"I'm (expletive deleted) starving," said Batali, who's on the board of the food relief agency Food Bank for New York City, which issued the challenge to celeb pals like Batali and anybody else who wants to know what it's like.
Hmm. It's not my intention to be a celebrity-chef-bashing jerk, but what the hell? Are they serious? I appreciate anyone working to help the hungry- but this challenge is complete bullshit. Making your wealthy, well-fed family subsist on your gourmet rice and beans and lentil stew for a week accomplishes what, exactly?
Batali said his first reaction when asked to join was a big "gulp," then he realized while shopping for Friday's start of the challenge that with a little forethought it wouldn't be all that brutal.
Well, maybe it would be a little more "brutal" if the challenge was grounded in reality- at all. If you really want to see what it's like to subsist on food stamps, as a way of life, you should try this. Try working a nine hour day, after getting up early enough to get your children to school. Try rushing home so you don't have to pay the after school daycare that you can barely afford an extra twenty dollars for picking up your child 10 minutes late. Try hauling your children, their books and your own tired ass to your overpriced local market to comb the isles for something healthy to feed your child. Try knowing that there is no way in hell that they can wait for you to cook some cheap lentils for an hour when you get home. Try picking up some dollar bags of chips to satiate them until you get home, and having the yuppie next to you shake their head at the "junk food" you're buying with the food stamps they feel they're paying for. Trying living through the subtle humiliation of using an EBT card to pay for your groceries, day in and day out.
Subsisting on food stamps, especially when food is made from scratch, is doable, he said, "as a way to live, but certainly not as a way to thrive. You can always have pasta with tomato, but that's not thriving."
I guess these stunts are just an avenue to get people talking. I mean, it's working- I'm talking about it. And I don't want to demean any charitable work that people do- because, let's face it- they don't have to do it at all. But the fact of the matter is that living on food stamps is a reality for a lot of Americans. And it is fucking hard- and the government does its best to also make the whole experience as demeaning as possible. Submitting wage reports every few months, dealing with government employees, waiting in long lines. All while ignoring your pride, so that you can feed your family. You don't know what that feels like, Mario. You just don't. So don't talk about how "doable" something is- when you're not really doing it. It's really insulting to the families in this economy for whom subsisting on government assistance has become an unavoidable reality.
Thank you. My thoughts exactly when I read the article this morning.
ReplyDeleteWhen my ex husband and I both lost our jobs within a matter of weeks we swiftly ended up in the NYC shelter system because we had no family and little savings. The entire process was the most demeaning time of my life. Coupled with crippling PPD I thought about suicide every day.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I think the stigma attached to using foodstamps greatly depends on what neighborhood you're living in, especially in the greater NYC area (I've also lived in Florida and Ohio). I was living in Harlem while we were in the shelter and there was no shame delivered while using the EBT card. It as very different when we finally got out the system and moved to Queens. I literally had another mother ask me why my parents weren't helping me out
You are so right, Maria. When I was a social worker in Kern County, AFDC would give huge bags of "commodities" to families - beans, barley, rice & thereby cut the amt of food stamps they received. When I did required home visits, there would be the bags, sitting unopened. It seemed that my clients didn't have a degree from a Cordon Bleu cooking school nor a walk-in cabinet filled with spices & flavorings to use. $31 a week would barely buy milk and fresh vegetables for a growing family. Oh, and what if your kid doesn't like cauliflower this week? Now multiply that nightmare scenario times 52.
ReplyDeleteThe whole article just rubbed me the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteThis totally struck a nerve with me too, especially when you talked about running to the store with tired kids who aren't going to wait for a meal to be cooked when you all finally get home. If Mario really wants to find out what it's like to live this kind of life, he should put in long hours as a sole caregiver, slash his wages by about 99%, and fire all his assistants/nannies. Otherwise he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.
ReplyDeleteDitto here. If you want to really live on food stamps, you have to be knowledgeable and have the time to cook... which most normal people don't. It's the same irritation I have with Top Chef contestants when they have to cook with what's in the average American's kitchen-- "Where are the fresh foods? People actually eat this? What the hell do they want me to do with this crap?"
ReplyDeleteShut up and live a day in our lives.