In the age of student loans and bills, many of us are wondering how we can make ends meet. Some cut out cable TV, some give up cars for bicycles, and some haven’t had a meal at home in months. In all the cutbacks and all of the setbacks, it is easy to think you can’t afford to eat.

  Imagine a world where you can eat for just $2.00 a meal. Imagine that those meals aren’t as bad as you first thought, although the cheese can’t legally be called cheese and the “fresh frozen fruit” hails from China. Get the picture?

  Recently, I tried to eat for a week from food purchased at the Dollar Tree. Like most college students, I am living on a waitress salary and have little time to cook fancy meals (even if I could afford it). While I did not fully succeed in my Dollar Store food quest (forgetting to bring lunch to my work was my utter downfall), I found something I did not expect.

  When you walk into the Brandon Dollar Tree, you might feel like you are in a less fancy and more poorly lit Walmart. The walls are lined with things you know you shouldn’t buy, but probably will anyway, and the back wall is a large freezer section. They boast everything from cereal and soup to sirloin and spaghetti.

  Before immediately grabbing food off of the shelves, I took a little time to inspect the food that I would put into my cart. However. as wrong my preconceived notions might have been, visions of mold and plague danced in my head like sugarplums on Christmas eve.

  I first noticed that the majority of the “cheese” products were not called cheese anywhere on the packaging, and upon further inspection, I noticed that they were all oil based and did not actually contain cheese or milk in their ingredients. They were instead called “cheese-like product”.

  Leaving the cheese behind, I found something a little bit easier to stomach: spaghetti. Canned spaghetti sauce and dry noodles seemed like a safe way to go. After all, I wanted to write an article, not my own obituary.

  Black beans and rice, soups, hot pockets, and movie theater style candy began to fill my buggy, leaving me with the knowledge that I would either lose weight this week, or blow up like a balloon. Still, I knew my body would take a beating. I was surprised at the variety of food offered, and found it amazing that for a whole weeks worth of food, I spent just $50.00. (In Dollar Tree terms, that means 50 food items). I did not purchase my milk or bread at the Dollar Tree, as they do not sell these items there.

  What I discovered in terms of value surprised me. Things that at the time, I thought were a steal, turned out to be the same price as they would have been at Publix or Walmart. A three pack of Sargento brand cheese sticks was a dollar, but at Walmart, an eight pack was $2.38. The “sirloin” (I use the term loosely), was $1.00 per 3.5 ounce, which equals to about $4.57 a pound, wasmore than the sirloin was priced at Publix ($4.36 per pound). The cereal (I opted for Frosted Mini Spooners) was $1.00 for a small box, whereas a large bag of nearly five times the volume was only $3.79 at Walmart.

  I did not attempt to eat their meats or frozen fruits and vegetables, mostly because of fear. I would like to mention that they did have frozen vegetables and fruits, though the fruits and vegetables are not from America (even though we boast miles of farmland), and the meat had a distinct freezer burnt, sad look.

  So how was all of this food, you ask? It was not the worst week of my gastrointestinal life. The spaghetti was a knock off brand of Prego, but overall I can’t complain about it. For $2.00, it made enough for me and one other person, and we had leftovers!

  The black beans and yellow rice made a few great meals, and we had leftovers of it as well. The off brand of Ramen noodles tasted as Ramen noodles typically do, like a sodium heart attack in a tiny packaged noodle square. The cereal is the same brand (Frosted Mini Spooners) that you can purchase in the large bags at Walmart or Publix, and tasted the same as it would have from those stores.

  The Hot Pockets were hot and the Popsicles were cold.

  I was not able to eat as much as I perhaps normally would, as I cut out snacks so that there would be enough to stay on budget. However, it can be done, which is what I set out to prove.

  What I found myself thinking as I perused the aisles, and what I continued to think as I ate my Mini Spooners, was that it is easy to see how America both struggles with obesity and hunger. It seems like a conundrum, but the food I was able to purchase at the Dollar Tree, and the food that I believe a lot of other discount stores sell, has little to no nutritional value, and really only satisfies your immediate hunger need.

  The body cannot process so many chemicals, so we starve ourselves as we gain weight because we can’t afford better food. Fresh fruits and vegetables are not affordable on an average college student’s budget, especially college student’s who support others.

  Perhaps this is a problem our generation will continue to face, but in the meantime, the lesson has been learned that even though the Dollar Tree week can be done, you should stick to Publix, Walmart, or even Aldi.