's been invaluable already in yogurt, salad dressing, and dessert, but I'd give my left arm for a glass of wine or a cup of tea!
Breakfast:
Cost breakdown: Breakfast$1.00 per child, Lunches $1.90 per child, Dinner $1.45 per child = $4.35 per child (Sam had a piece of toast and peanut butter after school adding about 15¢ to his total)
Breakfast $1.00 per adult Lunch: $1.00 per adult (estimate), Dinner $1.45 per person = $3.45 per adult (Robin had a chocolate cookie and added 33¢ to his total).
*estimates are for items like peanut butter and brown sugar that are hard to break down into per serving costs
Staples used: Coffee, 2 Tbsp mayonnaise, 2 Tbsp oil, salt & pepper