On a strict, if temporary diet:
Interfaith and anti-hunger advocates across Indiana are feeding themselves on the average food stamp benefit of $31.50 for one week.
[. . .]
The idea is to get participants to personally experience the challenge of daily hunger so they can better understand the struggles that many Americans face daily.
The story notes that several members of Congress are also participating. It would be encouraging to think these lawmakers might learn a little about frugality during the exercise. But of course that's not the point. The idea is to build support for spending ever more money on federal assistance programs.
Comments
This would have been a more valid exercise in the early days of the food stamp program.
Initially, people had to buy food stamps, at a price depending on their income. They later changed the program so that people got fewer food stamps, and they had to supplement the food stamps with their own money.
For a household of one, no income, you get $200 worth of food stamps. For larger households, it drops a little. The difference between a household of 10 and a household of 11 is $150.
The lady across the street gets food stamps. When I buy raw milk or buy produce from a roadside stand, they don't accept food stamps, so I buy for her as well, and I swap that food to her for macaroni, sugar, potato chips, etc. from the supermarket. Costco doesn't take food stamps, either, and they have better beef/pork (and better prices) than supermarkets, so sometimes she swaps for a 10-pound box of hamburgers or a pork butt as well. It's not legal, but it should be. It better accomplishs the goals of the program at no added cost to the gummint.