Sustainable Initiatives by Andrea Dean

Days 29: Eat Local Food Stamp Challenge-EBT for Slow Food and Fast Food

admin — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 07:12:27 +0000

Today I was in Hilo, so I went to the Hilo Farmer’s Market, which takes EBT. Finally, I can shop at a farmer’s market for local food! Unfortunately, I live 1 1/2 hours from Hilo. Not a trip I would make just to go food shopping. I mistakenly said in the video that the Hilo Farmer’s Market was the only market on the island that took EBT, but S.P.A.C.E. Farmer’s Market also takes EBT. Anyone know of any other’s on Hawaii Island?

And on the other side of the spectrum…Minute Stop and other convenience stores are making it really easy for people to use EBT there. The problem is that it is all total junk food–candy, chips, gum and sugar drinks. Check out this great article Fast Food Outlets Want a Piece of the Food Stamp Pie.

Days 23-27: Eat Local Food Stamp Challenge-My Fall from Grace

admin — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 02:57:23 +0000

The Breadfruit Festival (ironically!) and a subsequent trip to Oahu were the reasons for my temporary fall from grace. On Thursday, I decamped from my home base in Hawi to stay at the Keauhou Beach Resort. Traveling away from home and trying to eat on a food stamp budget was difficult, but I did the best I could. I could not cook and there was only so much food that I could take with me. I did fairly well most of the day on Thursday with my homemade ‘ulu-broccoli soup and smoothie, but had to purchase a prepared salad at Island Naturals to make it through the day. (Actually, my friend purchased it for me so I didn’t have to spend the money–but there is only so much freeloading one can do!) Thankfully, the Keauhou Beach Resort was a sponsor of the Breadfruit Festival and they were featuring ‘Ulu with Tomato-Ogo Relish at the restaurant. For dinner, I paired the ‘ulu special with some local poke and beer, and life was good–but expensive! We shared all of this at the table, but is was about $30, and obviously could not be purchased with food stamps. When I have done local foods experiments in the past, eating out at restaurants was fair game, which made being on the road fairly easy. Friday morning I ate the local fruit on the breakfast buffet at the Keauhou Beach Resort. Friday was our big preparation and meeting day, and I didn’t have anything with me for lunch. Sadly, that was when I succumbed to the bag of potato chips that was being passed around. That night David Fuertes served a delicious locally procured and prepared meal–beef hekka, smoked pork, ‘ulu salad, sweet potato salad, taro in coconut milk.

Saturday, the day of the Breadfruit Festival, was fairly easy! I did start the day with some banana bread (another minor fall from grace). The Breadfruit Cooking Contest was incredible–we had about 30 entries, all original recipes. Chef Olelo pa’a Ogawa and Chef Scott Lutey did cooking demonstrations and made incredible gourmet dishes with breadfruit. I was too busy to actually eat the luncheon, but by all reports Chef Betty Saiki and the students from the West Hawai‘i Community College Culinary Arts Program served a fabulous ‘ulu inspired lunch. That night it was dinner at the Ke‘ei Cafe–a local greens salad with Ahi and some brie (ooops). Again, local but expensive.

The real challenge was when I traveled to Oahu on Sunday – Tuesday. A tight travel schedule and staying in a hotel made it pretty difficult to stay all local, and impossible to stay within any kind of budget. So… now that I am back from Oahu, I need to pick up the ball and finish out the week! I do have some data that I need to report with regards to prices of local vs. non-local–coming soon!

Day 18: Eat Local Food Stamp Challenge-Seduced by Sweets and Almost Broke

admin — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 08:35:45 +0000

To date I have spent $255.29 out of my $314 food stamp budget. That means I have only $58 left to eat for 12 more days. That is $5/day. This does not sound good, but may actually be doable since I do have plenty of meat and breadfruit in the freezer, and food in the fridge. I really blew it yesterday when I spent $44 at the health food store on sweet treats. If I hadn’t done that, my food budget would be in much better shape.

Other than trying to stick to a budget, my biggest challenges thus far have been:

1. Lack of Variety: Since I can only shop at places that take EBT I can’t shop at my local farmers market or buy direct from local farms. I have been limited primarily to Takata’s food store in Hawi, KTA and Foodland in Waimea. This past weekend I was in Keauhou, so I shopped at the KTA in Keauhou (which had more variety) and Island Naturals (which was a bad move, due to my own lack of restraint.) This has been my basic palate: eggs (too many!), smoothies with milk, banana and strawberry, chard, lettuce, papaya, ahi poke (maybe too expensive?), fish, grass fed beef, sweet potato, pumpkin, taro, breadfruit. There is plenty of variety available if you can buy local at farmers markets, but being limited to all local at the food store does not offer enough choices for a interesting diet. Survivable, Yes. Interesting, No. If my experiment was not so extreme, and I was just increasing the amount of local food in my diet, that would be different.

