Could you live on $21 a week?

As food prices continue to rise, a group of state organizations is asking people to eat on a limited budget for at least a week this month to learn what it's like to be hungry.

In Oklahoma, the average food stamp recipient gets about $22.36 per person each week to buy groceries, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The monthly average number of Oklahomans receiving food stamps in 2006 was 435,000. The average monthly enrollment has been going up for the past five years.

In conjunction with national Hunger Awareness Day on Tuesday, non-profit groups are asking people to try to live on $21 worth of groceries per person per week as part of the Food Stamp Challenge 2007.

"You can't buy a whole lot, that's what people are finding out when they go to the supermarket,” said Rodney Bivens, executive director of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. "It's averaging basically a dollar a meal, and even at a fast food place you can't get a meal for a dollar.”

"The thing that people have to remember about the food stamp program is though it's feeding Oklahomans and feeding Americans, it's still a farm subsidy program. If that program were not in effect right now in Oklahoma, it would be the same as removing a half billion (dollars) from the economy. That's a lot of groceries,” said George Johnson Jr., spokesman for the state Department of Human Services.

Though it's a federal program, food stamp benefits are determined by each state. In Oklahoma, DHS is responsible for distribution, with the state Human Services Commission deciding rates.

The rate hasn't increased in Oklahoma since at least 1996, when the welfare reform act was approved, Johnson said.

Of the Oklahomans receiving food stamps last year, nearly half were children and about 42 percent were from families working at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level, Johnson said.

Economists say food prices continue to go up as fuel, produce and corn prices remain high. That will make it harder for people on limited incomes to feed their families, Bivens said.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, food price increases have run the gamut this year from a 5.7 percent rise in produce costs to 8.2 percent for dairy and grain-based items.

But increased demand for ethanol fuel is one of the chief reasons people are paying more for their food, according to a recent Iowa State University report.

The study said grocery prices rose an average of $47 per person this year and are expected to rise by $67 a person by 2012 if the demand for ethanol fuel continues.

Rising corn prices also are expected to impact corn-fed meat production costs through 2010 as livestock feed costs remain high, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Crop prices also rose this year after freezes and droughts affected produce farming across the country. That's been making it even harder for poor people to get a nutritious meal at a low cost.

"So what they pick up is higher in calories or starch, like potatoes, Ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese. That's why we try to emphasize distributing a lot of fruits and vegetables,” Bivens said.

"From the food bank point of view, that increases the demand on the food resources we have.”