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Tight Budgetry

Since I'm, uh, pretty much livin' the Food Stamp Challenge every week out here in the poorest county in Oregon, I was glad to see some NYTimes coverage yesterday on Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski's participation in the Oregon Food Bank's Food Stamp Challenge - he and his wife ate for a week on $21 each, the average amount an individual receives in federal food stamp benefits. That's $3 a day.

Mr. Kulongoski has made hunger an issue since he was first elected in 2002. That fall, he said in an interview, he was surprised to learn that Oregon ranked high on the list of what the Department of Agriculture used to call hunger and now calls “food insecurity.” Oregon’s timber and agricultural industries had long been struggling, driving up unemployment, and the high-tech boom that had benefited places like Portland had started to unravel.

I've been very impressed with the Oregon Food Bank and the food security work that's being done on a state and local level, and there is indeed a real need for programs like food stamps and food pantries: in Ontario, a town of only 11,000 residents, one food pantry alone serves over 1,000 residents a month. That's not even counting several smaller pantries and partnerships for distribution through human services nonprofits.

Which reminds me - if any of y'all have any super-easy, super-cheap tofu recipes, drop me a line. I'm working with the local food bank to develop some easy, cheap, kid-friendly ways to use tofu that we can demo at the food pantries using products available there; the warehouse frequently gets donated tofu and many people are leery of eating it. (in development currently: tofu lasagna, tofu chocolate mousse, tofu smoothies, and a few others)

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