Ore. Gov. Starts Week on Food Stamps

Source: ABC News

If Gov. Ted Kulongoski seems a little sluggish this week, he's got an excuse: he couldn't afford coffee.

In fact, the Democratic governor couldn't afford much of anything during a trip to a Salem-area grocery store on Tuesday, where he had exactly $21 to buy a week's worth of food the same amount that the state's average food stamp recipient spends weekly on groceries.

Kulongoski is taking the weeklong challenge to raise awareness about the difficulty of feeding a family on a food stamp budget.

Accompanied by reporters and food stamp recipient Christina Sigman-Davenport, Kulongoski headed straight for a display of organic bananas, only to have Sigman-Davenport steer him toward the cheaper non-organic variety.

The governor pined wistfully for canned Progresso soups, but at $1.53 apiece, they would have blown the budget. He settled instead for three packages of Cup O'Noodles for 33 cents apiece. Kulongoski also gave up his usual Adams natural, no-stir peanut butter for a generic store brand, but drew the line at saving money by buying peanut butter and jelly in the same jar.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3076338

Honestly, his shopping wasn't very well planned. He bought two jars of peanut butter but only one loaf of bread, and a ten-pound bag of potatoes but no butter. He bought zucchini instead of cheaper frozen peas and carrots. He bought name-brand granola. He paid $2 for a jar of pesto. It was a very odd conglomeration of stuff.

He probably doesn't actually cook at home. He gave it a shot.

It's a good publicity stunt, though. Makes people think.

And his odd conglomeration of onions/zuchinni/beans were because he was making soup. And a quiche.

I suspect he might just find himself fasting for a day or two near the end of his effort.

;-)

WinCo employees enjoy wages and benefits that are competitive for the industry and generally exceed area standards.

WinCo’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) means WinCo Foods, Inc. is an employees-owned company where workers are directly responsible for building their future.

WinCo employees are members of self-formed employee association committees that have direct input into their wages, benefits and working conditions, and employee discipline matters.

Not surprisingly, WinCo employees stay with the company much longer than average. The turnover rate at WinCo stores is almost 20% below the national average.

http://www.wincofoods.com/benefits.htm

I like their stores, even if they aren't specifically union. They do treat their employees well, which makes for happy people all around.

Yet we get points against us if we're more than 2 minutes late, whether we overslept, or we got stuck in traffic, or if we took a child to daycare and the opening person didn't show up. We get points against us if we're in the hospital having emergency surgery, unless we can manage to get the FMLA paperwork filled out.

We also get written up if someone walks out without paying when our backs are turned, regardless of the fact that we have to ring up two people at once, call for a price check, or whatever other multitasking we do.

And we have to have a note from a doctor in order to drink water while working. Also, here in the state of Idaho, we only get one 10 minute break for six hours of work according to our "contract."

We also get our hours cut if we are unable to work certain hours due to school, injury, responsibility to families, etc.

It's not as great as it sounds, trust me. I've been there for six years, and I can't wait to get out and work somewhere where I'm treated with respect by the customers and not stupid, just because I work at a grocery store.

Our stock is also being cut back this year... we didn't get to vote on that, just like we don't get to vote on how much we make.

As for the working conditions... if you have any repititive motion injuries or problems such as Plantar Fasciitis, be prepared to suck it up and keep on working. No one cares.

of the conversation for a while. Good job! Is he a Democrat? Is he a good, competent guy?

...but also very underwhelming and low-key. A lot of Oregonians, even some who voted for him, wouldn't be able to pick him out in a police line-up. His profile has risen slightly with the new Democratic-led legislature.

For Gov. Ted, going on foodstamps for a week is Flamboyance Itself. He's been to Iraq at least once post-invasion, to visit the troops and have a look around with some other politicos, but this is one of the few times I've seen him get any national media coverage.

Interesting fellow though -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulongoski

Or at least a mug shot. (This is the premier of my Canadian province, after being arrested for drunk driving. In another country, to make it even worse!)

It leaves a ton of stuff out....

Here's his official bio:

http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/bio.shtml

And yep, You're right, Organism- he's an interesting fellow and sometimes hard to peg.

If it was me, I would have made a beeline to the Bulk Foods. Bought nothing but grains (it's really cheap!), gone for the fresh vegies, FRESH POTATOES (@ $1.63 for 10 lbs.) for super-nutritious meals. Lotsa casseroles, soups, homemade bread.

