Today was the day I knew would be long and complicated. Once a month I have a program called Java and Jews. I sit at various local coffee shops and discuss the issues of the day with whomever turns up.

I explained to each of the managers what I was doing last week and that while I would be there, I would not actually be eating or drinking. I ate my oatmeal at home and set off.

My first event of the day was at Starbucks. I walked in with my carefully brewed coffee from home in its bright purple Starbucks travel mug. I sat down and waited. No one said anything to me. I looked just like every other Starbucks customer, checking email on my laptop. My usual baristas smiled at me. Asked how my day was.

I enjoyed my conversation with a new congregant and for the two hours we sat there I never once was hungry or worried about SNAP.

I realized, I could hide there all day. No one would think I was poor or on SNAP. I could be “normal”. I could pass. And I know people who do precisely that, particularly in New York.

But then I had other thoughts. I wondered how people who are on SNAP handle social engagements. After the economy tanked in 2008 friends and business associates of mine curtailed meeting for lunch and instead met for coffee. It was cheaper with less strings attached. Less commitment. It seemed natural to extend that to my rabbinate. Easier often to meet someone for coffee at Starbucks or Blue Box than to open my office. Safer (but that is another story). I usually offer to buy but do some people decline for financial reasons?
Do I need to rethink this?

I have heard from people I know well. People who have been on SNAP or Food Stamps. People who did not qualify who live on $30 of food a week because they did not qualify. People who did not qualify because one live-at home adult kid was making too much or because they had health insurance. People who were on SNAP during college or graduate school. People who are just barely getting by now who say they do this every week.

So much of eating is social. How does this happen if on a SNAP budget? Can we entertain? If it is a potluck, maybe? Should we try to do one this Shabbat? Have we budgeted for it? We could do spaghetti…

How does someone have a birthday party for a child? Can they bake a cake? Because a purchased cake from the bakery section of the grocery store would have put us over budget. Cupcakes? Goody bags?

I rushed home. My oatmeal was holding me but I needed to be at Blue Box in an hour. Too early for lunch. I poured orange juice in my cup and left. The owner of Blue Box asked, “Is this the week I can’t give you any food? Can I refill your coffee at least?” I explained that yes, this was the week I was doing the SNAP Challenge, and no, my cup runneth over and I was fine. Several people met me. Great conversations. But I couldn’t take my eyes off the young boys’ potato chips.

Most of the time I never eat potato chips. This week it seems to be all I want.

After “lunch”, remember I was not eating at Blue Box, I went to make a hospital call to someone about to have surgery. By then, 2PM, I was starving. I raced home and made lunch. Cottage cheese with green pepper, tomato and cucumber. It was filling.
I raced off to the third of these coffee klatsches. One person, a fellow rabbi, came. She also offered to buy me coffee. Truth is, I can’t do three coffees in one day and I am not accepting these offers these weeks. But I knew I also had choir coming. We chatted away, me sipping my afternoon, home brewed hot chocolate, she her Panera coffee.

By the time I got back to the synagogue I was a little woozy and helped myself to an English muffin that the school has on hand. I rationalized that they would just go bad and someone should eat them. And I begin to figure out how people need to stretch SNAP benefits. How they must use other resources, like food pantries. How all of this takes so much time and energy. Someone nicely sent me a list of resources available in Elgin most of which I knew about and use to refer people to. You’ll see that list tomorrow.

Dinner was stew in a crock-pot, using up the last of the rice and beans from last night. It was good and warm and filling, particularly on this cold, rainy night. And there are still left overs. But I am not like Simon. Simon eats the same breakfast day in and day out.. Without fail. I crave variety. I suspect that people on a SNAP budget have much less variety. That would be hard for me. That and how it might curtail social interaction.

I realize how fortunate I am. This works, for this week at least, because I have a husband who is doing most of the cooking, a good, well appointed kitchen, the love and know-how of cooking myself.