Thanks y'all for your replies!

I took a sandwich and an energy bar, and also used the few dollars I had to buy some bananas and carrots. It was around 9 in the afternoon so most stores were closing and I had just gotten into town by a bus to go on a camping trip with some friends a few days earlier. The day before I tried to withdraw a bunch of money from an ATM to pay rent but my account got locked because of suspicions activity. I'll talk to the bank and see if they can provide me with anything to prove this.

I'm not entirely sure if you can request counsel prior to the trial. There are some law firms that provide it for free over the phone or internet but that's a one time thing. From the information I've gathered it's never a good idea to plead guilty during the arraignment so I'm just going to plead not guilty or stand mute and ask for an attorney.

The money that I'm going to have to pay isn't a concern to me, I really just want to get this dropped or lowered to an infraction. I really don't want this on my record!