Mmmmmm....

But I guess the point wasn't to live well was it? Because you can.

I seriously want to know how you do that. And if you do have some sort of system of nutritious recipes for a week (breakfast, lunch, and dinner for seven days) that doesn't cost more than $21, then you need to publish it. That's (paradoxically) a million-dollar idea right there. I know I'd buy it.

yeah you can spend $21 a week on nothing but rice and flavorings -- i have done it for less -- but if you or anyone in your family has metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes etc. then you have really hurt your family's health to save a buck

we need to get away from the big lie that low quality food like grains is a decent substitute for a healthy diet

the low fat, high carb diet of the 90s resulted in the biggest obesity epidemic of all time, and the biggest WORLD-WIDE diabetes epidemic of all time

most people who are not of southern mediterrian (s0rry spelling) are going to be seriously harmed by a low fat, high carb diet centered on grains

even the CHINESE are getting fat, and i don't think it's because they're eating too much beef!

And what is that anyway?
Mahalo from the land of rice and rice and rice and rice. And fatness.

i did the $1 a day thing for almost 20 years and not as any hobby but because I was poor

as a result my husband has metabolic syndrome (pre-diabetes)

a minority of people can eat unlimited rice but a great many people cannot w.out becoming obese and suffering from a variety of health issues

supposedly the closer your ancestry is to southern europe the greater the chance that you will have a good result from a low fat, high carb diet

i'm going to take a wild guess and suggest that most folks in hawai'i don't enjoy this ancestry or genetics, hence the issues with obesity and diabetes/metabolic syndrome if they overdo grains

even brown rice sends my husband's readings off the charts :-( -- and white rice, at 15 cents a pound in my area, is just as bad, its virtue that you are filled when you are hungry at a cheap price but it is not something you want to be eating for long term health

That's why I'd like to see a menu for a week. I have a feeling this "$21 a week" diet is just a bit more nutritious than eating discarded newspapers.

food pyramid. They are the base. Beans and rice or beans and tortillas make a complete protein.

jeezus pleezus

who doesn't know this?

top of the pyramid: oils, sweets, empty calories, and not exercising. People gain weight when they take in more calories than they burn. The energy is stored as fat. They also eat much processed food and fast food, and altered grains from which the bran and germ has been removed.

http://www.mypyramid.gov/

One size doesn't fit all. MyPyramid Plan offers you a personal eating plan with the foods and amounts that are right for you. Click on the MyPyramid Plan box to get started.

MyPyramid Tracker offers a detailed assessment of your food intake and physical activity level. Click on the Tracker box for an in-depth look at your food and physical activity choices.

Use the advice "Inside MyPyramid" to help you

* Make smart choices from every food group.
* Find your balance between food and physical activity.
* Get the most nutrition out of your calories.
* Stay within your daily calorie needs.

MyPyramid food patterns are designed for the general public ages 2 and over. They are not therapeutic diets for specific health conditions, or for pregnancy or lactation. Those with a chronic health condition should consult with a health care provider to find a dietary plan that is right for them.

This has actually been a hobby for me. I've been trying to cut grocery expenses down to nothing, and then still live well on what you have. It really wasn't an economic necessity, but more of a challenge.

It's amazing how well you can live on really, really low funds. You CAN live exceedingly well on grains. We sprout a lot of them, and mix them in breads, soups, oriental dinners. There is NOTHING more nutritious than sprouts in my opinion.

It's actually not a bad idea because I've been working on for example, if a person only had $25.00 to live on for the next two weeks, what should they do? I figured out what you would have to buy, like 1 lb. of flour, 3 tomatoes, etc.

I would NOT do it for the money. I'd do it to show people who are hurting financially how to do it.

Get a MySpace site or something (or just use the DU Journal) and let me see your week of 21 meals for $21 or less. Then let's see how your menu stacks up nutritionally.

That's what I thought.

It's horse puckey.

I don't care if you live in the sticks, a nutritious, well-balanced diet costs more than $21/week.

