As Newark Mayor Cory Booker has fought off critics of his food stamp challenge, one thing is clear: He is achieving his goal of bringing more attention to the plight of Americans forced to survive on food stamps.
Booker is in day 5 of his bid to live for a week on the equivalent of a food stamp budget—$30 for the whole week, or just $4.32 a day. It’s been tough going for the mayor, who has become a national figure for his ultra-commitment to his constituents in New Jersey’s largest city, which has a huge poor population. Yesterday he blogged that he was going to have to cut back on his daily intake because he realized he would run out of food before the end of the week at his current pace.
“Today is the 4 day of my #SNAPChallenge and so far it has been the most difficult,” he wrote. “I’m realizing more and more that my current daily food intake cannot continue at the same pace, and so my new focus is on smaller portions spread throughout the day.”
He also complained that he had a massive headache all day from caffeine withdrawal because he had to give up coffee, which is relatively expensive.
Now in his second term as Newark’s mayor, Booker is thought to be considering a challenge to Governor Chris Christie next year or perhaps even a run for the U.S. Senate.
Booker went on “Piers Morgan Tonight” yesterday to defend his food stamp challenge, as CNN’s Christine Romans took issue with the way he was doing it.
“It’s not meant to be your only calorie intake source,” Romans said. “‘Supplemental’ is the key. The government designs it so this is on top of what little money you might have, food pantries, soup kitchens.”
But Booker said it was “reality” that many Americans rely on food stamps to survive.
“There are many families—and I talked to a group of security guard workers yesterday who make seven dollars and change, don’t have health care benefits, so if they get sick, they have to either take days off of work and lose that money, or work through the sickness, who don’t have retirement benefits, who find it hard at the end of the month to pay their rent, to buy their food, and are struggling,” Booker said.
If you’d like to see the groceries Booker has been buying, click here.
This week, the Harvard School of Public Health released a survey that revealed 77 percent of Americans—across the political spectrum—are in favor of maintaining or increasing spending levels for food stamps. The survey included more than 3,000 respondents, with 418 SNAP (food stamp) recipients.Among the other findings:
- 82 percent support providing additional money to SNAP participants that can only be used to purchase fruits, vegetables, or other healthful foods .
- 74 percent support educating SNAP participants by providing nutrition or cooking classes.
- 69 percent are for removing sugary drinks from the list of approved SNAP products.
- 65 percent support providing SNAP participants with more food stamp dollars to guarantee that they can afford a healthy diet.
