By Carol L. Cole

Transcript Staff Writer

Mayor-elect Cindy Rosenthal figures she’s going to be hungry late next week.

Rosenthal decided to take the Food Stamp Challenge starting Monday — spending $21 for groceries for the entire week or $1 a meal, the average per person food stamp benefit — to promote Hunger Awareness Day on Monday.

She challenged her fellow councilmembers to undertake the Challenge, sponsored by the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma as a way to build awareness of what it is like to be hungry and to struggle to put nutritious food on the table.

“The goal is really to build awareness so I said I’d be happy to participate in that and be as successful as I can,” Rosenthal said.

Each month, more than 420,000 Oklahomans rely on food stamps to help meet their food needs. Nationally more than 80 percent of food stamp benefits go to families with children. Last year, almost one-third of Oklahoma’s children were certified for Food Stamps for some portion of the year.

It’s the first time the Regional Food Bank has sponsored a Food Stamp Challenge, which started nationally in Oregon, said Brett Murphy, Food Bank public policy coordinator and a Norman resident. The Food Bank’s Challenge is for any week in June that a person might want to tackle it.

“We wouldn’t ask anybody to live on a food stamp budget for a whole month, although that would be an admirable thing,” Murphy said. “It’s manageable to do, but we’re not hoping for people to really experience really negative consequences. But with one week, we think that people can really clearly see the obstacles that low-income families have with securing a healthy nutritious diet on a low budget.”

“You can eat and you can buy a lot of cheap, not-so-good-for-you-foods … but if you want to get the USDA recommended servings of fruits and vegetables and proteins, it’s very difficult to do,” he said.

USDA research shows that only 12 percent of low-income households who spend at the Thrifty Food Plan level get their recommended dietary allowances for 11 key nutrients.

Rosenthal has been giving some thought as to how she can stretch that $21 food budget.

“It’s a bit of a challenge,” said the mayor-elect, especially if she plans to eat nutritiously. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot because I also want to try to be real conscious of eating healthy. Fruits and vegetables and things like that. And at this point, what I plan on doing is my own little grocery list of what I think will be the most balanced diet and the most economical and go buy that and see if it gets me through the week.”

She said she’d be packing her lunch and is still researching the details of the challenge — like is it OK to drink the free coffee at her office at the University of Oklahoma?

“I’m a coffee addict, do I have to count that? I’m getting real anxious about that,” Rosenthal said. “But at the end of the day, I don’t think I’m going to sweat the small stuff. I think the bigger issue is that it’s going to be hard.”

Food stamps cover purchase of food, beverages and food-producing seeds or plants. They cannot be used to buy non-food items, such as pet food, paper products, household supplies, grooming items, vitamins or non-prescription medicine, hot foods or any other food intended to eat in the store.

The Thrifty Food Plan assumes people relying on food stamps have access to an operational kitchen, have time and knowledge to prepare meals from scratch, know about nutrition and have inexpensive transportation to a warehouse-type grocery store or discount supermarket.

Other Challenge guidelines:

• All food purchased and eaten during the challenge week, including fast food and dining out, must be included in the total spending.

• During the Challenge, only eat food purchased for the project. Do not eat food that is already owned (this does not include spices and condiments.)

• Avoid accepting free food.

Those participating in the Challenge will mark the conclusion of the challenge by having lunch Friday at Food and Shelter for Friends.

“In Norman, we are fortunate to have many generous social service agencies and faith-based organizations that are working to assist families in need, but we can all become more aware of the challenges of hunger in our community,” Rosenthal said.

To sign up for the Challenge, go to www.hungerinoklahoma.org. The Web site also has tips for eating on $21 a week.

Carol L. Cole

366-3538

ccole@normantranscript.com