Though I did little school work during the five days of my Free Food Diet, I watched most of season three of “Scandal.”
Since the beginning of the school year, I have vomited twice, and have been on the verge of vomiting four times. I’m not cool enough for alcohol to have caused these intimate moments between me and my toilet — nope, I have a weak stomach.
My digestive system likes order: it wants to eat every three hours, and expects certain kinds of foods to come in at those times.
Breakfast: fat-free plain Greek yogurt and a dark roast coffee with a hint of milk; lunch: whole wheat (sometimes 12 grain) bagel with smooth, organic No Name peanut butter with an apple for dessert; pre- or post-workout snack: approximately 20 baby carrots dipped in Moroccan hummus; dinner: this tends to change every two weeks, but it always consists of a leafy green mixed with a protein and a carb (last week, it was spaghetti Bolognese infused with basil) with a dessert of three cookies (I’m currently into Oreos).
When my friend mentioned that a homeless person could survive by living off Dal’s abundance of free food, I agreed with her: there’s the Loaded Ladle, people always give away pizza, and Sustainability hands out free coffee and tea every Wednesday if you bring a travel cup.
From Monday to Friday last week, I went on the Free Food Diet.
17.5 per cent of Nova Scotian households dealt with food insecurity in 2014, according to the Household Food Insecurity in Canada report. I wanted to see what that statistic physically meant. Textbooks and newspapers feed us stats all the time, but what does food insecurity look like? An empty cupboard? A McDonald’s value menu? Jean Valjean, number 246011111111111?
I decided from Monday to Friday, I would only eat free food I could find on campus. I couldn’t ask my friends to buy me food or use the DSU Food Bank. I imagined myself as a normal student — stressed out by midterms and assignments — with the added pressure to find the money to buy food every week. I imagined that this student wouldn’t want to publicize her situation, but discretely find food.
I searched Dal’s events and clubs on Sunday night to make a schedule of meals for myself. I realized that night that I would usually only one be provided with one meal every day.
Breakfast was never available, so lunch or dinner would get me through the whole day. I didn’t think this would be that bad. I kept a stash of challah bread I made at a free challah-making workshop on the Sunday night just in case.
This week, I'm only eating free food for the @DalGazette. I'll either starve or gain 15 pounds
— Sabina Wex (@SabuWex) November 2, 2015
I chose to sleep in on Monday, the first day of my Free Food Diet, knowing I couldn’t eat breakfast. I went to school around 10:45 a.m. to find free food (I was unsuccessful). I packed my challah in case of an emergency. I didn’t realize then that every day featured an emergency meal.
I lived off that challah throughout my Free Food Diet. Almost every day, that challah became a meal substitute. The manna which it represents became all too real. I felt like an Israelite in the desert.
For the two hours I had class on Monday — 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., already a hungry time of the day — I ate little bits of challah. I felt empty yet heavy. I finally got some coffee in the Classics Department’s kitchen, but I felt tired throughout the day.
I went to a group project meeting after class, where I again dug into my challah stash. I tried to do some readings afterwards, but I found it hard to concentrate. When I got to the Gazette staff meeting that evening, I saw pizza and ate 10 pieces in 10 minutes.
Omg I only ate like ten pieces of @DalGazette pizza and now I have a stomach ache. Fucking lactose intolerance
— Sabina Wex (@SabuWex) November 2, 2015
I attended my business class after the Gazette meeting. I felt sick throughout the class. My lactose intolerance likely caused the upset stomach, but it could have been the quick eating, too. Usually, I don’t eat more than two to three slices of pizza at Gazette meetings, but I was so hungry and feared I wouldn’t see food again that night. I managed to get myself to the gym for a 30 minute elliptical ride to burn the feeling of fat away, but instead found myself in my fears: hungry.
Last week, I found an opened megapack of Fuzzy Peaches in the library. I ate them all, and didn’t die. I hope this happens again.
— Sabina Wex (@SabuWex) November 3, 2015
I slept in again on Tuesday. My class didn’t start until 1 p.m., so I thought I could get some work done when I arrived at school at 11:30 a.m. The Dal Bookstore was hosting its customer appreciation day. To celebrate, the bookstore staff cut slices of a rectangle cake with yellow frosting (it was one of those amazing cakes from the grocery store, which you eat, and you’re like, DAAAMN, Metro, you have a surprisingly good bakery). I took six small pieces of cake, a.k.a my brunch.
I then found myself unable to concentrate on my readings again. In case you think I’m a slacker with ADD, I’m not. These readings are magazine articles for my creative non-fiction class, and I usually enjoy reading them and have no trouble focusing. Is it still cool to say that gluten is the reason for all evil in the world?
At 12:30 p.m., I went upstairs to wait in the short line for the Loaded Ladle. I need to collect the food right away so I could jet off to class at 1 p.m. As I stood in line, I realized I hadn’t done any work since Sunday. I got frustrated and upset, cursing myself for lacking the discipline to wake up earlier.
This freakout tends to happen once a week, but I realized that this week, my lack of concentration wasn’t my fault. Why wake up if I can’t eat breakfast? How can I concentrate when my eyes constantly droop and my teeth cease to chatter?
Breakfast programs occur in many low-income area schools, but those meals aren’t always enough to keep the kids healthy and full all week. A teacher in the Global News “Generation Poor” segment said that Monday mornings are the worst for her low-income students: they’ve barely eaten all weekend, so they can’t focus and behave poorly.
Though I did little school work during the five days of my Free Food Diet, I watched most of season three of “Scandal.” The Shonda Rhimes show requires little thinking or concentration, and I enjoy watching it, so it distracted me from my churning stomach. Plus, Olivia Pope NEVER eats (don’t watch “Gilmore Girls” if you want to try the Free Food Diet—those tiny women don’t stop eating).
