This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Eating on $30 A Week: A Non-Profit Leader's Dose of Reality

Barbara Levin of Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland is trying to eat like her clients do--on $30 a week.

During any normal week, Barbara Levin wouldn’t think twice about joining her co-workers to purchase lunch. Or, if she were cooking at home and burned dinner, she would simply run to the store for more.

Not this week.

Beginning on Monday, Levin, the client services director at Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland, joined 160 other students, legislators and state leaders in the Food Stamp Challenge, pledging to use just $30—the average weekly Maryland food stamp benefit—to pay for her food costs this week, ending Sunday.

Find out what's happening in Catonsvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Levin is hoping to gain a better understanding of what her clients go through on a daily basis, while helping to raise awareness about the daily strain many Marylanders face in counting every penny at the grocery store to avoid hunger.

More than 680,000 people in Maryland receive Food Supplement Program benefits—a number that has increased 17 percent since last year.

Find out what's happening in Catonsvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I am realizing that I am very, very fortunate,” said Levin, a Middle-River resident and Philadelphia native. “The ability to go to the market and buy what I want, when I want, is a huge deal.

"It’s a huge deal to know that if something goes wrong, I can get it. I will admit to often burning things or forgetting things at home. Normally I’d be annoyed at myself. Now, it’s a tragedy if it happens.”

Making inexpensive choices at the supermarket and effectively rationing food has been taxing, she said. She said she is experiencing the physical effects of regularly eating less, including hunger and feeling less sharp at work.  

Eliminated from her diet are the high-protein meats and fresh fruits and vegetables that she would normally consume.

Restaurant-prepared meals? Forget it.

Instead, Levin has relied on a cereal-based breakfast to start each morning, and lunch has featured a lot of canned tuna.

While her fellow board members forked over $8 for a takeout lunch, Levin—knowing she wouldn’t be able to afford it—brought a small mixture of tuna, macaroni and sliced cheese, with a side of sliced apples.  

For dinner she got a little fancier with her own adaptation of pasta fagioli. But in lieu of the prosciutto ham and cannellini beans was a small portion of hamburger meat and kidney beans along with pasta, celery and carrots.  

She bought all of her food at a discount grocery.

“She’s putting herself in a degree of discomfort for one week,” said Meals on Wheels grants manager Toni Gianforte. “She’s got to eat within that $30 a week when most of us are used to five, ten dollars sometimes for lunch.

"We are all talking about the items that you can purchase at $30 a week that are the high-carb, sugary products. They’ll get your motor running, but it’s unhealthy.”

Gianforte said Levin is helping to bring to life the hardships of what many, including a large proportion of senior citizens, deal with daily.

“I think first of all she’s really engaged in the community so I’m not surprised she’s doing this," she said. "As director of client services she is putting herself forward and it’s going to have a big impact, I hope.

“The whole issue of senior hunger isn’t swept under the rug, but it’s not visible. You have soup kitchens and groups like the Maryland Food Bank, but our clients are essentially hidden from public view. Because that’s so, we are the ones that have to profile them and paint the picture of who they are…and that’s what she’s doing.”

While many of the 160 individuals taking part in the experiment will help publicize the challenge through their friends, families and media recognition, Levin has taken to the blogosphere to record her experiences and let others read about them.  

“I really hope that we are raising awareness and reforming public policy,” Levin said. “Folks see what we are doing and I hope it makes them a little more compassionate and understanding.

"When I have to turn somebody down because there aren’t enough slots here, they panic. We have people who are crying on the phone. I may not be able to fix it, but I should at least be able to understand.”

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?