21 meals on $25 a week?

Lucia Guzman stalked the aisles of Safeway, comparing various peanut butters and types of beans. She carefully tallied the cost of the items in her basket on a small pad of paper.

Guzman, executive director of the Mayor's Office for Human Rights and Community Relations, and other city officials agreed to live on food-stamp rations for two days or a week - roughly $3 a day, or $25 per person per week.

Wow, that's not a lot of money. (At this point, everyone on food stamps is saying, "Well, duh, Jen!") My family can drop $25 at McDonalds.

I wonder what our family would have to spend if we were on food stamps, it looks like roughly $25/person/week. That would be interesting to see how we would do. I believe it was in Living More with Less, I read about a family that allowed themselves to spend the same amount on food as they would receive from food stamps. (That was an awkward sentence, sorry about that.) Then they gave the rest to their church. I remember thinking that was a pretty neat idea, sort of like an extended fast offering.

The woman in the article did pretty well, especially considering she's got medical considerations. But, she also said she was going hungry this week, too. I'm sure a lot of people are going hungry week to week.

Labels: newsworthy