GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Maria Gajewski has scaled back her food budget this month — to $30.

She is foraging for edible plants, working on the family farm for payment in eggs and eating lots of brown rice and lentils, all to call attention to the hardship of eating nutritiously on a limited budget.

The remainder of the approximately $250 she usually spends on food and beverages for 30 days will go to her favorite nonprofit, Blandford Nature Center & Mixed Greens in Grand Rapids.

Plus, she hopes supporters of her "Great Rice and Beans Experiment" will donate. Her blog, ricebeansmixedgreens.wordpress.com, will feature regular updates on her monthlong journey, which will end May 10.

The goal isn't to "push any agenda," said Gajewski, a 30-year-old vegetarian. "Food to me is one of those really complex issues. People can take away from this what they'd like."

The 30-days-on-$30 idea came from a Lansing, Mich., man who did it in 2006. He dined on rice, ramen noodles, white bread and off-brand peanut butter and concluded the month with a $200 donation to the Lansing Area Food Bank. Gajewski is taking a different route.

''I knew that if he had only contacted the food bank he would have raised a whole lot more money. I decided to leverage my efforts and raise some real money," said Gajewski, whose job as a researcher at Grand Valley State University puts her in regular contact with local nonprofit groups.

Blandford & Mixed Greens Executive Director Lisa Rose Starner is promoting Gajewski and her quest, in hopes it will trigger about $2,500 in donations.

''This is not just about trying to understand poverty from an ivory tower, academic perspective," Starner said. "We can talk about eating local, talk about eating healthy, but if you only have so many hours in a day and you're working three jobs at minimum wage and trying to maintain your family, it's challenging."

In the beginning, Gajewski ate oatmeal for breakfast and lots of brown rice and lentils for lunch and dinner. She drank tea instead of coffee because she found some tea bags for 2 cents each.

She had to bypass a pizza buffet ordered in for her office mates because "gift food" can't be accepted, according to her own rules. She can, however, forage for wild onions and dandelion greens and barter for food grown within 100 miles of Grand Rapids.

''I work in an environment where there is food everywhere all the time," she said, acknowledging that many people with lesser incomes don't have that luxury.

The day before her diet turned to rice and beans, she sent her co-workers an e-mail explaining her endeavor. "Please don't feed Maria," it began.

Her boyfriend thinks she's "a little nuts," and others have attempted to find loopholes in the rules so they can slip her a snack that won't count toward the $30 total.

''That's really great ... but not the point," Gajewski said.