# "Food stamp diet challenge"... possible to fashion healthy and sufficient diet? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 14, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667 "2015-04-14T18:05:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/21 "2015-04-14T22:37:03Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > As a spin off from the [Gwyneth Paltrow-does-foot-stamp-diet thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=754446), an interesting question occurred to me – is it possible to fashion a nutritionally complete and relatively healthy diet on the food stamp budget (~$29 per week)? Anyone care to give it a try? Let’s assume you have access to a stove, oven, refrigerator, freezer, sink, and microwave. If I’m doing the math right, some once-a-day vitamins, plus meat-and-vegetables canned soups, plus pasta and spaghetti sauce, plus milk and eggs, plus a little fresh fruit, would come in right under budget. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/22 "2015-04-14T22:38:55Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > If you try to get 3000 calories a day you need fats, which burn slower and make you feel fuller longer. Of course, it’s important to note that you need to be about 6’5", 200 pounds, and live an active lifestyle (i.e. non sedentary job) to even need 3000 calories per day. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/23 "2015-04-14T23:01:00Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > Of course, it’s important to note that you need to be about 6’5", 200 pounds, and live an active lifestyle (i.e. non sedentary job) to even need 3000 calories per day. A farmworker can burn 400 Kcl a hour, and they usually put in 10 hour days. Do the math. ---
**Author:** ![F.Pu-du-he-pa-as](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@F.Pu-du-he-pa-as](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.Pu-du-he-pa-as)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/24 "2015-04-15T00:46:09Z")
Most weeks during grad school, I spent about this much on food. For breakfast and dinner, I ate beans seasoned with vegetables (onions, canned tomatoes, chili peppers, occasionally carrots and celery), sometimes with rice. For lunch, I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. If I was feeling really extravagant, I would supplement this with more vegetables, eggs, or cheese. I almost never ate meat. I’d be surprised if I cooked meat more than ten times in five years of grad school. I was more or less OK with this situation. I like beans, I could cook large batches over the weekend and have leftovers throughout the week, and cleanup wasn’t that bad. It’s pretty monotonous, though. I had enough money that I could buy more interesting food if I really wanted to, but having to watch how much I spent on food very strictly, and eating like this week after week knowing there would never be anything else…that would be really depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_Hey_Paula)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/25 "2015-04-15T01:20:40Z")
> [@FeAudrey](#): > > The “Food Stamp Challenge” is street theater. > > The amount quoted is the average benefit. But SNAP benefits are means-tested – the amount you get is adjusted according to your income. You get the difference between the maximum amount and what the formula says you can allot for food from your income: > > [SNAP Eligibility | Food and Nutrition Service](http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligibility) > > The base amount for a single person is **$194/month**. Six-and-half bucks (not the four bucks usually quoted) per day, per person, is very do-able, especially if you shop specials and cook from scratch. > > Plus: SNAP-eligible chool-age children get free lunches (and sometimes breakfasts and school vacation meal programs). Pre-schoolers get additional WIC benefits. Sometimes there are commodities distributions (“brown bag”). There are a bunch of miscellaneous programs supplying things like vegetable garden seeds. > > Only WIC restricts what foods can be purchased with benefits. **SNAP is good for anything consumable,** but not for paper goods or cleaning products (which a lot of people think are more a necessity than cake or bottled water, which you can get with food stamps). > > SNAP recipients don’t pay sales or other taxes on food (about 15 states levy this). Bolding mine - I was under the impression that one could not use SNAP for prepared foods or hot foods. So that grocery-store rotisserie chicken, which I can get at least two good meals out of for the two of us, plus the carcass along with some cheap veggies gets turned into stock, is off limits for SNAP recipients, while a whole raw chicken would be OK. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/26 "2015-04-15T01:39:53Z")
