What did you eat today?

I got an invitation today, along with a few thousand other journalists, to eat on $1 per meal and write about the experience.

The folks who want to draw attention to the continued erosion of Food Stamp benefits are trying to enlist members of the media to take on this experiment and write about it. This is a very worthwhile cause and I support the increasing of funds to help low-income people eat healthfully, but I'm tiring of this gimmick. Maybe it was an interesting twist when the governor of Oregon did it, but the insights are readily available from the thousands of people who use food stamps to get by every day. It's far more valuable to hear from them than me or Gov. Schwarzenegger.

How about it? Those of you who have experienced life on food stamps or who are now doing it, how do you make it work? What is a day like? What are your secrets for stretching the money? How do you afford healthful food for your family? What are the tough choices you have to make each day? Speak the truth.

We know you are out there. More than 26 million Americans use food stamps, among them 1,327,000 Californians. More than 65% of all all recipients are children . Let's ask them what they are eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Here's my sorry contribution during an especially stressful week, starting with last night:

Dinner: 1 bag of microwave popcorn, eaten in the car while running errands with teenager who dragged me around two malls after work, looked at shoes and pants in 7 stores before finally settling on his favorites. That's about $1.

Breakfast: Hamburger, fries, diet Coke from Burger King grabbed in the drive-thru on the way to work. That was about $6.

Lunch: Vegetable sandwich, potato chips and vegan lemonade (they like to press the point) at Au Lac, treated by a friend, so it was free. If I bought it, it would have come to about $9.

Maybe tomorrow will be better...

PS: I don't recommend my diet to anyone on any income. I'm sure you're all eating more healthfully than I am this week!