This past month, the Food Bank of New Jersey invited residents to participate in a very unusual challenge: See if you can live on food stamps for a week.
“The average benefit is $120 per person per month,” explained Diane Riley, Director of Advocacy at the Food Bank of New Jersey. “That comes to $31.50 for the week.”
If you think that sounds like an impossible task, you may be right. But for millions of people in America today, this is their reality.
Riley decided to try it herself when the food-stamp challenge was introduced in late November. The purpose of the challenge was to increase awareness of the plight of people nationwide who are living with “food insecurity,” -- i.e., not having enough to eat.
Riley was not alone in taking the challenge; over a period of several weeks, many people accepted the challenge, including bloggers, journalists and several members of Congress. Their results have been documented in numerous news reports and testimonials (see list below.)
During that same week, Riley found time to to talk to Patch about her experience. Visiting the Brookdale ShopRite in Bloomfield, Riley was accompanied by two Bloomfield residents, Ann Koehler, Rector of Christ Church, and Bruce Turnbull, Director of the food pantry at Bloomfield Presbyterian Church on the Green. Both had volunteered go shopping as “test studies” for this article.
