This morning I was perusing a few running blogs I occasionally read when I’m waiting for something to load or update on my prehistoric work computer. I saw that a blogger, in conjunction with Fitfluential (some type of company/blogger association/cult) is doing a challenge called #Surviveon35. (Yes, the challenge includes the hashtag.) Basically, a bunch of healthy living bloggers are being challenged to survive on $35 worth of groceries for one week. The description from Fitfluential:
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$35. 7 days. 21 healthy meals.
($35 per adult and $20 per child in the household)
Wednesday, July 18th, through Tuesday, July 24th
· Mike Schiemer, Frugal Fitness
· Sarah Kay Hoffman, A Gutsy Girl
· Meghann Anderson, Meals and Miles
· Julie Pape, Julie Go Lean
· Bess Harrington, Bess Be Fit
· Brittany Lesser, GotheXtraMile
· Annie Schultz, Mama Dweeb
· Erika Nicole, Black Girls Guide to Weight Loss
· Lindsday Livingston, The Lean Green Bean
· Melissa Grindle, Eat on the Run
When the co-founders of Anytime Fitness went on ABC’s Secret Millionaire earlier this year, they had to feed themselves on a mere $35 each for an entire week, the same amount you’d receive on government assistance. They showed that not only could it be done, but it could be done in a healthy way.
Now, Anytime Fitness is challenging ten health bloggers to do the same. Can they survive – and even thrive – on this meager allowance for a full seven days? We are about to find out!
Each blogger will be competing for a chance to win a $1,000 donation to a food shelf of their choice. Two winners will be selected based on healthiness, taste, creativity, and community interaction.
Each competitor must eat out of the $35 per person budget ONLY. No existing pantry items are allowed.
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I’m assuming that the point of this challenge is to show that you can eat healthfully while on government assistance. However, this challenge has completely overlooked several factors in the ongoing debate on the link between socioeconomic status and health:
“But poor people can just go to the grocery store and buy fruits and veggies instead of junk food!!1”
Believe it or not, not everyone living in the industrialized western world has access to grocery stores. A food desert is an area where individuals do not have easy access to good quality, affordable food. Grocery stores want to be profitable, so they open in areas with high income and prosperity. Food deserts are defined as any urban area where one has to drive a mile or more to get to a grocery store, or any rural area where one has to drive ten or more miles to get to a grocery store. See this article for more information. If a single mom with three kids lives across the street from a McDonalds but three miles from a grocery store, which is she going to choose as the best choice for lunch?
“But poor people can just go to McDonalds and get a salad with dressing on the side and chicken that is grilled and not fried and tap water!!1”
Not everyone has the literacy skills required to find, access, and comprehend nutritional information. In Canada, most packaged foods and chain restaurants provide nutritional information, usually packaged and presented in a Nutritional Facts chart. For argument’s sake, let’s use the example of the salad at McDonalds and the single mom. In order to make a “good choice” at McDonalds, she needs to:
1. Find the nutritional information. In order to find it online, she will need: awareness that this information exists online, computer, internet access, basic literacy skills to use Google/the company website, the 5-15 minutes it will take (depending on literacy and computer speed) to find the information. In order to find it in store, she will need: awareness that this information exists in store, social and verbal skills to ask an employee for the information, the 1-15 minutes it will take for the employee to obtain the brochure with the information and hand it over and/or refer the woman to a poster on the wall (I’ve noticed some fast food restaurants have been posting the nutritional information on the walls beside cash registers).
2. In order to comprehend the information, she needs: to be fluent and literate in English and or/French, to understand what the various categories in Nutritional Facts are (calories, fat, carbohydrates, protein), the definitions of serving size and recommended daily allowance is in regards to her caloric and macronutrional needs, math skills to be able to figure out how these numbers fit into her caloric needs for the day and more.
Obviously, the simple act of finding and consuming information isn’t quite as simple for every individual. Furthermore, the confusing and often conflicting messages put out by the media and the government (Canada Food Plan! Carbs are bad! Fat is bad! Eat whole grain! Eat organic!) make “eating healthy” a nightmare for someone who is already inundated by the numbers and words associated with nutritional information.
“But can’t poor people just get like some simple rolled oats and sweet potatoes and dried beans because those are sometimes available at convenience stores and are cheap and healthy!!1”
Not everyone has the time and resources to cook and/or store food every day. Take, for example, dried beans. Dried beans are excellent because they are relatively inexpensive but a great source of protein and fibre. However, beans take a really long time to cook. You have to boil beans in a pot for a loooong time for them to go from starchy rocks to delicious nuggets of carby-goodness. Not only do many people not have the hour(s) it takes to prepare these, but a lot of people don’t live in places where a stove or an oven is accessible or reliable. As well, some people may not have access to a refrigerator to store leftovers or big portions, or may be in a situation which calls for frequent or unexpected moving or leaving (to a shelter, for example).
“But isn’t it good for these bloggers to show some people that you CAN eat healthfully on $35 a week?At least they are showing examples of how it could be done, right?!1”
In my opinion (which is the only one that matters, amiright??), it is problematic to be making claims about how it is possible/easy/enjoyable to #Surviveon35. If anything, it’s sending the message that people who use government food stamps but don’t have the grocery stores/nutritional literacy/tools and resources to eat healthfully all the time are just simply “not trying hard enough”. It’s reinforcing the idea that the difference between people with high socioeconomic status and people with low socioeconomic status is simply a matter of working hard and clipping coupons rather than systemic barriers and inequalities. I, for one, am eager to see how this challenge turns out and the reflections of the bloggers who took part in it.
In the meantime, if there are things you want to do about the vast social inequalities that still exist in first world countries, you can:
· Donate to a food bank/organization that provide people with food when they cannot afford it.
· Speak out about these things whenever someone references the one of these “poor people myths”.
· Vote for politicians who care about these issues.
· If there aren’t any politicians who care, run for office.
· Don’t be a condescending asshole.
· #Surviveon35 (just kidding).
