Food Stamps feed one quarter of American children- from the NYT

A decade after food stamp users were scorned as welfare queens and Congress was slashing benefits from the program, food stamp use is at an all-time high, and the stigma has gone the way of the actual food stamp. (Now, recipients swipe cards.) A New York Times analysis of food stamp data shows that as foreclosures and unemployment rates have soared, food stamp use has risen along with it. The program now helps feed one in eight Americans and one of every four children. More than one-quarter of blacks, 15 percent of Latinos, and 8 percent of white Americans help fill their pantries with food stamps. The Times analysis found a surprising level of diversity among food stamp recipients, from chronically poor inner-city families to newly unemployed suburban moms to fixed-income seniors. Even conservative areas where residents tend to disdain public assistance are seeing an increase in the number of food stamp recipients. States are eager to enroll people in the program because, unlike unemployment insurance, food stamps are funded entirely by the federal government. Because many people who qualify for unemployment benefits don't get them, food stamps are the only form of assistance some people get. Or, as the Times calls it, "the safety net's safety net."

This comes to me right after reading the "One Dollar Diet Project" blog. (http://onedollardietproject.wordpress.com/) The actual diet project was done in September 2008, if you want to go back and read the archives. Hubby and I got to talking about it, and while we won't go so drastic as to try and live on $1 each, we will try a derivation of it - how well can we eat on the Food Stamp (SNAP) benefit budget? I looked around the 'net last night and found out that the 2008 SNAP benefit average in NV was $97.88 per person in the household per month. For our household of 3, that becomes $293.64 or $$73.41 per week, based on a 4 week month.

We're not going to start this immediately - we have to set out the "rules" for our project. Does food already in the pantry count? If not, then we will spend the month of December eating out of the pantry, in order to make room for the new food. What type of "free food" is allowed? Costco samples? Other grocery samples? Unlike the One Dollar people, here in NV there aren't many if any fruit trees on public land where we could pick lemons and oranges. That idea won't fly for us.

Also, our budget will be ever so slightly higher - families receiving SNAP assistance don't pay sales tax. So we get to spend a bit more to cover the sales tax. Our current rate is somewhere around 8%. It used to be 7.5%, but has recently gone up. Also, we will be including the kiddo's lunches - we don't qualify for totally free lunches, obviously, so we'll look at as if we're a family that would qualify for reduced price lunch, but can't quite scrape the money for that together either. She's pretty easy to please for lunch anyway.

If you have any ideas or questions or whatever, leave a comment! I'd love to hear what you all (what, 3 readers? LOL) think.

Has it been 10 months?

Wow, I suck. But you don't want to hear about that, do you? Didn't think so. I don't either. I'm trying for a more positive outlook. Today, that's not working so well. I'm feeling rather blah.

So, in the last 10 months:
DD finished Kindergarten and has moved on to 1st grade. We got a spot at a magnet school, which has been awesome. Other than the hour in the morning and hour and a half in the afternoon on the bus. But even that's going well. She also got glasses (hereditary nearsightedness) and turned 7. My baby is so grown up! *tear*

I did not continue weight loss. In fact, I've gained back all I lost on WW in 2008. *sigh* I started walking in the mornings when DD started 1st grade - and sprained my foot. So then I had to take a month off and let that heal. Now I'm back to walking, and looking at starting the C25K program. They claim that they can get you running 5K in 9 weeks. I laugh. It's going to take me more like 18 at minimum to do that. And that's if I don't injure myself again.

While I was letting my foot heal, I started cross-stitching. It's addictive! I own so much floss now, it's not even funny! and I'm only just beginning! And JoAnn's then had to go and have a sale on embroidery supplies - OH MY! I spent $20 last night, and I plan to go back again before the week is out and the sale is over.

Keep an eye out- you just might get to watch me make a fool of myself while running. Or maybe I'll continue walking. Either way, I'm not stopping! It feels good!

--Miss(ed) Eloquence

My Country Tis Of Thee

I was going to write something awesome about the inauguration. But, others, who are much smarter than me, have done so already. I will leave it at this: God Bless President Barack Obama. May we all support and respect him and his office (at least until he screws it all up!). He certainly needs our support more than anything.

