Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Food Drive
- January 13th [Trysting Tree Conference Room]

o 9AM – 12PM

o 12PM – 3PM

- January 21st [Trysting Tree Conference Room]

o 8:30AM-11AM [Donation Pickup & Delivery]

Ending Hunger in Oregon: 2012 Food Security Summit – January 19 & 20

OSU SIFE Food Drive Bag Distribution– February 4 @ 9AM
[Trysting Tree Conference Room]

OSU SIFE Food Drive Collection – February 6 @ 10:30AM
[Trysting Tree Conference Room]

JA SIFE Bowl-a-Thon – February 10th & 11th @ Corvallis Bowling Alleys
Check out JASIFEBOWL.com for more details

In partnership with organizations across Oregon, OSU will host its first annual Hunger Summit Jan 19th and 20th. Leaders in food insecurity issues will come together to discuss the issues as well as create action plans to move forward. For more information or to register visit the website at

www.osuhungersummit.org

www.suenosdelatierra.wordpress.com

SNAP Challenge: Food Shopping, Menu Planning, and Coffee Withdrawal

Due to the beauty of my living situation the past two years I have had a chef present in the
house cooking lunch and dinner Monday through Friday as well as a fully stocked kitchen available for our use and enjoyment. As a result of this glorious system, I have not had to worry about the logistics of cooking for myself and planning out food shopping or a menu. Unfortunately, this fact came back to bite me during the SNAP Challenge. Last Saturday I called my roommate on a whim and asked her if she wanted to go food shopping with me to buy $21 worth of food to last me the coming week. I was so excited about the prospect of the coming process and challenge that I didn’t even bother to make a grocery list or plan out a menu or research ideas for inexpensive foods and meals. Although we were able to breeze through Winco buying food and keeping under budget it was not until early in the challenge that I realized how wrong my shopping attempt was. I did not buy enough food. I did not buy enough satisfying food. I did not buy enough healthful food. And I did not take into account the essentials like coffee which ended up costing me exponentially in physical, mental, and emotional distress. I figured that making sure I had at least something to consume for each meal every day was all that mattered. My addiction to coffee and the side effects of skipping it for a week didn’t even cross my mind as I raced through Winco. This was a huge mistake. The lack of coffee alone made the week extremely difficult because my body was not used to the lack of caffeine. This resulted in a headache that last four days. This opened up my eyes to how much I still need to learn about food and how difficult it is to plan a healthful and satisfying menu for one person for a week. It taught me that I need to start learning about food, pricing, budgeting, and cooking. This is a frightening realization to someone who is studying abroad and living alone in a foreign country in less than a year from now. It also gave me a lot of respect for those in poverty and on SNAP benefits because they not only eat on this very limited budget but they have to possibly work, support a family, or go to school all of which require a huge amount of energy and if they feel how I felt this week the likelihood their energy level is regularly high is low.

My name is Natasha and I am on the OSUSIFE team Executive Council and was the SNAP
Challenge project lead. For the past two years I have lived in a female cooperative house here at
OSU. One of the key aspects of this house is our chef. Our amazing chef, Louis, prepares lunch and
dinner for us Monday through Friday with ample leftovers for the weekends. Given that it is a house
there is a huge kitchen that is always fully stocked with food and supplies in the fridge, freezer, and
pantry that is free-for-all to enjoy. While doing the SNAP Challenge I committed to eating only my
$20.54 worth of food and nothing provided by my house. This provided to be incredibly difficult.
Food within our house fuels community and friendship. It is a social tool that we utilize very freely
and enjoy with no hesitation. I felt very isolated this week because I didn’t participate in house
meals or any socials that involved food, for example an ice cream social Tuesday night. I felt like
an outsider and like I was stepping away from this community I have worked so hard to build and
foster. Most of the girls I live with did not understand what I was doing and for the better half of the
week our cook felt very offended that I was not eating his food. Although once I explained it to him
he calmed down a bit and became more understanding. It was difficult to see the delicious food and
not eat it and it was especially difficult to smell the food.

I learned about the community aspect of food. Food drives the members of my house to be
social and engage in conversation with fellow housemates. I felt very disconnected to the activities,
happenings, gossip, and general social and personal life of my housemates. Food also drives many of
the social activities of our house. These are activities such as dances, movies, games, and socials with
other houses. This week we had our term clean and were treated to an ice cream social afterwards.
After all the hard work of cleaning the house I was so hungry and it was so hard to simply walk away
from the festivities. It made me really sad actually. It made me feel like I was punishing myself even
though I was simply adhering to the guidelines of the SNAP Challenge. It made me reflect on how
those on the SNAP program might feel when they see others eating something they know they can’t
have. First you feel sad. Then you feel angry. Then you feel sick because your stomach is growling
due to lack of dissatisfaction. Then you feel like giving up and eventually you must just do that. For
example, I was so unhappy with the situation of missing the social and feeling left out that I gave up
on homework and just went to bed early. It was too tough to watch my housemates enjoying
something I could not have.

I am very proud to say that I successfully went a week without consuming any food item
provided by my house. It was very difficult and, honestly, most of the week I was very unhappy at
the house. I feel so much more grateful for what I have and for what my circumstances are because
of this challenge. The challenge affected me physically, mentally, and emotionally and I empathize
with the millions of Americans living on SNAP benefits and in poverty and hunger in general. I now
grasp the reality of how difficult it is for them day to day on a mental, physical, and emotional level
and it makes me want to do more to help those in poverty even more.

The SNAP Challenge proved to be just that for me—quite a challenge. The way I was raised and the way I live day to day conflicted greatly with this challenge. I am so busy and on such a tight schedule that I actually plan out most of my days down to the minute. I also become accustomed to eating meals at certain times of the day and become extremely irritable when I miss a meal or eat too late. I decided to go with the “skip a meal option” for this challenge which might have been a much harder choice for me. I am one to eat small, healthy meals several times throughout the day and restricting this threw me for a loop. I found myself feeling anxious and irritated around my normal meal times and started to accumulate massive headaches by the end of the week. I also found myself eating too fast and stuffing myself by dinner time. I can’t imagine my body would stay healthy for much longer on this diet. I am so thankful to be able to eat healthy, nourishing meals when my body needs it rather than hoping I will have a meal available at all throughout the day.

While some students travel to tropical destinations or holiday resorts for their winter vacations, seven OSU SIFE students and one business advisory board member traveled to Guatemala to assist and promote the entrepreneurial ventures of local coffee farmers of San Miguel.  This is the second of many pledged trips by OSU SIFE.  Students spent nine days living in the homes farmers to fully appreciate and learn the ins and outs of the coffee business.  OSU SIFE members also spent time interviewing young entrepreneurs for micro-loans and workings with local artisans to promote their unique art tours.

After countless interviews is Spanish and Guatemalan sign language, several trips to the local paneria (bakery) and many chicken buses rides, the trip was a success.  We return back to Oregon State to raise funds for loans and to write integrated marketing plans.  We look forward to returning in the Spring and Summer to distribute funds, teaching entrepreneurial skills and implementing marketing campaigns.

Thank you Mr. Conant for your time and sharing your experiences with the students of Oregon State University.

Check back soon for a full gallery of the visit!