One of the questions that has come up is how to maintain social connections while on SNAP. It isn’t easy. There is a lack of resources. Issues with organization. Time management. Really time crunches. And perhaps a sense of embarrassment or shame.

But we wondered, would it be possible to at least have a potluck dinner? At least for the people who were doing the SNAP Challenge with us, as a way of saying thank you and to continue the conversation?

So we did. We scheduled it for Friday night, before our usual Friday night service at the synagogue. It is traditional to have guests for Friday night and frankly this is something that I miss doing more routinely as a pulpit rabbi. Our service is at 7:30 and I aim to be there at 7. Many weeks I don’t even eat dinner on Friday night.

There are several stories about people scrimping and saving all week, just to make Shabbat the nicest possible. Based on a Talmudic tale, there are two children’s books. My daughter grew up loving “Joseph who loved the Sabbath”, by Marilyn Hirsh. Eric Kimmel has another version, “Joseph and the Sabbath Fish.”

Here is the story from Tractate Shabbat 119a:
“Joseph-who-honors-the Sabbath had in his vicinity a certain gentile who owned much property. Soothsayers told him: “Joseph-who-honors-the-Sabbath will consume all your property. So he went, sold all his property, and bought a precious stone with the proceeds, which he set in his turban. As he was crossing a bridge the wind blew it off and cast it into the water and a fish swallowed it. Subsequently the fish was hauled up and brought to market on the Sabbath towards sunset. ”Who will buy now?” they cried. “Go and take it to Joseph-who-honors-the Sabbath,” they were told, “as he is accustomed to buy.” So they took it to him. He bought it, opened it, found the jewel therein, and sold it for thirteen roomfuls of gold denarii. A certain old man met him and said, “He who lends to the Sabbath, the Sabbath repays him.””

Then there is the story of preparing for Shabbat. When we welcome the Shabbat angels by singing Shalom Aleichem, the story is told that Rabbi Jose the son of Judah said, two ministering angels — one good angel, and one “evil” (prosecuting) angel — accompany a person home on Friday night from the synagogue.
When they arrive home, if they find a candle lit, the table set, and beds arranged nicely the good angel says, “May it be G-d’s will that next Shabbat be the same,” and the evil angel is compelled to respond, “Amen!” If the home is not prepared in honor of Shabbat, the evil angel says, “May it be G-d’s will that next Shabbat be the same,” and the good angel is compelled to respond, “Amen!” (Shabbat 119b)
And finally, from the Jerusalem Talmud, we get this story, “The Emperor (probably Hadrian) asked Rabbi Joshua Ben Hananiah, “What gives your Sabbath meal such an aroma?” To this R. Joshua replied, “We have a certain spice (tavlin) called the Sabbath which we put into it [the Sabbath dish], and this gives it its aroma.”

So that’s what we did. We cleaned the house. We picked up all the paper. We saved our chicken to roast until Friday. It easily stretched to serve our guests. We made potatoes and cauliflower. A guest contributed a lovely tossed salad, another a medley of sugar snap peas and carrots and another a challah. I had forgotten about drinks but people were fine with water.

And yes, Shabbat has never tasted so good.

Earlier in the day, I trekked into Chicago again. This time it was to have lunch with rabbis and Ruth Messinger, the president of American Jewish World Service. She was in town to speak at two congregations ahead of her becoming AJWS’s “Global Ambassador” a new title created just for her. Her portfolio will include working with rabbis and traveling to visit grantees. The new president, Robert Bank, will be equally impressive.

The lunch was at Chicago Sinai and several of the rabbis already knew I was doing the challenge. They asked whether it was permissible to eat the food provided. Others have written about this topic. In a strict SNAP Challenge the rule seems to be no. If you accept food like this during the challenge you are “supposed” to count it against your total. However, many on SNAP benefits stretch their budget by searching out other meals and resources. So yes, I ate the bagel.

The real focus of lunch, however, was Ruth’s update. I like the direction AJWS is headed. I am proud to be associated with them. And glad I spent so much time bouncing on that bus in Guatemala talking about the SNAP Challenge. Perhaps the biggest victory will be if Representative Peter Roskam actually does sign onto the Global Food Security Act as he promised the representative from Bread for the World.

And if you missed it. Here is the link to the Windy City Live appearance: http://abc7chicago.com/food/snap-challenge-elgin-rabbi-eats-on-just-$4-a-day/1282510/

Yesterday there was an article in the paper about the SNAP Challenge,
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/elgin-courier-news/news/ct-ecn-elgin-food-stamp-challenge-st-0404-20160403-story.html

She did a good job capturing much of what Simon and I said, and I thank her for that. And for getting the connection between Passover and this challenge. Passover is Simon’s favorite holiday. Every year we try to find new ways to enrich the meaning.

This year I am especially drawn to “Let all who are hungry, come and eat.” Is a powerful invitation and we usually have more guests at our home seder than we can comfortably entertain. Yet, most of them are not genuinely poor. Sometimes someone is. Down on their luck. Between jobs. Starving college student. Starving artist. But not typically on SNAP or WIC. But sometimes there are.

