Washington Post: “Ryan and three other members of Congress have pledged to live for one week on $21 worth of food, the amount the average food stamp recipient receives in federal assistance. That’s $3 a day or $1 a meal. They started yesterday.” Congressman Ryan’s report here and Congressman McGovern’s report here.
One week? Pussies.
Try it for a coupla years and see what you think.
He should have bought beans. The stuff he chose is dangerously low on proteins. (But to be fair, poor people may not spend their food stamps wisely, either.)
This is an awesome idea! It’s good that they’re raising their awareness. They’re not taking into account though that there are people on food stamps that don’t have anywhere to cook or even store food. Try living off food stamps without a fridge or a stove or even a microwave.
In one of my social work classes we had to make up a food stamp menu. I managed to have the most nutritious menu in the class, but I’m a vegetarian and I can cook. If you don’t know how to cook or have no recipes, then that sucks. I could only survive by carefully picking out sales items and planning each meal, combining leftovers to make new stuff.
To make this experiment complete, they should actually have to use food stamps. The humiliation is worse than the hunger. Or try going to a food shelf. I volunteered at one last week, it made me so miserable. It’s a degrading experience for people.