What's For Lunch?
For all the families involved, peanut but-
ter and jelly became lunch staples — and
sometimes were eaten beyond lunchtime.
With Brooke Simtob not caring for some
of the choices directed by the project, her
mom said, "She was allowed to have pea-
nut butter and jelly at any meal during
that whole week."
The families discovered not only what
they needed to get by, but what they had
to do without. "Nutritious foods like
vegetables and chicken were more costly,"
Lea said. "So our dinners consisted of
one less expensive thing — like pasta,
but without a salad and garlic bread."
They also weighed the value of items
they usually take for granted. "At Target
the ketchup only cost 79 cents:' Lea said.
"But we only planned to use it one time.
So we decided we'd rather have hot dogs
without ketchup — or mustard — and
use the 79 cents toward cookie mix which
we could use for the whole weekend, or
toward cereal and milk that were items
we thought we had to have. The only con-
diment we had for the week was salt."
For the Simtobs, "When chicken didn't
fit into the budget, I bought ground beef
and made meat balls," Aimee said.
But on Shabbat, the Simtobs, like each
of the other families who participated in
the project, saved enough money to make
the meals more special.
And there was no allowance for lost
food. "Waste and spillage were of great
concern:' Richard Luger said. "If some-
thing spilled or was ruined, it couldn't be
replaced. When Lea sliced potatoes and

tion for a family of three.
Does anyone think that a person,
let alone a growing teenager, can
manage comfortably on less than $5
a day for food? Granted, I could go
to Starbucks if I wanted to; but with
$4.77 for the whole day, I'd better
make sure that cup of coffee was
worth a peanut butter and jelly sand ,
wich for lunch and pasta for dinner.

How We Did

The week began with our bag lunches
lined up in the refrigerator each day,
ready to provide our only sustenance
until evening. Around 6 each night, we
ate dinner: pasta with sauce one night;
hotdogs (no buns, mustard or ketchup)
another; meatballs (a small six each)
and rice another; pizza, another; tuna
and egg salad at the end.
We saved extra money for our

Aimee and Richard

Dietary Laws
With all three families having kosher
homes, some of what they did buy cost
a little more than their non-kosher
counterparts. "Food stamps don't care
whether you're keeping kosher or not:'
Sharon Sefton said. "The allotment is the
same even when you might have to pay
more for some foods."
Allan Sefton remembered that "a sin-
gle, kosher chicken, at a reasonable price
from Trader Joe's used up more than
one person's allocation of money for the
entire day"

The Lugers "didn't buy
cheese because kosher
cheese is very expensive
Lea said. "And instead of
the non-kosher store-brand macaroni at
40 cents a box, we bought kosher Wacky
Mac for $1.18."
While she said buying bottled water
is "a habit:' for the week she resorted to
faucets and drinking fountains. "What I
missed most was salads and M & M's and
being able to pretty much eat whatever
I wanted whenever I wanted it. And I
missed Starbucks."
And for all the families the food choic-
es became boring. "The diversity of food
was an issue; the salads were very basic
and peanut butter and jelly, which used

Shabbos food so we could afford a
nice0 and more appropriate meal of
challah rolls, grape juice, pea soup,
stew, :corn and jello.
Off:Saturday evening, I'm embar-
rass0 to admit, all of us needed a
hit of junk food. With $5.96 left to
spend (we had already figured out
our meals for Sunday and Monday),
I found myself at Target in the
foodsection, talking to my family
via 4eakerphone on the merits of
cook e mix ($1.52) and microwave
popcprn ($1.83).
On Sunday, still overdosing from a
night of sugar and salt, we spent our
last couple of dollars on an orange
and an apple to share. Our week of
deprivation was almost over, and we
commended ourselves on how well
we had managed.
We certainly hadn't starved, but

the nutritional value and assortment
of foods we could afford was severely':„
limited. Of course, knowing that this
exercise was, just that, an exercise
that would come to an end certainly
made it easier, as did seeing our
pantry, refrigerator and freezer over
flowing with food.
It was truly an eye-opening experi
ence to realize how much we take
for granted – the fact that we can
eat pretty much whatever we want,
whenever we want it (notwithstanck
ing dietary restrictions). In addition,
I really saw for the first time how,
whenever free food was offered to
us, it was fattening and/or unhealthy.
Office kitchens didn't have fruits
or vegetables to nosh on; office
parties didn't celebrate with nutri-
tious snacks and fellow students
offered chips and candy bars, not

tried to make potato chips,
they burned. So we ate
blackened chips."

Simtob with Brooke, 7,

and Brad, 5

to be my favorite, isn't anymore Sharon
Sefton said.
Each family, though, is more than glad
they participated — and Lea's hope is for
a class or a school to take on the project.
"I felt the kids should realize how
fortunate we are Richard Simtob said.
"We didn't starve, but if we had to live on
just the limited amount of food we were
able to buy — and the limited choices of
foods — we would be incredibly thank-
ful for a kosher food pantry to go to."
And for as much as Lea Luger has
learned about her clients through the
years, she said, "I had no idea what it's
like to struggle over basic daily living
experiences. If I had the food Yad Ezra
provides to clients in addition to what we
were able to purchase, I could have used
the food stamp allotment for more nutri-
tious food. I can't imagine doing this
day-in and day-out without any sense of
relief."

Each month, 1,133,793 Michigan
residents in 515,030 homes rely
on food stamps, the sixth highest
amount in the country. For informa-
tion on the Food Stamp Program,
call the Center for Civil Justice Food
and Nutrition Helpline at (800)
481-4989 or access the Food Stamp
Program Web site at www.foodstam-
phelp.org .
For information on Yad Ezra, or
to make a donation, call (248) 548-
3663 or access the Web site at:
yadezra.org .

fresh fruit. Do we wonder why so
many Americans, especially low
income families suffer from obesity?
Diabetes?
Our budget didn't provide for salad
ingredients without eliminating a lot
of other more filling, key ingredients
that we felt we needed to sustain us
throughout the week.
My first day back to eating regu-
larly, I had a $10 salad and cantaloupe
for lunch. It was certainly healthier
than the meals I had been consuming
and much more appealing than the
peanut butter and jelly sandwich on
white bread I ate every day.
Until the day comes when everyone
can enjoy biting into a piece of can-
taloupe or chew on a crunchy piece
of lettuce whenever she/he wants,
nothing will taste quite the same
again. El

January 4 e 2007

15