Take $21 to the store and make it go as far as you can. Post your results.

i'm tired of people who haven't been there telling me how healthy it is to live on beans and rice for 20 years

you do it for 20 years, see your family member's health destroyed or your own health destroyed, and get back to me

i'm angry and for good reason -- i did everything you smug rich people who do this as a hobby tell us poor people to do -- and it has destroyed the health of my family


cheap grains are NOT a good diet, they are a way to keep poor people marked as poor forever -- we all know that we can easily tell a poor or "trashy" family by their weight -- i'm tired of the hypocrisy

He bought some stuff for a quiche and some stuff for homemade soup. His wife spent $17 of her $21 on some items that look like they're destined for salad and some sort of pasta.

A whole chicken was my big ticket item, but it lasted a whole week (a slice of roasted chicken for Sunday dinner, chicken pasta primivera, chicken tetrazine, chicken a la king, chicken salad, chicken noodle soup). By the time I finished with it, there was barely enough left to throw out. A pound of hamburger would last the whole week too. The rest of my budget was peanut butter, bulk bag apples or oranges, rice, oatmeal, beans, seasonal veggies, eggs, canned tuna, pasta, canned tomato sauce, flour, sugar, instant coffee, tea, powdered milk, butter (it's taste was worth the cost and I tended to use less) and bread.
Almost no convince foods. I tended to cook on the weekend and reheat during the week. My grocery money went further when I got a job as a waitress. But it was still tough going to stretch that grocery money

Source: Associated Press

SALEM, Ore. - If Gov. Ted Kulongoski seems a little sluggish this week, he's got an excuse: he couldn't afford coffee.

In fact, the Democratic governor couldn't afford much of anything during a trip to a Salem-area grocery store on Tuesday, where he had exactly $21 to buy a week's worth of food — the same amount that the state's average food stamp recipient spends weekly on groceries.

Kulongoski is taking the weeklong challenge to raise awareness about the difficulty of feeding a family on a food stamp budget.

Accompanied by reporters and food stamp recipient Christina Sigman-Davenport, Kulongoski headed straight for a display of organic bananas, only to have Sigman-Davenport steer him toward the cheaper non-organic variety.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070425/ap_on_re_us/a_week_on_food_stamps

As a former resident of OR, go Ted :thumbsup:

and tell us how your health is... i would bet he would be over-weight, have high blood pressure, and have a high cholesterol level. Cheap food is not good food. I am glad he is doing this, but, he does need to empasize that the food he is getting is crap nutrionally.

for the packaging, processing, and the advertising. Whole grains are excellent food.

it just gets me sick that this fib goes on forever and forever

let me suggest this, do it for 20 years and when you have metabolic syndrome(pre-diabetes), diabetes, or cardio vascular disease get back to me

because you or another family member on this diet WILL have it

the food pyramid of the 90s has destroyed lives, the obesity epidemic has EXPLODED since this lie that people can live on carbs/grains has been put forward

seriously, anyone can go to to walmart or walgreens and get some sticks and test how your body responds after consuming brown rice, it is the same or worse as after consuming a damn candy bar

we have been lied to -- and just to sell cheap grains at a high price instead of real food because cheap shoddy grains only worthy of being fed to livestock is what big ag is all about

and i'm sick of it

it kills

it stops here as far as i'm concerned

Trader Joe's Organic Brown Rice:
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 2 cups (1 Pouch)
Amount per Serving
Calories 320 Calories from Fat 20
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 2g 3%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Trans Fat 0g
Sodium 0mg 0%
Total Carbohydrate 68g 23%
Dietary Fiber 5g 20%
Sugars 0g
Protein 8g 16%
Vitamin A 0%
Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 2%
Iron 4%
Est. Percent of Calories from:
Fat 5.6% Carbs 85.0%
Protein 10.0%

Carbs = sugar. Mmmm mmmmm good.

Brown rice is.

Here it is again:

Total Carbohydrate 68g 23%
Dietary Fiber 5g 20%
Sugars 0g
Protein 8g 16%
Vitamin A 0%
Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 2%
Iron 4%
Est. Percent of Calories from:
Fat 5.6% Carbs 85.0%
Protein 10.0%


I would characterize brown rice as an adequate adjunct to an otherwise well-rounded diet.

As a diet staple, it's woefully lacking.

It shows the republicans. I mean the people who still believe in "welfare queens".

Thom Hartmann said today that it is based on a women in Chicago that used 2 S.S. numbers and had to repay the government 8K.

As usual the term\reality is not anywhere near what raygun (and the rethuglicans) shouted about...

could be feeding, clothing, housing, and educating SO many here.

to kill people.

Okay, maybe that's a bit high.

