Follow-up Story in the GR Press

Yesterday I had another great interview with Beth Loechler of the Grand Rapids Press. She wrote a follow-up story for the end of my $30 for 30 days project. It is another great piece. For those who don’t have time to read the article, I’m going to excerpt the awesome list she put together from my pictures and posts:

Spending only $30 for 30 days of food meant stretching dollars, foraging for plants and bartering for a few things. Here’s how Maria did it:

• Peanut butter 2.58
• Corn tortillas 1.19
• Evaporated milk 3.06
• Macaroni 1.19
• Brown rice 2.98
• Pinto beans 1.29
• Oatmeal 3.98
• Carrots 1.68
• Bread 1.49
• Cheese 1.89
• Salsa 1.49
• Tea bags 1.49
• Lentils 1.09
• Soybean oil 1.99
• Onions 1.09
• Apple .90
• Spices .45
Total $29.83

Bartered: Eggs, wine, maple syrup, peppers, home-canned pears, potatoes and black beans, all harvested and produced in Michigan.

Foraged: Dandelions, daylilies and wild garlic, onion and leeks.

Thanks, Beth for the great coverage and Lori for taking the photograph.

Hope to see you all at the Open House today!!!

You’re Invited to My Open House – Plus More Media

The countdown is on – only 2 more days to go before the end of my $30 for 30 days experiment! The staff at Blandford Nature Center & Mixed Greens has been hard at work in the background coordinating a celebratory open house for Friday and you’re all invited.

 Where: The Blandford Farm Blandford Nature Center, 1715 Hillburn Ave NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504

When: Friday 4:00-6:00pm

Will There Be Food: Oh, my, yes! Thanks to my friend and co-worker Ashima Saigal’s help, we will have some tasty goodies from Marie Catrib’s. If you’ve ever had Marie’s food you know it’s worth an appearance :O

So, if you’ve wanted to meet the crazy person behind this project and the awesome staff supporting her, learn more about all the great programs at the farm, nature center and in the schools, make a donation in person, sign up to become more involved, or just spend a nice afternoon walking the nature trails and seeing the progress at the farm, come on out! It’s going to be lots of fun…

AND I GET TO EAT CAKE COOKIES!!!!

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I also have a couple more media appearances coming up. On Friday you can hear interviews with me and Sarah Erlewine of Blandford & Mixed Greens on WGVU 88.1 at 9:06 am (precisely!). You can listen live at their website.

Also on Friday, Sarah and I will be on Catalyst Radio on WYCE 88.5 at noon. They also have a listen live option.

There are a couple more possibilities. I’ll keep you posted as they happen.

Jack Johnson is Going to Match Your Donation!!

I’m very excited to announce that Blandford Nature Center & Mixed Greens has established a partnership with Jack Johnson (the former pro surfer turned musician, and man behind the Curious George movie soundtrack) and his new All At Once  organization. This is great exposure for their programs, especially because they will have a place in the Village Green at Jack’s concert at the DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, MI.

What’s even better for Rice, Beans & Mixed Greens is that All At Once is going to match every donation made online or at the concert dollar for dollar up to $2,500. This means that any donation you can make online will be doubled! This project alone could result in $5,000 of funds going to:

• Teach kids about gardening and nutrition
• Provide access to the natural environment
• Continue a strong farming tradition in a city of 500,000 people
• And lots more stuff I haven’t even learned about yet!

This matching funds opportunity actually extends through September 14, but it would be so cool if we could get to the $2,500 mark by the end of this week! I hope all of you who are able will contribute to these efforts.

Hungry for a Good Cause,
Maria

Can $30 of Food Keep You Alive for 30 Days?

Since the beginning of this challenge, there has been some tension between people who think that my bartering for local food is “cheating” (Hi, Mitch Albom!) and people who were concerned that it would be impossible to survive without the extra calories and nutrients I have been getting. Considering that I work as researcher, I figured I would let the data do the talking on this issue. Since I have saved the receipts from every item I’ve purchased during this challenge, I have been able to add up the cost of everything I’ve purchased with my $30 and used either the package information or Fitday to calculate the total calories those items contain. Here are the results:

 

As you can see, I was able to purchase enough food to average 1,382 calories per day. I’m a pretty small person, so I could definitely survive for 30 days on this. It would be the equivalent of a weight loss diet. The major problem is that the nutrition profile of this diet is pretty out of whack. As you’ll notice, the only fruits and vegetables I was able to purchase were carrots, 1 apple, 2 onions and a jar of salsa. My only dairy was evaporated milk (yuck!) and not quite a pound of actual cheese. The item I labeled “Fake Cheese” is made mostly from hydrogenated vegetable oil (yuck!).

One interesting fact I wanted to point out is that this list consists of food that is quite healthy – oats, brown rice, legumes, etc. – and items that are completely artificial. It’s a strange juxtaposition that I’ve been trying to work within. Unfortunately, most whole foods are priced out of this extreme budget. Even inexpensive vegetables like lettuce, cabbage, and frozen broccoli just don’t provide enough calories per dollar to justify their purchase in this scenario.

So What’s the Verdict?

I think it’s possible for someone to survive on $30 for a month if:

• they have transportation to low cost stores
• they are pretty healthy going into the month
• they aren’t too much bigger than me and don’t have to do lots of manual labor

I still say Don’t Do It! This is not a safe or sane weight loss strategy or budgeting strategy. If a person was really in a position where he or she only had $30 for food for the month, I would definitely recommend a food pantry or other sources of additional food.

I will say, however that living on $1 per meal or $21 per week seems like an attainable goal. That level of budget leaves room for more vegetables, fruit, and probably even some meat – if you’re in to that sort of thing

Week 3 Update

It’s the homestretch and I’m happy to report that I’m still doing well. Topics covered in the video:
*weight loss and exercise
*monotony in my diet
*new fundraising opportunity
*open house on May 9