Adventures of Not Eating | August 14-20, 2024

Let us think back to hunger!

One of the things I’ve never fully understood is the connection people make between homelessness and food insecurity. The reason I don’t see it is because in my experience the two have never happened at the same time. Whenever I was homeless, I was given some money. The question for me was: Should I use it to pay my rent or to eat?

I know that my experience is not universal, but somehow I find it difficult to ignore the fundamental economic decision.

Okay, my first time being homeless was unreal. I was starting my fourth year as a graduate student at Cornell University and my apartment was ripped out from under me by being sold to a real estate developer. I was living in a cheap room and the developer bought the building just to raise the rent. Not just on that building, but on all the surrounding buildings as far as I could tell.

I didn’t have enough savings to move into a room with higher rent.

I was still a student at the time and had a job as a teaching assistant. I made about $300 a month back then, which is about $1,500 a month today, so I didn’t starve. I ate cheeseburgers, salads, yogurt, and cheesecake. Exactly what I had eaten before I was evicted. I mostly ate in the student union building or at an off-campus deli. Just like before.

I spent about the same amount on groceries as I had before, which meant I was able to save on my rent. While it wasn’t enough to rent a new place, I added the money to my savings so I could rent again a year later. Rents at Cornell were seasonal. I only had to save for a year to get back into business and get the higher rents.

When I went back to renting, the rent was double what I was paying before, so in order to keep my apartment, I had to eat less. The rent situation was such a shock to me that I went completely hungry for three weeks because I was afraid of not being able to pay the rent. It was my first time going hungry, so I didn’t know how bad it could be. I learned that it could be very bad, so I decided to eat again, but skipped the cheesecake.

About 10 years later, I became homeless again. This time I still had an income. I was a taxi driver. Because I was homeless, I couldn’t sleep much, which meant I didn’t make that much money. There was no hope of saving money to rent at that time. The only reason I escaped homelessness was a small inheritance. It was only $1,000, but I was able to buy another cheap room with it. It was all going well until I realized I couldn’t drive a taxi anymore for “health” reasons. I was, you know, a little mentally ill.

So anyway, I applied for state disability benefits and got approved in about 30 minutes. But even though the state didn’t question my disability, they wanted me to use up my savings before I could get benefits. They said I would definitely have six weeks’ worth of money to spend.

I tricked them. I didn’t have enough money for six weeks, I only had enough for one week.

They were kind enough to advance me $60 in food stamps. But they ran out in two or three weeks. So I went hungry for three weeks. This time I had three cents in my pocket while I was hungry. I never knew what to spend it on.

But I was still living in the cheap room! The landlord made me wait to pay the rent. So I was starving, but not homeless.

By cutting back on expenses, I was able to lose about 25 pounds in my weight group, from 155 to 130. That was my greatest hunger adventure. I never did that again.

In fact, a few years later, I decided to intentionally overeat just to see what that was like for a change. I gained 35 pounds in three months, mostly from over-consuming dairy. I also decided never to do that again. It was an interesting change, but ultimately I decided I liked my first scale the best.

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Read more in the August 14-20, 2024 issue.