May 2007

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with support while I participated in the Food Lifeline Food Stamp Challenge last week. Just for the record, I stayed on budget through Friday night -- except for a snack in the afternoon, again.

Yes, this was a publicity pitch. I get to go back to living with my regular food budget (although, I am thinking about my purchases more now). Here's the takeway -- $21 a week isn't enough. Yes, you and I and others can do it for a week, but it's not the way to build a consistently healthy and sufficient diet. Many of you have asked why a single person receives $21. It's based on an equation that hasn't change to reflect the times. When food stamps went nation-wide in 1979 the amount you received was based on your income minus a "standard deduction" that represents the likely amount of rent, utilities, transportation, etc. in a single person's monthly budget. That standard deduction was frozen in 1996, despite the fact that the monthly expenses have increased. Rent robably takes up a larger share of monthly costs these days. Also, transportation costs go up with fuel cost increases. All this means that the true monthly bills for someone on Food Stamps have probably gone up, but the Food Stamp award amount is still based on a falsely small "standard deduction."

Next time you're conversing with your federal representatives, tell them you'd like to see Food Stamp allotments equation modernized to match the true cost of living and the true cost of a healthy diet. Congress will have an opportunity to do this in this year's reauthorization of the Farm Bill.

My cold has gotten worse over night. In desperation I tapped into my partner's orange juice this morning. Also, I'm using my existing stash of tea. And Sudafed. And Advil. And Nyquil. Otherwise, a great oatmeal breakfast. The Challenge allows you to assume you have "condiments" at home. I'm hoping brown sugar and left over dried cherries count. I have a peanut butter sandwich and an apple for lunch.

The shopping is over. The $21 is spent. (Actually, I have $1.62 left over.) I have four bags of groceries plus a sack of baking potatoes for the week starting now. I'm in the Food Lifeline Food Stamp Challenge where I will eat on the same budget as a typical single person who receives food stamps. I'm happy with my bags of rice, oatmeal, black beans, chicken, peanut butter, bread, cheese, milk, lettuce, carrots and apples. However, I am developing a cold and would have loved to grab an Odwalla Wellness in the Salmon Bay Fred Meyer where I shopped with the Post-Intelligencer, King 5 and a Vista volunteer advisor who gets by using food stamps. That bottle of juice is $3.50! That's more than a full day's worth of food on my budget. No juice!

Food Lifeline's goal in sponsoring this exercise is to remind people how important local foodbanks are to people on limited incomes. More than half a million people in Washington receive food stamps and most augment what they can purchase through a local food bank. On a strictly personal and practical level, I was really thankful for the crackers and humus in the back of the room at last night's King County Democrats meeting. There are no snacks built into my food budget for the week.

At the Seattle-King County Board of Health meeting last week I heard an interesting statistic from Dr. David Fleming, director of the health department. We're crunched badly by decreasing reimbursement rates from the feds, increasing health care costs, and the prevalence of "uninsurance" as a widespread disease. The State Legislation approved a $20 million bump in spending on public health (just over $2 million will come to King County), but that falls far short of the estimated $600 million needed to fully fund public health in our state.

Why should we care about public health? If the provision of basic prevention and care services, epidemiology, rat control, food inspections, and pandemic planning don't appeal to you, how about this? Seventy-five percent of the increase in life expectancy we've achieved over the last century is due to public health and only 25 percent to improvements in medical care and treatment. Yet, we spend more than 90 percent of our health dollars on medical care and less than 10 percent on public health. There are a lot of things out of whack with health care and insurance. Our dismal spending in this country on public health is one.

P.S. Big thanks to King County for finding the money to keep Seattle's north public health clinic open through at least the end of 2008.

We're mid-way through week 2 of the Group Health Commute Challenge (a.k.a Bike to Work month) and my SCKATOW (Sally Clark's Kick-Awesome Team of Winners)City Council team is thumping City Council's other team - the Contenders with da Fenders (captained by Councilmember Tom Rasmussen), 402 miles to 235. Personally, I've made just two complete roundtrips from home to work spread over four days. My seven teammates are racking up the miles. Compared to some other teams (like the ones at REI, Boeing, the City's Department of Parks & Recreation, and the University of Washington) we're standing practically still. Team Clickstream at REI? 725 miles so far! The Water & Land Resources Division at King County? 1,264 miles! The challenge goes on through the end of the month. For every mile you ride you're making our streets a little less congested, getting yourself more fit and you're keeping a pound of carbon dioxide out of the environment. Way to go!