2. Lack of Time! I’m always extremely busy, but as the Co-Director of the Breadfruit Festival that is taking place on Saturday, September 24, 2011 (by the way!), I am busier than usual. Preparing local foods takes a good deal of time and preparation. If I am going to the office for the day–and a long day at that–I need to have enough food with me to last the day. I can’t just go downstairs to the coffee shop at lunch and grab a salad or a sandwich. This means getting up extra early to prepare and pack food–something that I have not been that good about the last week. As a result, I had many days when I was very hungry. Again, if this was not an extreme 100% local experiment, I could have supplemented with other foods.

The good news is that I am still alive and kicking–while learning how difficult it would be to try to eat a predominantly local diet on food stamps–unless you were growing your own food, hunting, fishing or gleaning. There is a lot of free local food out there–but again–you need to time to gather, and you need to know how.

Day 10: Eat Local Food Stamp Challenge- Community Harvest in Kohala

admin — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:13:00 +0000

I ate heartily-without spending money from my budget. I spent Day 10 at Community Harvest Hawaii, a community gleaning project that harvests excess fruit and veggies in the community and processes them into a big community meal together. One of the goals of the project is to increase access to locally grown foods for the community. Everyone ate and took home local food, and we distributed 20 boxes through the Food Basket and Senior Nutrition Program.

Day 8: Eat Local SNAP Challenge-85% of the Food Store is Off Limits

admin — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:11:46 +0000

We all know that 85% of the food that we eat is imported to Hawaii, but the point is really driven home for me when I walk the isles of the supermarket. Even a supermarket that is agressivley “local” like KTA Superstores is filled primarily with processed, imported foods.

Day 6: Eat Local SNAP Challenge-Local Beef is Cheap!

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 23:44:38 +0000

I am one of those people that I used to look down upon. The type of person who said “I used to be a vegetarian for 20 years, but now I eat meat.” Every time I heard that statement I went into a mild shock. I just could not understand how anyone could sell out like that. Convert to the dark side. Didn’t they understand the environmental impacts? What about the spiritaul consequences? Soooo lower chakra.

Today I had local steak and eggs for breakfast. By 9:30 am I felt like I could rule the world. During the last 6 months or so I have gleefully and guiltily sampled prosciutto, bacon, steak, pork and who knows what else. Some local, some not. Today my meat education continued with me exploring the meat case at Takata’s Store in Hawi. I really don’t know the difference between a rump roast and a steak. But I know how to compare apples to apples, or in this case hamburger to hamburger–and the local meat was coming up roses.

Jerry Takata told me that the local meat is less expensive in most cases, but he still carries the mainland beef because some people prefer the taste. The local beef is grass fed and has a certain smell and texture that is sometimes not preferred by people who are used to grain fed beef.

My friend asked me tonight, “Why would anyone buy non-local beef over local if the local is cheaper?” Ah… well, besides the taste/texture preference issue, there is also the issue of availability. Here on Hawaii Island we have a lot of cows, but not a lot of places to slaughter them. The lack of slaughterhouse capacity keeps the quantity of local beef relatively low in the market.

Another friend reminded me that eating local, wild caught pig would be a better environmental choice than ranch raised cattle.

I ended up buying stew meat for $4.81/lb because I was having a friend over for dinner and I was nervous about making a meal that I could stretch. When I got it home I realized I was completely clueless and a little bit nervous about cooking it. I don’t think I have cooked meat in at least 25 years. In the end I decided to stick with what I knew, and I made the mahi mahi that I bought last week (that needed to get eaten!). We had stir fried kale and picbeets on the side. Delicious.

Days 3-5: Eat Local SNAP Challenge-Breadfruit and Durian

admin — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:05:36 +0000

One of the hardest things about an eat local challenge like this is keeping up with the blogging! I caught up on the last few days with a video blog.

On the way to harvest breadfruit we stopped at Ken Love’s house. He had scored a durian fruit earlier in the day and wanted to share it with Craig Elevitch, who is a durian fanatic! I tried it for the first time.

How to tell if a breadfruit is mature (ready to pick).

Day 2: Eat Local SNAP Challenge-My Whole Day’s Budget on Dinner?

admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 10:08:14 +0000

I started the day with scrambled eggs with ahi and spinach. Half asleep, I was warming a tortilla over the gas flame when my friend Alex asked what I was doing. I reluctantly surrendered my nice, warm tortilla to Alex. I had a banana, strawberry, poi, honey and milk smoothie for lunch and a 1/2 avo for a snack.

It is Friday night, and my usual Friday night routine is dinner at the Kava Kafe. Every month is Eat Local month at the Kava Kafe–every Friday night they serve up local music with a local, vegan, organic meal lovingly prepared by Leia Lawrence. So what’s the problem? Watch the video to find out (Sorry for the dark video, just close your eyes and listen!)

