I want to rip my stomach out. I am famished. I am ravenous. I am STARVING. For those who know me, this is nothing new. But this time, I actually have good reason to be hungry.

“Today, I, Stacie Chan, pledge to live on a meal budget of $3 for today, May 7, 2008, in order to raise awareness for those who must endure this struggle everyday,” read my little pledge card. On the back were 12 squares, each representing 25 cents, for a grand total of three whole dollars.

Three Dollars? $3 doesn’t even get you a Naked Juice at The Axe & Palm.

But this penny-pinching budget is exactly what 28 million Americans living on food stamps must survive on — the largest number since the program began in the 1960s, according to an article by New York Times reporter Erik Eckholm.

In an effort to raise awareness about hunger and poverty in America, Stanford Students Taking On Poverty (STOP) sponsored the Food Stamps Challenge all week to show what low-income families must face every day.

Yesterday I was joined by 200 other Stanford students as we trekked to Old Union during lunch and dinner to scrounge through the representative options. For lunch, I had two pieces of white bread (25 cents) and a quarter can of tuna (67 cents), and I splurged on one piece of sushi (50 cents), for a total of $1.42. For a snack, I grabbed 2 carrots on my way out (6.25 cents.)

Other suggested plate options included a PB&J sandwich (75 cents), a banana (45 cents), and 24 oz. of soda (30 cents), or 2 slices of bread (25 cents), 1/8 of a can of spam (40 cents), a slice of cheese (21 cents), and an apple (66 cents).

Or, there was the “chips and Coke” option, which Co-Executive Director and founder of STOP, Debbie Warshawsky ‘08, told me she had been munching on all day. Yum.

To assuage my stomach pains, I drank water like a camel, but from water fountains. Bottled water would have cost at least a dollar from my precious budget.

Aside from the hunger that consumed the majority of my thoughts throughout the day, I was left alone to really think about this pressing problem that exists in the United States. It is very difficult to live off $21 a week and not go hungry, especially when the average person is supposed to consume around 2000 calories a day. The plate options listed above do not allow for the suggested caloric intake.

And this challenge was comparatively easy in contrast to what Americans realistically must face. Food is not neatly laid out for them at a convenient location. With astronomical gas prices, transportation costs can detract from Americans’ food budgets. Also, STOP was kind enough to offer food in small portions. At the supermarket I wouldn’t be allowed to crack open a jar of jelly and ask the cashier to ring up 2 tbs. for only 25 cents. People have to purchase the entire jar for about $2, 2/3 of a day’s budget.

And for someone who desperately tries to maintain a certain level of nutrition in her diet, I was appalled by what I was able to afford for $3. Healthy food options do not come cheap. There is no feasible way to maintain a basic level of nutrition. Gone were my usual snacks like the Kashi granola bars, Oatnut bread and Ranch-flavored rice crackers. All of these cost somewhere between 2 and 3 dollars. I definitely would not have been able to afford them on a $21-per-week budget.

And I was thoroughly disturbed by the lack of nutrition I had throughout the day. I got a little protein from the tuna, and some Vitamin C from the carrots and banana, but that was it. There were no vegetables in sight. I was hesitant to get an apple because of its price tag of 75 cents. On a table representative of what a week’s worth of groceries would look like, there were simple carbohydrates galore. For $21, you could get a loaf of simple, white bread, 4 boxes of pasta, a box of Easy Mac, a can of tuna, and gallon of milk. All adding up to little to no nutrition.

At the end of day — though I could barely concentrate on what I was writing, and I eventually slept just to end the hunger — I was content with my experience. For me, the most effective way to truly understand others’ plights is to completely immerse myself in a cause. I had to do this for 24 hours, while there are 28 million people who survive on $3 a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks out of the year. Something must be done to make the food stamps program more realistic.