He makes me very proud as an Oregonian. We have a history of outspoken progressive Governors, even when they are Republicans! I cannot imagine living on $21 a week.

My favorite line in this article:

"(Kulongoski)drew the line at saving money by buying peanut butter and jelly in the same jar."

"I don't much like the looks of that," said Kulongoski, 66, staring at the concoction.

LOL! I feel exactly the same way. Though I love a good PBJ, that swirled stuff is scary!

are just two.

RV, formerly from Central Point

to boot. He would be far too liberal for today's GOP. Wayne Morse's statue has been added to the Lane County "Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza." Every Saturday while nearby Saturday Market is open sound equipment is set up for people to speak their mind Tiger of the Senate style.

He is missed, but his protege Congressman Peter DeFazio is in seventh heaven as the chair of the House Transportation Committee. He just gave up a run at vulnerable Sen. Gordon Smith to get rid of that particular piece of human political pestilence.

We have a Democratic State House and Senate, and they just passed a law protecting Gays and Lesbians from discrimination and are passing some generally good legislation for a change.

Let him get good and pissed off about it. Let the people see the change in him.

Gov. Kulongoski is a progressive Democrat and despite being a politician, I'm positive he has more of a "clue" about poverty than most Republicans.

If they lose more then five pounds in one week, I swear some idiot on t.v. will figure out a way to turn this into a food-stamp diet.

He's trying to make a point here: Social services as provided don't cut it.

That's the message.

:kick:

but I was a college student only a year and a half ago. :)
Screw that ramen crap, peanut butter and jelly is your friend.

Unfortunately, if you eat enough beans, the rest of your friends will probably not want to stick around.

I speak from experience.

Although I am lactose intolerant, so cheap mac and cheese DOES have similar effects on me. :\

...without them, we would not make the bills. With some planning, we use them to cover very close to all food expenses, about 190.00 a month. We also fish and take crab, urchins and hunt elk and deer to supplement our diets. We eat no meat other that what we kill or catch.
Here on the coast of Oregon there is very little in the way of good paying jobs. I work two part time, my SO works two part time and we get by ok. I know many who do not.
The resource industries that were here are long gone, the retiree's and vacationers have created a workable service industry but we all know what that pays. If your over 45, it gets a lot tougher as even service jobs prefer younger workers.
If we moved "over the hill" to the valley, we could do better but our family is here, 6th generation, Salmon fishermen in the past but thats died out too.
Its not easy getting food stamps, there are interviews and paperwork, copies of copies to file but without them, we would be make or break every month.
I know of two Coast Guard families that receive them too.
Shame.

And a belated welcome to DU. :hi:

Hekate

of a poor person but he knows there is a light at the end of his tunnel. After his week of playing poor he can go back to living large, an option not available to the poor. Let him live on food stamps long enough to exhaust his five year LIFETIME limit and then need help.

proper facilities for cooking. So it is hard for them to buy cheaper staples such as dried beans and rice. Ten dollars will get you a lot of dried beans and rice, particularly if you can find a place to buy them in bulk. But you have to know how to cook them and you need pots and pans and a good stove. A microwave and a hot plate are not going to cut it.

If I did I could stretch my funds a lot better.

if you have all day.

Bush** would be on food stamps!

I'll be very curious to see what he says after the week is done,and if he'll be able to understand what it's like to live like that year round.

it's like those who have to live like this day-to-day. Really gratifying to see this. Even if he doesn't make the best buys. He's out there trying. Good for him! Perhaps some truly compassionate and informed solutions will result from this. EVERY representative of EVERY sort should do something like this, wherever they live. They need to know. They need to see. They need to be reminded.

Republicans are always gunning to cut aid to the disadvantaged, namely, the poor including seniors and disabled.

Besides, he can then step in and defend the poor and say from just one week's experience that he cannot in good conscience take food or aid away from those who live like this day in and day out --and most of them are children, the disabled and poor seniors.

Figures that a DEMOCRATIC governor would try something like this, and be even better able to see for himself and then sympathize, and then want to take action.

The day we see a republi-CON, ANY republi-CON try a similar personal experiment, we are on our way to TRUE healing in this country. But it's very telling that you'd see this type of move coming from a DEMOCRAT. republi-CONS are just not into it. They still cling to the "IGMFU" philosophy of government: "I Got Mine, F-U."

I'll be following up on this one.