… I failed this challenge because I essentially have no self-control when it comes to food. Add in two days of being sick, a really stressful work week, and lots of delicious food being cooked and eaten in my home by my roommates, and the temptation was just too much! Sadly, I made it for only one day without cheating (which is honestly really pathetic — it’s alright if you think that!). I snuck in extra produce, a martini, pumpkin bread from Open Arms, copious amounts of soup and bread that someone made for our house, some snacks at Butterball and a few bits of sweets here and there.
But, at the end of the day, me not taking the SNAP Challenge as seriously as I should have does not mean that I don’t grasp the serious nature of food insecurity. According to the United Nations, a billion people face food insecurity everyday. Furthermore, high food prices and food price volatility are expected to continue in the years ahead, continuing to affect families in both high-income and low-income states.
This issue affects us all. Even if we ourselves have never known the true pangs of hunger, we should still care and still want to do something about it. No matter where you come from, at the end of the day, food security is a human right, defined as such in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family.” That’s something we should all stand behind.
