About this Blog

Welcome! Thanks for checking out On Food Stamps.

I created this blog in 2009 when I began working at the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank. My work at this organization opened my eyes to food justice issues in America, and I had a strong desire to better understand the difficulties many people face when trying to access healthy food on a limited budget. So, I embarked on my own Food Stamp Challenge, living on $31/week as a vegan. I used this blog to chronicle my experience.

While my Food Stamp Challenge project has come to an end, you can see what I learned from it by reading the Greatest Hits posts linked to the right side of the page. Please excuse any out-of-date links, as I am no longer updating this blog on a regular basis.

Stay Hungry,

Julie

Tuesday, June 9, 2009


Ok, it is too late for a full post, so here is a mini.

1. Did anyone see this article today? LA Times reported on a bill that would set minimum standards for food at child care centers in California. Movement in the right direction.

2. This is more obscure, and it is much more distressing. I've been focusing a lot on urban poverty and food insecurity, but this article paints a pretty bleak picture of what summer will be like for kids in the rural desert zones of California. When school lunch is the best meal you get all day, what happens when school's out for summer?

Also- the fact that school lunch is the best meal some kids in America see all day, it is all the more important that that meal be of high quality food, no?

3. Food-wise, things are going well for me overall.

Good: I was able to balance out the food I brought with me for lunch today by buying $2.50 of rice when my co-workers were ordering take-out. This was a blessing, because I hadn't had time to make rice and was going to just do without. That little flexibility went a long way for me and it meant that I didn't have to loose sleep to make rice. (In this case I'd chosen the "fuck the rice, I'm going to sleep" option ahead of time, but I was able to still have a balanced meal thanks to a little more financial wiggle-room.)

Bad: I made some pretty bad bean soup this weekend. Unfortunately, I made a lot of it. I am not going to waste it, but I learned that it is never a good idea to try an experimental I'll-make-it-up-as-I-go-along recipe in bulk quantities. What can I say? The kitchen goddess got cockey. I have to get through at least 2-3 more meals of these beans, and I'm not happy about it.

1 comment:

  1. #2 is why the Los Angeles Parks & Rec has a summer lunch program specifically designed for when school is NOT in session. Smaller communities that are used to private enterprises taking up the slack during off season are now having to scramble with the depressed economy. Our inner city economy is bad enough ona regular basis we've already got the safety net in place. Yay?
    www.laparks.org/dos/lunchprogram/lunch.htm

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