Day 1: Eat Local SNAP Challenge-$80 spent 29 Days to Go

admin — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:53:44 +0000

So much for all of my excellent “How to Prepare for an Eat Local Challenge” tips that the Big Island Weekly has been publishing. On Day 0, I initially fell short on two accounts: I did not do enough reconnaissance and did not gather enough staples in advance. I didn’t starve and was able to stay local, but I didn’t have a lot of variety in my diet today. It was all about Sweet Potatoes! I had a banana, sweet potatoes and ahi poke for breakfast. And sweet potatoes, strawberries and banana for lunch. I went to a business mixer tonight. Guess what the locally grown food was on the buffet? You guessed it–sweet potatoes! I will have you know that I dutifully abstained from the non-local beer and wine. (Must find a free underground mead or wine source!) I came home and steamed up some baby kale. I am now fantasizing about a midnight banana (or two!).

Today I took my own advice did some serious local food shopping. My local food store (Takata’s) in Hawi does carry locally grown food–I was able to buy sweet potatoes, dasheen (Japanese potato), ahi poke and the strawberries. I could also have bought some other veggies-beets, carrots, luau leaf, etc.. Tonight I was in Waimea, so I went to KTA , which has played a key role in Hawaii in supporting local farmers and developing the consumer market for locally grown and made products through its Mountain Apple Brand. I scored some staples: milk, eggs, pumpkin and taro. I also threw in some avo and some mahi mahi for fat and protein. I swung by the health food store and picked up some local organic spinach, kale and bananas. I also bought Waipio Valley poi, but as I am reviewing the receipt right now, I see that the cashier, who was in the middle of telling a long and dramatic story to her friend while checking out my groceries, forgot to charge me the almost $7 for the poi! Food Stamp budget miracle #1!

Money Spent?

$80.13. YIKES. That is 25% of my monthly budget spent in two days. I guess the trick will be making this food last for a week. I am thinking food preservation. Cooking and freezing some of the taro and pumpkin. I may freeze some of the poi for soup later.

Was Local Food More Expensive than Imported?

At Takata’s the North Kohala grown organic sweet potatoes were 37 cents per pound more expensive than the U.S. grown sweet potatoes. At this point, that does not make a big financial difference to me, I am still quite willing to pay the extra .37 for local and organic. Talk to me in 29 days.

Local organic spinach was $9.75/lb vs. $7.98/pound for the imported spinach. I am fairly sure that I could get a better price on greens at the farmers market or directly from my local farmer (which is what I usually do), but they don’t take EBT.

Good news on the pumpkin front, though. The local pumpkins were 50 cents less per pound than the US squash. Starch for starch–that evens me out on the sweet potato front and puts me ahead. At KTA, the prices for local food do not seem to be a barrier. I will have to compare some more, but it appears that they have managed to get the prices to be comparable (and cheaper in the case of pumpkins) than imported food. KTA also carries local milk!

OK, time for that midnight blogger banana snack!

Day 0-Andrea’s Eat Local SNAP Challenge: $314 My Monthly Budget

admin — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:47:40 +0000

Last night was Day 0 (the day before I start!) in my 30 day Eat Local SNAP Challenge. For those of you who don’t know what SNAP is and are envisioning me snapping my fingers and rhythmically eating local foods… SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and was formerly called Food Stamps. Instead of using paper food stamps, recipients now use EBT cards that look like debit or credit cards. (More later in the month on how this impacted Farmers Markets).

Today I visited the local State Department of Health and Human Services to learn how much my SNAP food budget would be if I was a food stamp recipient. Well… I was kind of shocked to discover that I have had many years recently in which I probably could have qualified for SNAP. The life of a local foods advocate is not that lucrative–although it is abundant with food!

The maximum allotment under the TFP (Thrift Food Plan) is $314/month for a one person family. I could actually be making $24,936 gross per year ($2,078/ month) and still qualify for this amount of monthly SNAP benefits. I would get max $314 for food only if other deductions (there is a formula that takes shelter and other necessary expenses into account) brought my monthly income to zero.

For the sake of this experiment, my advisor at DHHS suggested that I use the $314/month figure.

What are my parameters?

1) My food budget for September is limited to $314.
2) I can only shop at places that take EBT. SNAP recipients are on a tight budget and would not spend cash that could be used on other necessities on food. They would shop at places where they can use their SNAP benefits.
3) My diet will be primarily locally grown foods from within the State of Hawaii. I am not going to be strict about small items–condiments and oils. You can read about my 60 Eat Local Challenge from last year which outlined my many adventures in seeking out salt and oil!

Any questions? Am I missing anything?

I am sorry to say that I did have a bit of a food hoarding mentality today. I was invited to a dinner and volunteered to bring the ice cream. I don’t usually eat ice cream, but felt compelled to buy three pints and shamefully stuffed myself with all three flavors.