When I met with the good folks from FACET and the Eastern Illinois Foodbank several weeks ago, we got to talking about how easy it is to forget that there are hungry children here in Champaign-Urbana.
Could you feed your family on $112 for seven days? Credit: sxc.hu
But the fact is, there are many, many young kids who go to bed every night with empty bellies. Kids who only get fed on a semi-regular basis when school is in session. Kids who live just below the radar, in a community that looks very, very prosperous, if you don’t look that closely.
That’s when Cheryl Precious, director of marketing and development for the EIF, asked me if chambanamoms.com would be interested in taking the Feeding Illinois SNAP Hunger Challenge, during which participants try to live on the basic food stamps allotment — or about $4 per day, per person, for seven days, from Sept. 19-25.
For my family of four, that means I could spend $112 on food for one week. Participants are asked to write about their experience online, and the goal is to help gain a better understanding of the challenges local families face when trying to maintain an adequate, healthy diet on food stamps or on a fixed income.
I told her yes. Yes, I will take the Feeding Illinois SNAP Hunger Challenge. Why? To raise awareness of the real and devastating problem of hunger in this state.
Because it isn’t right that 265,100 men, women and children in Illinois are forced to go to the food bank every week.
Because 42 percent of those who rely on food banks are children. Children like my own, who have never known hunger in their lives. Who, when they ask for a snack, are offered a veritable bounty of food from which to choose.
No child should every feel hunger, especially not in our country, in our great state of Illinois, and definitely not in our neighborhoods here in Chambana.
I’ll be blogging about my personal SNAP Hunger Challenge experience here on chambanamoms.com, during the week of Sept. 19-25. Several other local bloggers will also be taking the challenge, Precious says, and will write about it, as well.
The Feeding Illinois SNAP Hunger Challenge is open to anyone, and you can learn more about it and find out how to sign up at the organization’s website. If you sign up, let us know, and we’ll feature some of your experiences here, on chambanamoms.com.
September is Hunger Action Month, so let’s make our voices heard, loud and clear: Hunger is unacceptable.
No related posts.
Good luck with the challenge Amy. I’m looking forward to reading your blog and although I don’t have time to write about it, I’ll be very self-conscious about our eating habits and purchases that week.
Good luck, Amy! I’ll be doing the SNAP challenge, too. I look forward to hearing how it goes for you.
Jason, I’m so excited to see how you do, too!
Great call to action. I look forward to hearing how it goes.