> [@FeAudrey](#): > > (food plan post uses the $45 actual, not the $29 street theater) The POINT of using the $29/person/week is that is the AVERAGE benefit. For many people it IS the “actual benefit” and not street theater. Just because some bureaucrat says “you should be able to spend X on food from your paycheck” doesn’t mean you can in fact do that. Does the car need to be fixed? Sore tooth but no insurance? Need a winter coat or new footgear? Where do you get the money from? Scrimping on food may be a necessity if any of those expenses come up. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/27 "2015-04-15T01:45:06Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > Of course, it’s important to note that you need to be about 6’5", 200 pounds, and live an active lifestyle (i.e. non sedentary job) to even need 3000 calories per day. Untrue. I published a typical day’s menu for me that came in around 2700 calories and I have _lost weight_ on that diet over the past year. And I’m a 5 foot 3 inch woman in her 50’s. That big guy you talk about? He’d need more than 3,000 calories. Some of us do have jobs that require that much energy. ---
**Author:** ![FeAudrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FeAudrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FeAudrey)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/28 "2015-04-15T01:46:11Z")
> [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](#): > > Bolding mine - I was under the impression that one could not use SNAP for prepared foods or hot foods. So that grocery-store rotisserie chicken, which I can get at least two good meals out of for the two of us, plus the carcass along with some cheap veggies gets turned into stock, is off limits for SNAP recipients, while a whole raw chicken would be OK. You are correct (I had forgotten that restriction). Side note: Rather than $5-$7 for a two-pound rotisserie chicken, I’d go with leg quarters, which go on sale regularly for under (sometimes well under) a buck a pound. Meat, bones for stock, and cooked-out fat as shortening for biscuits, dumplings, or pot-pie crust. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/29 "2015-04-15T01:48:32Z")
> [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](#): > > Bolding mine - I was under the impression that one could not use SNAP for prepared foods or hot foods. So that grocery-store rotisserie chicken, which I can get at least two good meals out of for the two of us, plus the carcass along with some cheap veggies gets turned into stock, is off limits for SNAP recipients, while a whole raw chicken would be OK. You are correct - prepared and hot foods are not permitted with SNAP\* so no rotisserie chicken paid for with SNAP benefits. - Certain homeless people ARE permitted to purchase hot/prepared food with SNAP but 1) they have to be homeless and even more destitute than the average SNAP recipient, basically being entirely without food storage or food prep AND only certain places take SNAP for such purposes. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/30 "2015-04-15T01:50:50Z")
> [@FeAudrey](#): > > Rather than $5-$7 for a two-pound rotisserie chicken, I’d go with leg quarters, which go on sale regularly for under (sometimes well under) a buck a pound. Meat, bones for stock, and cooked-out fat as shortening for biscuits, dumplings, or pot-pie crust. ^ Yep, done that. Got a whole bunch of meals out of $5 of that, including today’s crockpot of cream-of-potato soup. Still have to render the fat. I’m spending 1-2 hours a day in food prep/processing most days (I do have 1-2 days where I have no time to cook, so microwave reheat). We are getting a bit tired of eating chicken flavored things, though… ---
**Author:** ![FeAudrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FeAudrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FeAudrey)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/31 "2015-04-15T01:54:58Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > The POINT of using the $29/person/week is that is the AVERAGE benefit. For many people it IS the “actual benefit” and not street theater. > > Just because some bureaucrat says “you should be able to spend X on food from your paycheck” doesn’t mean you can in fact do that. But it does mean that the program was not designed for people with resources of their own to subsist on only the “supplemental” part of SNAP. The no-income poor get the full $45, so that’s the expenditure base-line. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/32 "2015-04-15T02:08:01Z")
The no-income poor also only get food stamps for THREE MONTHS. After that, you have to be either working or in school or somehow prove you’re spending 30-40 hours a week seriously looking for work _or you are cut off_. There are vanishingly few “no income” food stamp recipients. Were you aware of that? ---