So how do we open are doors to all who are hungry? Sometimes by writing a check to Mazon, the Jewish response to hunger, or our local food pantries. By supporting Ma’ot Chittin which enables poor Jews to have the food they need for Passover. Passover can be a ridiculously expensive holiday, with wine, and festive meals and all new packaged goods. The synagogue serves a catered meal for $36.00 per person and if I ever really figured it out, I would suspect my home seder meal is more.

Figuring it out is hard. We love to cook and entertain. We are fortunate. Really, really fortunate to have a very well equipped kitchen and a fully stocked pantry. Nonetheless, I can’t tell you the number of times I say, “I’m hungry. There is nothing to eat in the house.” Really? When cleaning the fridge this morning before we went shopping we have four open jars of olives, four mustards and two salsas. Necessary, probably not. Possible on a SNAP budget? Not sure.

I have spent a lot of time working on hunger and homelessness issues. I was a founding member of the Hunger Homeless Commission in Lowell when Sarah was still a nursing infant. I have worked with Habitat for Humanity, Ethnic Covenant, House of Hope, Merrimack Valley Project, and more. Here I have worked with the Crisis Center, Food for Greater Elgin, United Way, and more. But this project is not about me.

Hunger is still a systemic issue. Kids should not go to bed hungry every night. Any night.

This project came to be bouncing on a bus in Guatemala last summer with American Jewish World Service. Ruth Messenger spent much of the week sitting opposite me. At some point she mentioned that she fasts every Monday. She spends so much of her time talking about hunger she felt she had to put her money where her mouth is…literally. I can’t fast but I wondered what I could do. There was a lot of discussion about the SNAP Challenge…but also a lot of discussion of the limitations. Is it ever possible to do the SNAP Challenge right? http://mazon.org/inside-mazon/the-dos-and-donts-of-the-snap-challenge/

So what I am hoping to create is awareness. This is not really about seeing whether Simon and I can live on a SNAP budget.

So Simon, to his credit, did a lot of research before we went to the store. His favorite was this site: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/budget-sample-two-week-menus

We figured we had $1.48 per person per meal, $4.44 per day. $63 for the week for the two of is. We were warned not to treat this as a game. And we have succeeded in meeting that part of the challenge. Shopping for the two of us at Meijers—an old family favorite from my Grand Rapids days, we spent $58.00, including $8 for bleach tablets for the toilets. (It’s real life and we needed them NOW!)

However, this is not a game—and we are not trying to prove recipients wrong. Rather, the exact opposite. This is supplemental. It enables families who might otherwise fall through the cracks to receive some assistance. The assistance is not enough. There still families—far too many families—who have to make a choice between food and gas, food and medicine or food and heat. Some of them are even in my synagogue. There are 19,000 food insecure people in Elgin.

Shopping was a slow process. Here were some of the issues:
• Checking for kosher symbols on foods we don’t usually buy.
• Arguing about whether we will really need something crunchy at 4PM (YES!) and the SNAP recommended pretzel sticks would be better than the cheap Meijers brand potato chips. We bought neither.
• Recommended shopping list included a lemon. I bought limes, much cheaper than the lemons. Paltrow was derided for buying limes. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/17/a-hungry-gwyneth-paltrow-fails-the-food-stamp-challenge-four-days-in/
• Buying canned tuna. When did canned tuna become only five ounces, not six when the recommended serving is three ounces—that made me want to cry—and I don’t love tuna!
• How do we balance my need for protein as a Type II diabetic with the usual diet of carbs that are cheaper? Rice, beans, potatoes, pasta, bread are not so healthy for me. They may not be healthy for most. But they are plentiful, cheap and some of the cause of obesity in this country.
• Can we afford whole wheat pasta, whole wheat tortillas, brown rice?
• What is the nutritional difference between frozen corn and canned corn?
• So we don’t waste food, how much of what we already have on hand can we use? Whose bright idea was doing this three weeks before Passover. I am not buying anymore “chamatz” to bring into the house that we can not finish!

Other things I have already noticed and stated.
• The dog is not part of this. He gets to eat regardless, but when he was barking for my tuna melt that felt different.
• If we are really doing this, it seems not in the spirit for me to go get a massage tomorrow, even though that is a non-food reward.
• Tomorrow will be the longest day with my monthly program Java and Jews at three local coffee shops and no budget for me to have coffee in those venues, even when managers have offered to “slip me food.”
• This takes planning and work and time—some of which are in short supply for us, even more so for the people on SNAP.
• Meals are social. Can we entertain? Maybe if we do something potluck? What do people on SNAP do? Does being poor limit one’s ability to be social–and isn’t that a shame?

This is manageable for a week—and I appreciate all the thought and care that people are putting into their own versions. Simon and I have never been on SNAP or food stamps, we have had difficult financial times. Not knowing where your next meal is coming from or what it will be would make it much, much more difficult to work and contribute effectively in society. See, I am not currently hungry, but not writing well either.