Hello there. It's me, Brock Keeling, editor of SFist. I'm coming at you in the first-person since I will starve to death (presumably) next week when I take and then report on the San Francisco Food Bank's Hunger Challenge. See, more than 237,000 residents in San Francisco and Marin struggle to put food on the table for themselves and their families. With the aid of Electronic Benefit Transfer cards (AKA "food stamps"), these people, most of whom who are just like you or me, spend an average of $4.72 per day ($33.04 a week) for edible nourishment. That's it. That's all. And while it's better than nothing, it's not much.

From September 11th to 16th, I plan on spending a scant $4.72 per day on food and beverages. That amount will go toward my three (or eight) meals a day, booze, and most terrifyingly of all, my coffee intake. (I spend well over $8 per day on caffeine, which pales in comparison to an unseemly daily dairy budget.) After the challenge ends, I will report on my experience on SFist... provided I haven't hurled my laptop out a third-story window.

I won't even allow myself to hit up any choice open-bar parties or catered galas. Can you imagine? It's like I'm Jesus.

Anyway, the Hunger Challenge's goal is to help folks walk in someone else's shoes for one week. As SF Food Bank notes, "And when you talk to family and friends and share your experiences with others, you'll help them understand why it's important for all of us to help support the families who can't feed themselves on a food stamp budget alone."

If you would like to take the challenge yourself, please visit their site for further details. For more information on the EBT Project or how you can sign up, go here.