You know what is good to eat and filling?  Peanut butter and banana sandwiches :)  If you have honey drizzle a bit of that on there, mmm!  I like to toast my bread before making the sandwich.

You are right, the accepting food part is unrealistic, but made the challenge just that much more challenging.  I posted on a previous post that my mother does supply staples every couple of months and she tells me to just come shop her pantry if I ever need to.  I've done that a couple times, but only when I was really desperate.  One of my best friends provides food on a regular basis, but he is over every single evening - so he'll bring whatever is needed for me to add to dinner that I don't already have.  Then he just eats at my house all the time.  My other best friend will make a dish, bring it over, and I'll make something to go with it and we'll feed ourselves and our 3 kids potluck style.  When you lack money you become creative and also genuinely appreciate the gratitude of friends and family. :)

the social thing is OH-sooooo-TRUE!

I remember when I was a single mom I always scoured the paper's entertainment section for FREE STUFF to do with my kids, other than the local parks, etc.

When the fair came, I volunteered to work my employment's booths because they gave me free tickets to get in, AND ride tickets. I'd take the kids to the BIG FREE section in the back the Kids Corner, I think it's called? And we spent our time doing the FREE activities then we'd get on one or two rides (however many tickets I had) then we went home. They had a blast and didn't know any better! LOL

Kindra, I had a peanut butter & banana sandwich for lunch today (The thought of more tuna just sounded gross to me)! It was actually the first time I've ever tried it. I didn't think of adding honey, though...

and Twinkie, when my mom was raising me by herself, she'd do stuff like that too. She says the same thing: "you didn't know any better!" ;D

Here is an update from www.one.org (Otherwise known as "ONE," The Campaign to Make Poverty History), who is currently running the Hunger Crisis Campaign:

"...Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda put the global hunger crisis on the agenda for the G8 summit, as part of a broad commitment to fighting global poverty. That is an important victory, because Japan is hosting this July’s G8 summit, where international commitments to fight poverty will be made.

In the United States, President Bush made an initial pledge of $200 million in American food assistance and followed that up last week with a call for Congress to approve $770 million in food assistance and investment in agricultural infrastructure in the developing world.

Getting the hunger crisis onto the G8’s poverty fighting agenda, and securing pledges of increased food assistance and investment in agricultural development adds up to a big win. It’s a testament to the power of grassroots action against even the toughest challenges global poverty presents.

Our next step is to secure commitments at the G8 Summit this summer and at other funding opportunities, for the fight against extreme poverty and global disease.

Thanks for adding your voice to the call for action to end the hunger crisis."

For more information about the grassroots campaign, recent victories, and the hunger petition, you can click HERE.

I ate peanut butter or almond butter and honey sandwhich for about the last 6months. that was while I worked at  G.E. in Tehachapi. I found nothing wrong with eating them everday. Peanut butter and  honey is very good and good for you. These days it's mostly salads. Due to my wonderful family curse of  high cholesterol. Thanks mom! Now it's salads with Phytosterols or plant sterols.

I'm glad Bush decided to help with the money. Now lets hope it doesn't go where most  food and money goes when helping  the poor in 3rd world countries. That would be for leverage from sub-machine  toting guerrillas with an agenda , IE Africa. Helping impoverished  countries is a key thing we here in this country should be doing. I just hope we see it through to the right people get it.  

I was on welfare with my wife and four kids while I finished BC and eventually UC Santa Barbara. I was able to complete my BA and my Master's while on welfare. A lot of abuse of the system?--YES, many people who really need it?--YES, A system that makes it hard to actually get off the gov't tit?--YES

Now, to social events, many times my wife and I did NOT go to events or even family functions, because we lacked the resources to contribute. Would've our family understood? probably, but regardless of our working toward something good (i.e. education), a sense of "Head of Household" pride forbade us from taking even more advantage of people's goodwill. I believe our kids were happy with where we were and where we are now as professionals. However, I know I wasn't and I only wanted to use the system for as long as it helped me achieve my goals.

But you contribute now and that's the best thing!

SamG had to cancel meeting a friend for Coffee?  Why is that a bad consequence of this challenge?  You could have met with her and just not had coffee.  You had to cut out going to lunch once a week, every week?  That's not a bad thing.  If regular working people don't have coffee meetings every week and didn't eat out every week they would save a good deal of money that could be put to something more useful.  They'd also not be eating potentially unhealthy food at restaurants, and slowly damaging their insides with the coffee, which is always overly priced.

   I'm not poor or rich.  I make about 38K a year, but I don't eat out every week.  I maybe do it once a month.  I don't have coffee meetings with my friends.  If I want to enjoy my friend's company, then I invite them over and do things at home.  These things save money.  I'm not struggling or feasting; I am watching my money carefully and using it to the full advantage.  Little things like this add up down the road for when I need a home repair, a new piece of clothing, or even simple things like a new cd or DVD.