Allan Thompson, Food Box Challenge Participant

A Wife's View: Words from Anne Thompson

As the personal chef for Councillor Allan Thompson during this week’s exercise (and for that matter, every other week for the last 22 years), I’m wading into the blog to share our family’s experiences.

Every project starts somewhere, and for me, my participation with my husband in the CCS Hunger Awareness Week began with the simple and casual question from fellow participant, Karen Hutchinson, at the recent Cheltenham United Church Beef Supper last Saturday night.

"Are you participating as a family in the food challenge next week?" she asked.

“No”, I simply told her, not entirely sure what she was even talking about, so it obviously meant we weren’t.

It was that slow, cautious but knowing glance she gave me in return that told me maybe I needed to find out a bit more about what Allan had got himself into.

As it was, grocery shopping was next on our to do list for that evening and while enroute to the grocery story, Allan filled me in on the project requirements. 

At first blush his project seemed simple enough. Pick up the required staples on the list, he told me. Easy enough. But it was when we came to the part about the limit of five pantry items and the $8 expenditures that the councillor and I locked horns. He wanted to come home armed with all his food, as he needed it for a photo shoot on Monday. I told him that with a limit on the pantry items, it would require very careful planning to get him through the week and I would kind of need to figure it out. I'm good, but not that good, and I needed more time than the 45 minutes or so we were in the store. We compromised. He came home, arms laden with his requisite canned and boxed goods, and a few, strategic well-placed purchases.

Once home, we came to some family agreements on the project. The rule in this house has always been that what is on the table is the meal. Once past the nursing and baby food stage, there were no special meals made for the children when they were young; instead they were taught to help with the meals and eat what we eat, and as a result, both our children enjoy to cook and have developed a love of food with very sophisticated and adventuresome palettes. We did not feel the rules should change for this week, nor would it be fair for their dad to eat his project allowance while the rest of us enjoyed our regular supper.

Again, while Allan was the participant, if the project is about creating awareness it would be best if we all participated. In my mind, I wanted to hold us true to the staples on the list, but with more bodies involved, I also figured it would allow us more flexibility, as some of the participants who have doubled up with their spouse have also noted.

While wanting to respect the project, we needed to be realistic and so we established our house rules for the project:

·     As the councillor, Allan already had other commitments on his calendar for the week (i.e., Wednesday morning: Mayor’s Breakfast, Wednesday evening: a fundraising gala for the Credit Valley Foundation) and so for these events he would go "off program” for those occasions--justification being that he is participating in this program for the week to support the CCS’s cause, whereas Wednesday evening is a moment in time in support another worthwhile cause. It seemed fair, but we agreed we would add a meal onto either end of the project timeline to compensate for any “off program” meals.

·     My immediate concern when I saw the list was for nutritional balance, and so while we agreed that our teenage children would participate in the family meals and share in leftovers for school lunches, etc., as is our usual practice) we would continue to ensure they had their required nutritional needs.

·     As the cook, I would do my best to stay on program, but it might need some tweaking along the way and I didn't want to hold myself ahead of time to any commitment of what our pantry items or the $8 expenditures might be. It also raises the question: if one person is allowed $8, is a family of four allowed $32 and more pantry items? Rather than arbitrarily multiplying all the quantities by four, my goal is to limit my use of the pantry items and the other food options, to only what is reasonable enough for me to put a balanced meal in front of my family. For me, it would be a work in progress, adjusting and tweaking as I go along.

But by doing so, I needed to have a clear picture of how we were tracking, and so I developed this chart below. Items under the “Food Item” list are the foods taken directly off the list given to the participants; “Pantry Items” are those items already in my cupboard that did not need to be re-stocked with this last grocery shop; “$ Options” are the purchases we made this week; “Other” were items that were either in my freezer, or extra purchases, included here for tracking purposes to see how much “over” the list we needed to go to feed our family of four.

Day		Menu	List Food	$ Options	Pantry	Other
Sunday	Supper	* Lentil salad * Salmon * Asparagus	* Lentils	* Spinach * Carrots * Garlic * Asparagus	* Raisins * Canola oil * Soy sauce packets * Ginger * Pepper	* Salmon (prior on-sale purchase, in the freezer) * 1 cup cheese
Monday	Breakfast	* Egg salad sandwich		* Bread * Eggs	*Mayonnaise
	Lunch	* Lentil salad
	Supper	* Potato salad * Bean salad * Baked chicken	* Kidney beans * Chick peas * Green beans * Yellow beans	* Potatoes (6) * Red pepper * Cherry tomatoes		* Chicken thighs (value-savings pack)
Tuesday	Breakfast	* Boiled egg
	Lunch	* Bean salad
	Supper	* Salmon loaf * Potato salad * Bean salad * Cherry tomatoes	* Canned salmon	* Bread * Green onion * Milk * Eggs	* Butter * Salt * Pepper
Wednesday	Breakfast	Cup of coffee
	Lunch	* Salmon loaf * Bean salad
	Supper	Off program
Thursday	Breakfast	Boiled egg
	Lunch	* Salmon loaf * Bean salad * Carrot

Notes:

·         Items appearing in italics denote menu items that re-appeared as leftovers

For the bean salad, we used Allan’s allowance of one can of beans and one can of vegetables, doubling the cans to stretch and serve our family of four. I should note that bean salad is a favourite in this house anyway (well, for everyone that is but Allan). It is flavourful, healthy, full of fibre, and from a cook’s perspective, is one of those great go-to-dishes to have in the refrigerator because it keeps well and goes a long way. You can see how with just a few pantry items, this dish made several repeat appearances on the family’s weekly menu. (And while not included on the chart, I should note it was included as lunch for each the children and I on Tuesday, and by Thursday morning, there is still enough left for my lunch today.) The only downside my daughter noted with this project is that with her father now sharing in the bean salad this particular week, there hasn’t been as much to go around for the rest of us.

Organizers, and indeed some of the other participants, may feel we are not adhering strictly enough to the rigidness of the program; but in advance of even participating, a quick review of the list was all I needed to do to know that the list was incomplete in terms of providing nourishment and sustenance. The items on their own amount to little more than snacking, and while for the purposes of a one-off week project, it could be enough to get you through, long term the menu would quickly become boring and repetitious. So if the project is really about awareness, then it is about asking questions and seeking solutions. How much more can and do participants have on their tables beyond these meager supplies? How much more do I need to provide to cover my family’s basic needs? And most importantly, what other types of services or offerings should we be including in our community programs to improve the available programs?