**Author:** ![Lorene89095](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/33 "2015-04-15T02:08:40Z")
> [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](#): > > Bolding mine - I was under the impression that one could not use SNAP for prepared foods or hot foods. So that grocery-store rotisserie chicken, which I can get at least two good meals out of for the two of us, plus the carcass along with some cheap veggies gets turned into stock, is off limits for SNAP recipients, while a whole raw chicken would be OK. Oddly,when that rotisserie chicken is a day old and is cold,it can be bought with foodstamps. Yep,makes a few good meals and a pot of soup for more good meals. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/34 "2015-04-15T02:31:01Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > If I’m doing the math right, some once-a-day vitamins, plus meat-and-vegetables canned soups, plus pasta and spaghetti sauce, plus milk and eggs, plus a little fresh fruit, would come in right under budget. Googling around a bit, I see I was wrong: you apparently _can’t_ use the funds to buy vitamins. So to stave off vitamin deficiency, swap that out for – I dunno, a bowl of Total cereal every morning? Maybe with some banana sliced into each one? ---
**Author:** ![FeAudrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FeAudrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FeAudrey)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/35 "2015-04-15T02:41:59Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > … There are vanishingly few “no income” food stamp recipients … 10% of 45 million, according to the CBO official report: > **[04-19-SNAP.pdf](https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/04-19-SNAP.pdf)** > > 347.57 KB > [@](#): > > Were you aware of that? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/36 "2015-04-15T03:07:10Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Googling around a bit, I see I was wrong: you apparently _can’t_ use the funds to buy vitamins. So to stave off vitamin deficiency, swap that out for – I dunno, a bowl of Total cereal every morning? Maybe with some banana sliced into each one? You’d be better off buying potatoes and whatever fruit is cheapest that week. Eat some raw fruit/vegees and you’ll probably be good. Potatoes actually make for really good basic food stuff. > [@FeAudrey](#): > > 10% of 45 million, according to the CBO official report: 10% of the total recipients at any given time. Some of them are probably students past the 3 month deadline so might still have no income (presumably living with relatives), but most of those 10% won’t stay on full benefit because they’ll either get a job or be dropped from the program. ---
**Author:** ![Lorene89095](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/37 "2015-04-15T03:10:08Z")
You can/could buy food plants with Food Stamps. No,I don’t know about fruit trees. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/38 "2015-04-15T04:02:34Z")
When I worked in the Middle East for a year on $5000 (mid-1980’s dollars, with half paid in shekels), I bought a $2 cheese sandwich at work for my lunch on work days, and mostly ate cereal with milk for breakfast, rice with instant chicken broth for dinner, and whatever fruits, vegetables, and nuts were cheap that week, with the occasional cheese. I never prepared meat. I did this for most of a year and lost around 30 pounds. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/39 "2015-04-15T05:26:49Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > You’d be better off buying potatoes and whatever fruit is cheapest that week. Eat some raw fruit/vegees and you’ll probably be good. Potatoes actually make for really good basic food stuff. But _don’t_ eat raw potatoes!😛 ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667/40 "2015-04-15T05:43:27Z")
I live on this now, and have for hell decades? Eating out is a treat for special occasions. Groceries often have a marked down shelf for dented cans or stuff about to expire of stuff they no longer stock, HEB in Texas had AMAZING deals there. I mean imported cans of French chestnuts originally $9 marked down to 10 cents kinda deals, 25 cent can of chunky campbells. If you’re willing to go with the flow some neat shit on the clearance shelf. Also learn the days and times they mark down the about to expire dairy products, often more than 50 percent off! Go before closing or a certain time of night and the roast chickens, sushi, premade deli items marked way down. BUT this is easy in a big city with tons of groceries, out in the sticks with one shitty grocery within 20 miles and no need to have sales or ark stuff down, that sucks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-stamp-diet-challenge-possible-to-fashion-healthy-and-sufficient-diet/717667.md?page=3)