#SNAPchallenge2013: Dining with the DSA

Nothing so fancy, but definitely as welcome.

A former graduate supervisor of mine found a book about student affairs written shortly after the turn of the century (I want to say 1909?) that discussed successful ways to lure students to events on campus. Even then, food was the most popular and foolproof method. I assure you, it’s still true. 

What’s more, it’s the same for staff events. Over the past few days, Emmanuel has eased us back into the routine of a normal work week with staff bonding and professional development activities. And for us, just as with many student events, these have involved food.

 The question here is, what do to with provided food in the event of a challenge such as mine? I went back and forth about this for a while, if you can believe it, before I finally landed on the decision to partake as normal (well, normal for me, which means whatever is certifiably gluten-free). Why, when the original challenge as performed by Cory Booker deliberately excluded these things?

I’m not of the belief that doing a challenge such as this involves eschewing all normal behavior. Having dinner or breakfast provided by the DSA is a rare enough occurrence that I don’t feel as though it’s taking advantage of anything. Were I to have someone buy me lunch because I hadn’t brought mine or didn’t prepare anything- THAT would be a violation of the spirit of what I’m trying to do. What’s more, I think that the decision to exclude work-provided meals from the challenge would imply that many in the position to use food assistance don’t have those opportunities. And given the fact that 36% of households who receive SNAP benefits have at least one working person in the household, the likelihood that a meal or two may be provided by that employer is high.

So while I am far from dependent upon my workplace to “fill gaps” in my nutritional patterns for the month, I will take those opportunities when they (infrequently) arise.