As “Freaks and Geeks” character Cindy Sanders says, “People are just looking for a handout.” Though Cindy Sanders acts as President of the Young Republicans at McKinley High, many of today’s real-life Republicans agree with her. In June, Arizona passed a law which allows its citizens to use welfare for a maximum of 12 months—over their whole lifetime.
If I couldn’t afford food, I’d likely look like one of those welfare recipients some politicians think sit on their ass all day watching “Scandal.” These politicians don’t understand that without food security, without three filling meals a day, work isn’t your first priority. You have no energy because you have no fuel. I only experienced food insecurity for five days, but I could barely study for my tests and do my homework. Those grades, those participation points, they came second place to getting the growl out of my stomach.
‘Free Food Diet’ gives Dal student a new perspective on food security https://t.co/eaMNdaakxn pic.twitter.com/uKcj3F2W7Y
— CBC Nova Scotia (@CBCNS) November 10, 2015
The working class also struggles with food security. FEED Canada reports that 12 percent of food bank users work, and five percent receive employment insurance.
I almost quit the Free Food Diet on Tuesday night. I was tired, hungry and angry. I wanted to eat a leaf! I wanted to eat at the time when I was hungry! I didn’t want to plan my days around a free slice of pizza at a club meeting or wait in line to get two scoops of potatoes.
Wednesday is my busiest day of the week. I have class from 11:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., and then once I finish working it out, it’s 5 p.m., and I need to eat before I go to my 6 p.m. class.
On Wednesdays, some girls wear pink — but I broke.
I wanted to relax. I usually watch an episode of “Scandal” when I eat dinner. It’s a nice time to relax between my crazy day and the upcoming two hours of class.
I lacked the energy to hunt for food at school, so I ate dinner at home that Wednesday night: little sandwiches made from crackers, salami slices and field greens.
The feeling of being somewhat full turned me into a frat boy on Tinder: I took whatever I could get.
NEED. TO. EAT. MORE. I ate four Oreos. Then an apple. Then a mini box of Corn Pops. Regret came upon me during my night class, where I discreetly grabbed my sides to keep my stomach from falling out via my uterus.
I woke up at 8 a.m on Thursday. I ate my yogurt because I had a midterm coming up on Monday and needed to study. I actually studied—efficiently, too. I started reincorporating my daily apple and carrots with hummus back into my diet, despite eating lunch from the Loaded Ladle and a pizza dinner at an Enactus meeting. I repeated the breakfast and snack instances on Friday.
Excuse the yoga teacher jargon, but it is astounding the small differences vegetables and protein can provide to your mind, body and soul. I now understand why part of the high school physical education curriculum includes healthy eating. My productivity levels almost went back to normal on Thursday and Friday. I stuck to my homework schedule, studied well for my Latin test and ancient Greek midterm, and even started reading the news again every morning (without eating breakfast, there was little time to fit it in; and even when I did try to read it, my focus wavered). I stopped feeling jittery and cold.
Though Dal provides a fair amount of free food, with the exception of the Loaded Ladle, most of it is pizza and sweets. If someone was living off Dal’s free food, they would die of scurvy within two weeks.
I know this is TMI, but, man, did I miss bowel movements. I didn’t have one from Monday to Thursday, and had a slow, painful one on Friday. Fibre matters — and you can’t get it by eating pizza.
11.8 percent of Haligonians can’t afford to buy healthy food, according to Statistics Canada. Despite a movement to make food healthier, this better quality food isn’t available to most people. In the U.S., nearly 30 million people live in low-income areas with limited access to supermarkets, according to the Food Trust and the Policy Link’s Access to Healthy Food and Why It Matters report.
I understand why student groups aren’t handing out salads to their group members — it’s too expensive! God bless the Loaded Ladle, but one serving of healthy food three days a week can’t provide enough nutrients for the body.
I know pizza and cookies attract more students, but why doesn’t Dal gives us access to healthier food? We have the DSU Farmers’ Market, the Loaded Ladle and some stuff at Pete’s isn’t too bad, but that’s it. On Friday, I was going to fall over from hunger before I had to play badminton, so I paid $1.50 for a cinnamon granola bar. Despite looking and seeming healthy, it wasn’t a healthy choice — it contained tons of sugar, little protein, and I was hungry an hour later.
How come I can’t find proteinous, fibrous, nutritious food around? How come it isn’t affordable? We live in a province with farms struggling to stay alive — so let’s keep them alive and benefit our student body by spreading apples from the Valley around the school. We all know about the obesity epidemic, so why isn’t Dal — as well as the student body (except for a few organizations, as mentioned above)—doing anything about it? We all drool over Kayla Itsines and Cassey Ho, yet we don’t make the efforts to help people maintain these sorts of healthy lifestyles.
Two years ago, I reported on the Campus Food Strategy Group, who was creating a food charter to bring in local and healthier food. Why hasn’t the administration picked up on this? They’re obsessed with bringing in good looking and happy students to decorate their brochures, but how can they expect to keep up appearances when every freshman walks out 15 pounds heavier?
I’m still not completely out of my Free Food Diet funk. I’m stuck in this mindset that I don’t know the next time I’ll see food, so I chow down everything in sight. I glimpsed into the world of food insecurity, and discovered it wasn’t necessarily a bare cupboard, the Hamburglar or a CGI movie with a sweet soundtrack. My five days—only five days!—battling with food insecurity wasn’t one image or one statistic—it was anxiety literally eating me up inside.
@ianfroese @DalGazette @SabuWex This is the kind of hard hitting reporting/investigation that I’ve come to be proud of from the Gazette 😉
— Henry (@HenryWhitfield) November 7, 2015
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