Soup Kitchen

One aspect of the SNAP Challenge that I found particularly interesting was that we were required to eat once at the local soup kitchen. I had volunteered at soup kitchens in high school, but I had never eaten at one as a guest.

Kristie and I went to the Soup Kitchen together, and I was really nervous at first. I didn't know what to expect, and I was unsure of how I would feel once inside. We were told not to wear any RWU gear or to bring a nice purse, or dress nice, so that we would fit in and not prompt a lot of questions. So we left all our belongings in the car, walked in, and hoped for the best.

When we first walked in, we entered the kitchen, where we were given our grocery bags. Later at home, we discovered that the bag was filled with similar items to what we had purchased at the grocery store the day before. I think this similarity is due to the fact that these items are inexpensive and easy to make. Some of the items included canned vegetable, canned fruit, peanut butter, and canned pasta (resembling Chef Boyardee). In addition to the canned goods, we were given a choice of hot dogs or chicken, and since we had already purchased chicken, we chose hot dogs.

One interesting thing that happened while we were at the soup kitchen was that we recognized someone once we walked in. A student that we go to school with was volunteering in the kitchen. He looked at us, and we looked at him, and we are pretty sure we recognized each other, but neither of us said anything to each other. We didn't want to say hello and "blow our cover" or make it obvious that we were RWU students, and I'm sure he was confused and didn't understand why we were eating there.

Kristie and I were worried that people at the soup kitchen would try to talk to us and ask us where we were from, and that we would have to make up a story or avoid answering questions about ourselves. In fact, the opposite of that occurred. We noticed that everyone at the soup kitchen pretty much kept to themselves. There would be several people sitting at a table, but there were rarely conversations going on between them. Everyone kept to themselves for the most part.

Being at the soup kitchen and actually sitting with the people who eat there made me very sad but also hopeful at the same time. It was very sad that this many people (there were about 25-30 people there when we went) are in need of assistance when it comes to food, which is a human necessity. At the same time, the fact that they have a resource such as the soup kitchen and the food pantry are a true blessing. I commend the workers and volunteers at the soup kitchen, and at other charitable food providers, for the help that they give to so many people. In today's economy, many Americans are struggling, but it is nice to know that people in dire need are getting assistance.

Back to Reality...

Two things I learned from my food stamp experience were ‘planning’ and ‘family’. While on food stamps, I ate relatively normal as I usually do on my college budget, but I learned that food stamps takes away from the ‘convenience’ and ‘luxuries’ of eating. During the ten days I had to drive home to New York and I had to plan my meals ahead. I couldn’t just conveniently stop at a McDonalds on the side of the road when I got hungry. Even when coming to campus, I had to pack my lunch in the morning… I couldn’t just run into the commons when I got hungry in the middle of the afternoon. Furthermore I didn’t drink any coffee for ten days (which I’m probably better off to be quite honest!) because that just wasn’t a luxury I could afford. Overall, although I didn’t eat much differently, I had to think ahead planning all of my meals because I didn’t have the funds to just grab food on the go.

I also took away from this experience the concept of ‘family’. I participated in this program with my two roommates and while we do often have ‘family’ dinners, we maybe have them only two or three times a week, but during the ten days my roommates and I went grocery shopping together, as well as planning, preparing and eating dinner together every night. Along with planning what we would eat at each dinner ahead of time, we also worked to coordinate our schedules so that we would all be together each night for dinner.

Through this experience, I was given insight into the everyday life of a SNAP participant. I learned the everyday foods (that I typically take for granted) that I had to forgo while on the SNAP program. First thing I bought off the SNAP challenge? Coffee… and not just any old regular coffee, I went all out and purchased the Caramel Macchiato…sometimes the alarm just goes off too early and I’m rushing and I need to buy that coffee on the go to keep me moving all day and for the past ten days I’ve missed that luxury and convenience terribly!