If you think about it, Wow, $25 dlls a week per person in food, seems hard to think, but we, as a family of 7, if multiplied by 25 that is 175 dlls per week, with $175 we have a good chance of buying enough food for at least 3 meals a day (including meat, chicken, milk, and even sometimes junk food), without getting to the point of almost starving, because we share, of course, it is tougher for one person alone to eat with $25 a week. That is the "magic" of family.

In reference to the comment about it being $100 per family, not per person, I'm sorry, you are wrong.  It is $25 per person, per week, I went to the website for the Food Bank hosting the "competition".  So yes, it is quite reasonable to eat healthy on $25 per week per person.

Just a note to the person who thought it was $100 per week for a family, here is the info right off of the website:

Every week, thousands of Illinoisans struggle to feed themselves and their families on less than $25 per person each week – or approximately $3.50 a day

One of the biggest problems with eating on a tight budget like this is eating healthy.  I have diabetes, and most of the super cheap food is high in flour and sugar and super processed.  Its important for me to eat lots of vegetables, organic as much as possible, and protein (cheapest would be things like beans and eggs).  Grains have to be gluten free, oatmeal is good, and rice noodles tho they are a little more expensive.  Does anyone have any tips for eating super healthy while on a super tight budget?  

i do this weekly. My wife and I don't spend more than 25 a week. It's easy. First buy a vegetarian cookbook, then actually use it!

Done and Done. $25 a week is easy.

I work with people on food stamps - let me comment on a few myths that have been posted:

Food stamps are NOT meant to be just a supplement - they are the bare minimum necessary for a person to get a "nutritionally adequate" diet. Some people have the resources to supplement this, but others do not.

Many people who are on food stamps do not have a lot of the options that many of the posters here have - no place to store bulk frozen foods let alone half a cow. Hunting is an expensive hobby, as is fishing....great if you have the resources, but not practical for many people. It also assumes a vehicle available for the task, a suitable location, already owning the equipment, and having the cash to pay for a license, etc.

A majority (about 75%) of those I work with have a disability of some kind and about half of those are in the process for applying for Social Security - a process which takes 2-3 years in over 70% of the cases. The rest who want to work have a very difficult time because while there are jobs, the competition is fierce.  Saying they should get a job is easy...making it happen is not so easy.

Who are these people? - literally just about everyone. To give you an example of some of their occupations - computer tech, general labor, production worker, cook...all things that there are jobs out there...just too much competition.  About 25% are folks who with "good" occupations - architect, nuclear physicist, journeyman carpenter, counselor (MSW), teacher, etc.  We have also had a doctor, a lawyer and an electrician...so no one should feel they are somehow magically protected because they have a good job.

Even as they each have a very unique story , there is one thing my clients have in common...they ALL say " I never thought this would happen to me"

Too many people are living paycheck to paycheck in this country...and too isolated from family. My advice - make sure you have enough that you could survive for a year without a job...whether that means leaning on family, having a savings account, or something else.  

I spend about $600-800/mo. for food, just for myself.  I'm a single guy, in New York City.  I don't know how to cook, and out of convenience and lack of interest in becoming domesticated, I eat out or order in for nearly every meal.

This post has put things in perspective, and I really feel like making an effort to cook and go grocery shopping.  It would be incredible to save $500+ a month.

Thanks all!

We here in the United States are wallowing in an ocean of cheap food.  Because too many of us don't have the personal discipline to resist, we have an obesity problem that should make us a laughingstock in the industrialized world.  Anyone who doubts this should attend the Minnesota State Fair and see that whales can live on land as well as in the oceans.  

We pay ridiculous prices for restaurant food, whether fast food or so-called "fine dining."  The first things waitrons ask us after we are seated is whether they  can "start us off" with an intoxicant.  That way we get both fat and alcohol at the same time. (Great for the liver!)  I don't fault the food vendors, they are just taking advantage of human stupidity.  A few days ago I paid about $6.00 for a Subway sandwich that probably had about 75 cents worth of food it it, and about $1.50 for a miniscule bag of chips that I could have mailed somewhere for 42 cents.

The vendors are cutting down on sizes; what used to be a five pound package of sugar is now four pounds, cereal boxes are thinner and lighter, this list is endless.  

We cheerfully pay through the nose for prepared foods that line the shelves in grocery stores - we even pay for bottled water which costs more per gallon than gasoline and comes in polluting, non-refundable plastic bottles.  We swill gallons of soft drinks which are just flavored sugar water with some carbonation pumped in.    

Maybe high prices will bring people to their senses and slow down the gorging.

All this discussion of food stamps makes me tired.  Every competent adult is responsible for what he or she eats.  The point is to eat healthy.  Who cares food stamp recipients - whether deserving persons or welfare cheats -  elect to eat bad diets - it's a free country.  If my neighbor wants to eat a pound of steak and a mountain of greasy french fries every night and swill a bottle of Jack Daniels for dessert, that 's his business, not mine.

Haven't read all the comments, so sorry if I'm repeating anything. I would think it would be obvious that someone going from a "normal" budget to $25/week would feel a sense of deprivation. I actually believe if I had to stick to $25/wk, I'd probably eat a lot better food than I do now.