Facing the Challenge: An Opportunity to Assess America's Hunger Issues

The University of Utah’s Food Stamp Challenge kicks off this November, giving students and other participants a chance to get up close and personal with the food that they buy and consume on a regular basis. Begun in 2011 in conjunction with the Social Soup lecture series, this will be the University’s second go around with the Food Stamp Challenge, after a successful initial event.  

But what exactly is a “food stamp challenge” and what do those putting on the event hope that participants will gain from the experience?

We all make food choices everyday.

Food stamp challenges are a national trend, usually staged by religious or social organizations, that encourage participants to take a week or longer to eat only on the average amount a recipient would receive if they were receiving federal food stamps.  In 2012, that comes out to about $4 a day.  The goal for most groups who promote food stamp challenges is to encourage participants to think not only about their nutritional and financial association with their food, but also about the greater social issues surrounding the challenges that low-income Americans face in their struggle to eat healthily.  Food stamp challenges have recently been undertaken by a wide range of citizens, including a group of Washington D.C. district leaders.

According to Kathleen Hunt, Sustainability Coordinator for University Dining Services, “the Food Stamp Challenge is a way for people to experience the average food stamp budget for themselves and to think about their relationship to the food they eat—what they can or can’t afford, what they enjoy about eating, where they can or can’t shop, etc.”  In her view, it is an opportunity to step into another’s shoes and experience this aspect of life from a different perspective.  She believes that many people make a lot of assumptions and judgments about those who receive federal assistance and that “the Food Stamp Challenge questions a lot of those assumptions, and helps us all think about where we stand not just on policy issues but also in terms of our relationship to the food system.”

It’s a sentiment that is echoed by Marti Woolford, Outreach Coordinator for Utahns Against Hunger (UAH), a policy and advocacy organization that focuses much of its effort on raising awareness of hunger issues in Utah, and which is working with the University to stage this year’s Food Stamp Challenge.  Woolford has seen her fair share of opposition to the food stamp program from citizens in the traditionally conservative Utah and, in her opinion, many of those citizens have a misunderstanding of the program and its recipients.  “The majority of people who are on food stamps are people who are working more than one job just to get by,” she said, pointing out that, according to a recent study, fraud in the food stamp program is present in less than one percent of cases.

Woolford hopes that participants in the Food Stamp Challenge will have a greater understanding of what life is like for those who live on a food stamp budget on a regular basis.  “It’s very difficult to survive on food stamps,” she said.  “For me personally, when people say it’s just lazy people who are on food stamps, [Food Stamp Challenge participants] can say, you know, I did that for a week and it was not easy.  It’s not a lazy person who gets by living in poverty.  It’s a hard life.”  

University students can take up the challenge for themselves and draw their own conclusions this November and then discuss their experience at Social Soup on November 13.