Alison Dirr

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin





Editor's note: Follow reporter Alison Dirr in print, online and on Twitter at @AlisonDirr as she stretches her budget and pantry food to make it through the week. Look for daily reports through Oct. 26.

WAUSAU – When I did this week's grocery shopping, I was allowed to spend $4 per day.

That's about the average benefit someone would receive if they were receiving FoodShare. I'm taking what's called the SNAP Challenge, named after the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides FoodShare benefits commonly called food stamps. The goal of living for a week on the equivalent of food stamps is to understand what it's like to try to stretch FoodShare groceries and survive — and how hungry it will likely leave challenge participants.

In Daily Herald Media's version of the challenge, I plan to add any groceries someone like me would get if she visited The Neighbors' Place food pantry in Wausau.

I'm doing this not just because I think it will be eye-opening for me and readers to experience food shopping as someone living near poverty. I also hope to experience how critical it is that people living on food stamps get help from pantries such as The Neighbors' Place, which is one of nine local food banks that receives cash donations through Daily Herald Media's annual Stock the Shelves campaign.

About 30,000 people received FoodShare benefits in Marathon and Lincoln counties in 2013, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. In August of this year, 16,139 people received benefits in Marathon County and 3,625 in Lincoln County, according to that data.

The Neighbors' Place provided food last year for about 38,700 adult visits and 19,400 visits by children in Wausau, according to numbers compiled by Tom Rau, executive director. The nonprofit agency also sends food to about 30 other pantries throughout the county, Rau said.

What I already have realized is that living on such a limited budget requires a lot of planning. I've drawn up a meal plan for seven days, starting Monday, and am anticipating real cut-backs, even with the supplemental food based on what the pantry would provide. But Rau put the challenge into a larger, more complex context that goes far beyond the issue of protein and produce.

"For people coming to pantries, it isn't always about the food — it's about their entire lives," he said.

It's about making the choice to feed your children enough or feed them the healthiest food you can afford but in insufficient quantities. It's also a choice, Rau said, between buying food and making sure children have school supplies, or spending for warm clothes, or paying heating bills during Wisconsin's bitter winters.

"One thing I think people don't always think about is the total budget of people living in poverty," he said. For those folks, a broken-down car or an unexpected health problem can cause long-lasting strain on already-tight finances.

Organizations like The Neighbors' Place try to fill those gaps by providing fresh vegetables and other nutritious foods that cost more at the grocery store and that force people to choose between quantity and quality, he said.

How big a problem is this? National Geographic reported in a recent edition that one-sixth of Americans don't have enough food to eat — even with the efforts of food banks. The ratio is similar in Marathon and Lincoln counties, based on the number of FoodShare recipients and the reported census population for 2013.

Walking through The Neighbors' Place pantry, Rau pointed out the boxes of mashed potatoes and cereal. There usually is soup, and the organization's employees try to stock eggs and milk. And they always try to have peanut butter and jelly on hand, not just because a PB&J is quick to make, but also because some of his clients don't have fully functional stoves or ovens, making it difficult or impossible to cook.

As a person with no children, I don't have to think about feeding a family, and the SNAP Challenge in itself doesn't require me to choose between heat and food. But his point that the challenge highlights only part of a much larger problem is an important one I'll keep in mind throughout the week.

Alison Dirr can be reached at 715-845-0658. Find her on Twitter as @AlisonDirr

You can help

Donate to this year's Stock the Shelves campaign by:

• Visiting the Stock the Shelves page at the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin at http://tinyurl.com/nnntjcp

• Clicking on Make a Donation Online Today at www.wausaudailyherald.com/stocktheshelves