Posted on 05/18/2007 5:20:57 AM PDT by radar101
Washington Post had an article yesterday on the Food Stamp Challenge, in which four members of Congress are attempting to eat on $21/week - the average per person allotment for food stamps in this country. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA.) and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO.), who co-chair the House Hunger Caucus, called on all law makers to take the challenge though only two Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Janice Schakowsky (D-IL) stepped up to the plate.
Not surprisingly, the lawmakers found it nearly impossible to build any protein of fresh produce into their diets on the budget. (Note that they will not be eating or drinking anything at fundraisers or other events). Tim Ryan’s diet this week is limited to the following:
Yellow cornmeal $1.43
2 jars strawberry preserves 4.80
1 jar chunky peanut butter 2.48
2 packages angel-hair pasta 1.54
Chock Full o’ Nuts coffee 2.50
3 cans tomato sauce 4.50
2 containers cottage cheese 3.00
1 loaf wheat bread 0.89
1 head of garlic 0.32
Total: $20.66
That’s not much for anyone, much less for Ryan who is pushing 6′4″ (I know this because I have a mini-crush on him and met him at a DCCC fundraiser last year. I like tall Midwesterners like myself - sue me!)
What I found interesting about this great effort is the way that the members of Congress are utilizing social media tools to promote the initiative. McGovern, his wife and Ryan are all blogging on their daily experiences. Many of the posts are thoughtful and lengthy - generating dozens of comments a piece as individuals offer encouragement, or advice on recipes, rationing and purchases. Tim Ryan has also posted a video of his CNN interview on the challenge to his YouTube channel (though it’s not tagged well and doesn’t come up with a search of Food Stamp Challenge). The effort has also generated some buzz in the blogosphere where dozens of bloggers have mentioned the Challenge in the past few days.
Good to see a reminder that politicians can use new media not just to get elected, but also to advocate for change issue by issue.
(Via We’ll Know When We Get There)
Welfare of any sort should be provided “in kind”. NOT money, and food stamps are money.
If someone needs food, you give them meat, chicken, rice, beans and vegetables. You don’t give them money and tell them to go down to the Safeway and buy whatever they like.
Another important point these dimwit politicos don’t get. Food stamps are a SUPPLIMENT to their food budget. They are not supposed to provide everything. How many people receiving food stamps have absolutely no way of getting any other food?
Listen, senators...the whole idea about having a lousy job is the emotional and financial pressure to better yourself and GET A BETTER ONE.
I’ve always thought that “free” gubmint food should be every kind of thing regular working folks DON’T WANT. You get brussel sprouts, liver, other “organ meats”, oatmeal...the kind of food that is not entertaining. You want Cheeze Doodles, citizen? GET A JOB.
If they’re going to to this then they need to stay on foodstamps for about three generations. Also, ‘foodstamps’ isn’t really what they get any more. That’s so 60s. The congressmen should also get some free daycare for their kids, free housing, help with their utilities, and a monthly check from mama guv’mint.
Even if you low ball it at four people that's $84.00/wk or approx $360 a month (4.3 wks). You can buy a lot of food for $360.00.
PLUS if this fictional family is so poor they get food stamps, then their kids are eating 'free' at school for two of their meals. And in most states thats all year round. And if its 5 in the family (3 kids) the food stamp give away comes to $452.00 a month (again 4.3wk avg /mo).
Sheesh, why didn't Kaitlyn really stretch the injustice (sarc) of food stamps and break it down per hour.
MEAN REPUBLICANS ONLY GIVES POOR PEOPLE $.125/HR TO EAT!!
Coffee is a luxury on this budget...buy a gallon of milk for the calcium.
What they ought to do is take the “combat challenge” and go out on patrol in Iraq for a month.
Think they would?
Nope.