I don't have much else to report right now. The diet is not going well. The dr thinks I have kidney stones. I'm just a bundle of joy.

So....

You'd guess wrong. Even with me being rather, OPEN, about my size here, you'd probably guess wrong. I carry my weight amazingly well. No one ever believes me when I say how big I really am.

Anyway, I'm not sure I'm going to give a number here. I probably should, but I won't. I will say that I'm up 5 pounds from where I *started* 2 weeks ago, when I was supposedly starting over with the weight loss blog. The good news is I'm still 20 lbs lighter than my heaviest weight, which was in October of 2007, when I started Weight Watchers.

Weekly pictures probably won't help much. So, I'll take monthly pictures, and hopefully it will look like pregnancy in reverse. Instead of my tummy getting bigger and bigger, I want to see it get smaller and smaller. Strike that. I WILL see it get smaller and smaller.

I will do my best each post to stay positive and upbeat about this. Although, given my mood at the moment, that's not going to be easy.

So, here I am. Feel free to point and make fun of the beached whale. I know I am. I hate that this is me.

Don't read my Blog.

Seriously.

I suck at this. I can't keep up, which is sad, cuz most of the time I feel like I'm not doing much. The last week has been a blur. Mostly of pain.

I have a stomach/possible gallbladder problem. I don't know which, cuz the dr hasn't called me back. All I know is that it hurts like hell. I eat Tums like they're candy, and avoid meat. And the painkillers don't work. I'm asking for Vicodin when I go back. This pansy crap painkiller doesn't cut it at all. I might as well take Tylenol and a kiddie vitamin.

My thyroid is out of whack again, so I got a higher dosage of meds. YAY! not. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! actually. I don't want to be on meds at all. But, I like my body to run properly. Or at least I'd like to pretend it runs properly. So I take the damn hormones.

My cholesterol is going high, and my weight is up. Which I knew, cuz my jeans were getting tight again. The dr made a slightly veiled threat - cholesterol lowering meds are in my future if I don't get it together and lose weight and eat better. Why can't ice cream lower cholesterol? Seriously. Oatmeal really doesn't taste that good. At least I got a buttload of Quaker on sale a few weeks ago. That might last me the 3 months til my next blood draw.

So, That's where things stand. I'm in and out of the dr's lately, and that's not likely to change. I have 2 follow-ups, 2 weight checks, a Holter monitor to wear, a trip to Reno to see my eye specialist, and a dentist appt all within the next 3 months.

I hope all of you out there in cyber-land are doing better. And I really truly promise to come back on Tuesday and update you all with an at-home weight check and my before pics from 2 weeks ago. Stay tuned!

HAHA

So, I promised in November that I would blog more. Now, I haven't been back in 2 months. HAHA! Fooled you!

And, this isn't really going to be a book blog anymore. I'm venturing back into weight loss. I did great on WW before, lost about 40 lbs. Then I quit, and gained back some of it. My health is deteriorating (more on that later), my mind is a mess, and I don't function well on a day to day basis.

What does that mean? It means that I will occasionally blog about what I'm reading. I will occasionally blog about my weight loss journey. I will occasionally blog about whatever I feel like. As I said in the beginning, it's my blog, and I will write whatever I feel.

And, since I know I can be offensive from time to time, I either ask your forgiveness, or ask you to leave. I won't censor my thoughts and words all the time - sometimes, there's only one word that truly describes what I'm feeling.

So, stay tuned. Tomorrow, I will start with some before pics. Beware, they are not pretty!

I know I've been gone

Not that anyone cares! LOL

It's been a very busy couple of months. I haven't been reading as much, and what I have read has been re-reads, like Harry Potter and The Dark Is Rising sequence. I might blog about them, I'm not sure. I don't have anything super enlightening to say about them anyway.

My DD turned 6 and had a fabulous birthday. I tried my hand at making a marshmallow fondant cake, and it turned out pretty well.

Now we're getting ready for Christmas as well as getting through the day to day slog.

So that's my update of sorts.