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Custer couple finds food options unhealthful on $3 a day
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FarkCUSTER -- Fortunately for Sandra and Joe McFarland, they like oatmeal.
But they still missed the fresh fruit on top.
Skipping the tangy additions to their mush was one of the many little sacrifices that the Custer couple experienced as they limited their food expenses to $21 apiece during their seven days on the Food Stamp Challenge.
"We ate oatmeal for breakfast mostly," Sandra McFarland said. "That wasn't a big change. That's what we usually eat. But you couldn't put your blueberries on it, and those kinds of things."
Those kinds of things -- fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, lean meats, tasty desserts -- are food options rarely available to people who base their food purchases largely on the average food stamp benefit of $21 a week, or $3 a day. The Community Food Banks of South Dakota and Bread for the World sponsored the South Dakota Food Stamp Challenge -- a version of other challenges throughout the country -- to raise understanding of the daily challenge faced by food-stamp recipients.
As a retired teacher and retired small-business owner, Sandra and Joe McFarland had more time and resources to plan their shopping and coordinate meals than many food-stamp recipients. But with no eating out, no coffee downtown with friends and none of the healthful and more expensive food items she is accustomed to, McFarland got a sense for the challenge -- not just to eat but to eat healthfully.
"Sometimes, you could eat quite a variety of foods, but generally not the healthiest kinds," she said. "The cheaper foods had lots more sodium and things like that. Your choices are just so limited on $21 a week."
Sandra McFarland said they "never felt what I would call hungry." But they still found the challenge to be exactly that in many ways.
"It's been a challenge, but a really interesting one," she said. "I think it helps me better appreciate what other people have to go through. In no way do I think I can fully appreciate it, but I think it gives me a little more insight and a little more compassion."
Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com
Sandra McFarland, left, and her husband, Joe, eat dinner Monday at their Custer home. The McFarlands took part in the Food Stamp Challenge, in which people had ate for seven days, eating three meals a day, but spending only a dollar on each meal. (Ryan Soderlin, Journal staff)
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