Justin Broglie
Age: 21
Graduation: 2012
Major: Digital Media Design | "I decided to take part in the Food Stamp Week. I spent $18.42 at Mariposa food co-op on Tuesday night, purchasing oatmeal, quinoa, some oranges, mustard greens, arugula, a loaf of bread. I had some peanut butter at home, and a few other items. For those of you who don't know what Mariposa is, it is a member-owned cooperative grocery store in West Philly, and it purchases mostly local/organic products. I have so many feelings/thoughts that I want to share about this challenge, but I find it hard to articulate them. I will try below: - I realized that I was not mentally prepared to do this, so I decided to go somewhat go half-baked on it, spending probably $5-$6 per day.
- I felt fear during this challenge, fear of not being able to make ends meet (even with the knowledge that I was just "pretending" to be food insecure).
- I partly feel like a hypocrite because I rationalized not completely doing it: because I value spending time on educating myself on the issues and thus want to be at my optimal health. Having said that, I feel like I stayed around $6 per day, and that was purchasing local, organic products, so I could probably easily do $4 per day if I went to a place like Shop n Bag, and planned more.
- I realize more viscerally the harsh realities of having such limited funds.
- The biggest limit is time...I feel that monetarily it is pretty doable if you go to grocery stores, but this requires you to prepare all your meals yourself."
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