The Food Stamp Challenge

Today marks the last day of the "The Food Stamp Challenge" by four Members of Congress - Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO). The Food Stamp Challenge is a public awareness initiative where public officials only eat food totaling $21 dollars for a week, the national average food stamp budget, to raise awareness of the Food Stamp program. These House Members have been blogging about their experiences at http://foodstampchallenge.typepad.com/.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky:

Shopping was really hard. Here's what I learned. It is much easier to afford pasta and bread than it is fruits and vegetables of any kind. It is hard to buy much of anything for $3 a day. It is impossible to get a Starbuck's coffee or a Diet Pepsi if you don't want to run out of money pretty quickly...Every day 35 million people in American struggle to put food on the table. I am not one of them, not even close. But just this small effort to put myself in their shoes, has made even more real to me the immorality of such a fact in the richest country in the world.

On his way back to Washington yesterday, Rep. Tim Ryan lost one of his last staples:

As the agent sifted though my bag, I tried to recount what could possibly be in there that was threatening...my mouthwash? Toothpaste? Yeah, it was those two, but it was also my peanut butter and jelly...Sure enough the very nice TSA agent explained to me the 3-1-1 regulations for liquids. As a public service I've decided to link you to them. He politely put the peanut butter and jelly to the side, closed my bag and gave it back to me. I was too astonished to talk. I took my bag and walked towards the gate thinking about the 4 or maybe 5 meals that she had taken from me. What am I going to do now? It's not like I can just go to Safeway and grab another jar. I have .33 cents and a bag of cornmeal to last today and tomorrow.

Today, Rep. Jim McGovern summarized his experience on the Food Stamp Challenge on the House floor:

Rep. McGovern: "Our most valuable lesson came from the scores of individuals who reached out to us though share their personal experiences struggling to put food on the table for their families. Whether they posted comments on our blog or called my office and spoke with my staff, these individuals taught Lisa and me about how hard-working Americans managed to provide for themselves and their families in spite of inadequate food stamp levels. They talked about having to make tradeoffs between paying utility bills, buying clothes for their children, and purchasing food."

Learn more about the Food Stamp program on Rep. McGovern's website>>