Food bank diet day 2

I knew the quality of food would be extremely poor, and the quantity not great, but I didn't anticipate that I would be *constantly* hungry. I woke up at about 4 am, unable to sleep because I was hungry, and I had to drink an unplanned glass of my tightly rationed milk in order to get back to sleep.

I don't know how far it's because I'm actually not getting enough calories, or how far it's because the calories I'm getting are so unfulfilling (lots of white bread, white rice, white pasta). I'm eating my tuna for lunch today, and we'll see if that shot of protein helps.

I've never really eaten like this, because even at my poorest I had enough money to buy *some* food, so I could still choose to get whole grains, and expired vegetables from the bargain table, things like that. But when you can't pay anything at all, you have to take what the food banks can give you, and that tends to be highly processed carbs.

I wish that I could get more of my meal program volunteers to do this for a few days, because then maybe they'd ask fewer stupid questions about why the guests seem so picky and anxious about food.

Food bank diet day 2 continued

I have been so hungry for the last day and a half, I made myself the closest I could get to a big blow-out dinner -- more than half of my allotted white rice, a tin of corn, an egg, and a tin of tomato soup. It was still almost all processed carbs and sodium, and almost entirely lacking in vitamins and minerals, and means I only have one smallish meal of rice left, but at least I don't feel starved any more. For the moment.

We had a Social Justice Committee meeting tonight, at which we all agreed that we are feeling pretty much crappy and lethargic already, and are thinking about food all the time.

It hasn't really taught me anything new about food banks and poverty, but I think it's experientially useful. And the fact that all the bishops are doing it has got us a bit of media attention.