Guest Columnist | Building a diet on $5 a day

Watch out, Rachel Ray. If you think America on $40 a day is a challenge, consider this: The maximum food stamp benefit for one American tops out at less than $40 a week. With a little number crunching, that comes to about $5 for three square meals a day.

Admittedly, the federal food stamp program is usually just meant to supplement low-income budgets. However, food stamps often fail to even provide a healthful diet, one full of lean protein and fresh produce.

Mary Summers, a senior fellow with the Fox Leadership Program, states that food stamp allotments are simply "off the mark when squared with the USDA's nutrition guidelines."

Intrigued, I decided to see what it would be like to try and live on a food stamp budget for a day. I figured using the college Ramen diet would be a no-brainer, so I tried to see what fresh and reasonably healthful foods I could scrounge up around the neighborhood.

In sum, not much. I could kiss nutritious fare away when two liters of orange juice costs several times the price of two liters of soda. In fact, forget soda. I'll take Philly water.

And on five bucks a day, I could forget about those luxury boutique items like the $2.89 pint of local organic farm milk I bought at Reading Terminal Market last weekend.

I could also forget about those fancy meat analogues for vegetarians, soy or gluten-free products for people with allergies and vitamin supplements.

In fact, I found the ugly side of the organic movement. On five bucks a day, I didn't have a choice.

West Philadelphia resident Brenda Walker doesn't, either.

Walker uses food stamps and disability benefits to help pay the monthly food bill. I met her on the way to the local discount giant Aldi on 44th and Market streets.

The store stands just blocks away from the studios where Dick Clark's American Bandstand was filmed in the 1950's. Aldi is the type of store where you can easily buy two dozen hot dogs for $2.69 or cans of Popeye spinach for just 39 cents.

Aldi store manager Nick Fini estimates that, in the first two weeks of every month, about 75 percent of customers use food stamps to make purchases.

While Aldi contains a large refrigerated foods section, they carry only a limited selection of fresh produce. Walker only likes to go there for bread, canned string beans and tomatoes. Most of the cheapest stuff is canned, frozen or smothered in cheese.

In Philadelphia, there are few Ikeas of the food industry serving bland but nutritious fare. Instead, the industry is mostly made up of upscale boutiques or budget outlets.

Walker confided that she and her husband often travel to Shop Rite on South Street just to find cheap grocery items. "We need better supermarkets here. There are lots of pharmacies and fast-food joints around here, but not enough markets," she said.

Her suggestion echoes the complaints of many urban communities, which are often inundated with corner stores that carry junk food and limited fresh produce.

In fact, a recent New York Times article points out that the cheapest foods you can find are easily the ones with the most empty calories. Not surprisingly, obesity has surfaced as a significant health risk for low-income families.

And so, the Urban Nutrition Initiative has been working with Philadelphia public schools to promote healthy eating habits.

UNI staff member Toby Martinez says the group hosts activities like food tastings, cooking lessons and grocery store scavenger hunts for mostly low-income students.

"We tell kids to spend their two dollars on granola bars, bottled water and 100-percent juice; they're spending the same money but getting more for their money and better, longer-term health," Martinez said.

Teaching these sorts of habits will be helpful for cultivating a society that eats well at all income levels.

But a number of other hurdles exist for those claiming food stamps.

Summers says that the red tape involved in applying for food stamps is complex enough for families often overwhelmed with other problems.

Many candidates also struggle with language barriers, mental illness, unemployment or temporary homelessness. To qualify, candidates can only hold $2,000 maximum in savings.

"They insist you spend down every penny you have before accessing food stamps," Summers said.

The challenges of eating on a low-income diet are twofold: Navigating the paperwork to get food stamps, and finding decent food to use them on.

And until that changes, nutrient-sparse, calorie-dense junk food will continue to be the norm.

Elizabeth Song is a College junior from Clemmons, N.C. Her e-mail address is song@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.