Go down to a good Asian store. You can live pretty cheap on rice and rice noodles, half the world is doing it now. When I was in college I ate a hell of a lot of tuna on cheap bread. I also ate a lot of noodles with cheap sauce on them. I made egg salad sandwiches for lunch on the days I couldn’t stand any more tuna.
BTW, for $1 you can buy enough rice noodles to make 3-4 meals for an adult. For $3.50 you can buy enough Jasmine rice to eat 3 meals a day for at least a week. Does it get boring? Yeah, so what? Beats going hungry.
That said, if someone is so poor that the only food they can afford to eat is paid for with food stamps, the government needs to examine their lives closely. I’d wager that not 1 in 100 recipients is trying to live only on food stamps.
Wait a minute here....how many single people get food stamps?....the average food stamp recipient is a single parent with children...which makes the food stamp allotment more. Lets say it is a mother with 4 dependent children....making the allotment 105 dollars a week (420 a month)...now the person on food stamps has an option of buying meals they can stretch out. Mom can buy a piece of meat...feed her family roast beef one night and have left overs the next. Or make a big pot of spaghetti sauce and have 2 meals out of it. Using coupons is another way of saving money...buying in bulk another. Mothers on food stamps can also avail themselves to WIC if their children are under 5. The peanut butter, milk, eggs, cheese and cereal are all free. Not to mention food banks, where a couple of hours helping out, can fill the pantry.
While food stamps is not the optimal way to go...it wasn’t supposed to be a life style..but a stop gap measure for those who fell on hard times.
Using your 4.3 wks/month it comes out to $271 per month for a family of 3. I have a family of 3 and it is rare for my monthly food budget to hit that amount, let alone go over it.
Or do the pick for our farmers during harvest. You know, those jobs Americans don’t want to do.
I've done this for years. I also make my own jellies/jams from fruit found on the side of the road...i.e., blackberries, wild plums, mustang grapes and elderberries. Black walnut and pecan trees are prolific in our area as well. The kids used to love our little expeditions to find things we bring home and put in the oven. We weren't poor by any means... just interested in finding out what our resources were.:)
As a general rule, the poorer a person is, the fatter they tend to be.
We don’t have poor people starving in this country. The problem is quite the opposite.
Bump.
It is extremely unhealthy not to know how to preserve and make food from scratch.
Making your own is fund too.
Here some hints:
The starving student method: Top Ramen, check the discount grocery store, check the bin with meat and other food near its expiration date, wander by the salad bar or deli when they close up (sometime you can get a whole roasted chicken for $3.00 or so), save those little packets of salt, pepper, ketchup, sugar, etc. from previous visits to fast-food places.
The depression era method: Cream tuna on toast (bread bought from the day-old bread store), boil the chicken bones for the scraps of meat and soup base, beans, cornflakes, milk, flour, butter, other basic staple ingredients.
SKIP: organic foods, name brands, gourmet foods, etc.
You seem to expect people who can’t earn enough to feed themselves to be able to shop for and prepare food. Maybe “food” stamps should include the cost of preparation including paying someone to buy the food and open the cans and jars for the terminally helpless.
Exactly.
Now since I don't get food stamps I don't know if the 4.3wk avg is used but you see my point about there being enough money. Heck you LIVE it.
And as another poster noted, in today's world of nanny state gubmint, if you're getting Food Stamps you're getting a boatload of other 'free stuff' too.
I just recalled the 'free school food' as my ijit governor just mandated it last year (and 'mandated' he did). Schools in IL are now year round cafeterias.
I have a family of 3, and that's roughly what I budget monthly (~$400) - including dry goods. And, there's a lot of room in there for cutting back.
This is journalism at its worst. I read the article and my first reaction was "how could a family get by on $21 bucks a week?" Exactly the reaction that the reporter was looking for, IMHO.
This is bull. I know alot of people on the government dole. Several of them get more food stamps than they can use. They give them away, sell them, and buy groceries for other people just to get rid of them. Those people who are getting very little have an income high enough where their foodstamps are cut down.
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