Take the Food Stamp Challenge

Can you handle it at $21 a week? Writes Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) after two days,

I’m feeling much better today. Yesterday, I didn’t eat anything at all until lunchtime, and that really took a lot out of me. So far today I’ve had some cottage cheese, a cup of coffee and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I think that now that my body has had some time to adjust, it’s a little easier, but my energy level is still noticeably lower than normal. I have some serious challenges ahead of me today. I’m expected to make an appearance at a reception on Capitol Hill and I need to pass by a dinner meeting at one of my favorite restaurants afterwards. I know I’ll be fine.

My biggest concern today is running out of food before the end of the week. One loaf of bread doesn’t make as many sandwiches as you’d think, and I’m running through my cottage cheese pretty fast as well. The budgeting was hard enough, rationing
what I do have will present another challenge.

After the full week,

I'm coming away from this experience with some hard lessons learned and a newfound understanding of this issue. First and foremost is that it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to make due on this amount of money. I know many people have written in saying that Food Stamps are meant to be a supplement to other income. Well, yeah that is how the program was intended, but it has been 11 years since we've added ANY value to food stamps, 10 years since we've raised the minimum wage and in that time inflation has risen, the price of milk has risen, the price of produce has risen. NOW we find ourselves in a position where with gas well over $3.00 a gallon in many places those who earn the least among us use their food stamp benefit not as a supplement, but as their sole source of income for food.

Many of us, myself included, have never known the despair of going to sleep hungry not as a cause of our own free will, yet, for millions of Americans, citizens of the most wealthy nation in the world, this is a reality. I know I could barely make it through half the week on $21.

Anyone who continues to complain about social welfare and support should try to put himself in these people's shoes. Make him take the food stamp challenge and see how he fares. The only problem with the poor is that they are poor.