Forty Area Residents to Live on $21 Worth of Food for One Week

For Immediate Release
August 16, 2007
Contact: Chuck Warpehoski, chuck@icpj.net
w: 734-663-1870 c: 734-972-8304      

(Ann Arbor, MI.) Over forty Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti residents have pledge to live on only $3 worth of food a day — the average Food Stamp Program benefit level — from September 4 to 10. These families are taking part in the ICPJ Michigan Food Stamp Challenge to raise awareness of how difficult it is to purchase a healthy and nutritious diet on a food stamp budget.

“This week living on an average food stamp budget won’t come close to recreating the worry and anxiety that millions of low-income people feel every day when they’re not sure where their next meal is coming from, but we do hope to shine a light on the importance of the program and the need for increased benefits,” said Chuck Warpehoski, Director of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, the organization organizing the Challenge.

Established in 1939, the Food Stamp Program helps more than 26 million low-income people each month. Eligibility is based on income and assets depending on household size. Eligibility in the Food Stamp Program also includes work requirements, with all non-elderly adults required to be employed or to register for employment.  Many are also required to participate in work training and job search programs.

The Farm Bill, which includes funding for the Food Stamp Program, is due to be reauthorized in Congress this year.

“President Bush has called for cuts to food stamps, citing how the war in Iraq has put pressure on budget. Anyone who is considering cutting food stamps to pay for the war in Iraq should take the Food Stamp Challenge first, then let’s talk,” said Chuck Warpehoski.

“We believe we have a moral responsibility to end hunger in America,” Joan Doughty, Executive Director of Community Action Network and a Food Stamp Challenge participant, said. “The Food Stamp Program plays a vital role in providing nutrition assistance to low-income families, but the current benefit level makes it very difficult for many recipients to make ends meet.”

A blog that participants in the ICPJ Michigan Food Stamp Challenge can use to describe their experiences while living on the food stamp diet has been created at http://blog.MichiganFoodStampChallenge.org

The Ann Arbor News ran an interview today, Sunday, August 26, about the Challenge.

If you’re coming here after reading the interview, make sure you sign up for the challenge.

I’m grateful that the News helped explain why this is an issue for the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice. Not only is there talk of cutting food stamp funding, but the funding cuts would be to help cover the cost of the war in Iraq.

That’s not peace and it’s not justice.

The ICPJ Michigan Food Stamp Challenge is a way for people of faith and people of conscious we have to open our eyes and open our hearts to the reality of poverty in America, and then to open our mouths to call for justice.

The power of the Michigan Food Stamp Challenge is the personal experiences of people taking the Challenge. By blogging about the Challenge, you help share that personal experience with others.

There are two ways you can blog about the Michigan Food Stamp Challenge:

First, you can blog about the challenge on your own personal blog. If you already write a blog, please post about your experience on that blog. If you don’t have a blog, you can set one up for free from WordPress  or Blogger.

Or, you can contribute to the Michigan Food Stamp Challenge blog. It’s a quick and easy three-step process.

Step 1: Register for the blog by visiting http://www.michiganfoodstampchallenge.org/wp-register.php. Just choose a username and enter your email and you’re up and running.

Step 2: Write your blog posts. This is the fun part. Login to the blog at: http://www.michiganfoodstampchallenge.org/wp-login.php and click on “write a post.” Then write about your food stamp grocery list, how you handle temptations at work, what it’s like cooking on a food stamp budget, or whatever. When you’re done writing your post, click “save.”

Step 3: Tell me when your post is ready to go on the site. For security reasons, we moderate all the posts that go on the site to make sure they’re not spam. So, when you’re ready for your post to be published, email me at chuck@icpj.net and I’ll add your post to the site.

It’s as easy as that!

If you have any questions, please do drop me an email at chuck@icpj.net nor call 734-663-1870.

Thank you!
-Chuck

From the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism

This summer, Congress is in the process of reauthorizing portions of the Farm Bill, which funds America’s critical nutrition programs. Food Stamp benefits have not increased since the Farm Bill was last authorized in 2002 and remain a meager $1 per person, per meal. Senator Harkin (D-IA), Chair of the Agriculture Committee, has joined with other members of the Senate in the fight against hunger and introduced the Food Stamp Fairness and Benefit Restoration Act of 2007 (S. 1529).

America’s nutrition programs must be modernized to meet the growing need for government assistance and counterbalance the stagnant wages of an economy that has left so many hard working families below the poverty level. Between 2000 and 2005, the numbers of Americans living in poverty increased by 5 million people, meaning approximately 37 million Americans currently live below the poverty level. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that over 35 million people live in homes that are food insecure and that in 2006, 26 million people utilized Food Stamps. Congress must take action to expand food stamp eligibility and increase the benefit level.

S.1529 works toward expanding eligibility and increasing the benefit level by calling for improvements to Title I, the nutrition title of the Farm Bill. Improvements to Title I include restoring Food Stamp eligibility for some legal immigrant households, raising the benefit level to keep up with inflation, streamlining the enrollment process for nutrition benefits, and allocating more money to food banks to buy commodity goods. Moreover, S.1529 calls on Congress to raise the asset limit for families receiving Food Stamps from the current value of $2,000 and to exclude the value of education savings in that calculus.

Take Action
Here in Michigan, Senator Stabenow has already signed on to this important legislation. Please tell Senator Levin to do the same. In emails, faxes, and phone calls, please urge your Senator Levin to cosponsor the Food Stamp Fairness and Benefits Restoration Act of 2007 (S.1529).

You can call (202) 224-6221 or write to him at:

The Honorable Carl Levin
269 Russell Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-2202

The Ann Arbor News ran a great editorial on Tuesday about the Michigan Food Stamp Challenge. One press hit down, now on to spread the message.

I wonder if any of their reporters or editors will take the challenge? Continue reading →

According to the Detroit News (Quoted at the Elizabeth Anne blog), “A record 1.19 million Michiganians — nearly one of every nine residents — are getting government help in putting food on their tables, as a result of the state’s anemic economy and the massive downsizing of the domestic auto industry.”

When we started the Challenge, I had no idea it was that many.

If Food Stamps are cut, as  President Bush suggests, what would that mean for Michigan? How many people would be left out to dry? We’ve had enough blows to our economy, I don’t want to think of taking one more.

Every time I talk about the Food Stamp Challenge, somebody asks me for the exceptions. What about their garden? What about their spice rack? What about coffee hour at their congregation.

These “what ifs” are a great chance to consider what it’s like for people on food stamps.  So, rather than lay down a strict law about what is allowed and what is not, I’d rather you consider for yourself what’s appropriate and what isn’t and how that impacts your decision.

Here are some ways people are adapting the Challenge:

• Put a value on the food you already have in the house. If you have a few bananas around on Sept. 4, you don’t have to let them go bad.  You can figure out what they would cost and put that into your budget.
• Find Free Food. I know the rules say you shouldn’t do this, but in truth many people on food stamps depend on finding ways to get some free food, whether that’s refreshments after church or samples at the super market.
• Use your garden. If you have a garden, that can be a source of some goodies, and some people on food stamps have access to a garden.
• Consider what it means when you bend the rules. If you have to bend the rules, take a moment to consider what that means. If it’s too hard for you for one week, what does that mean for people who face this every day? What ways do you have access to resources that people on food stamps don’t?

These are a few ideas. Feel free to share your thought about what’s appropriate–and what isn’t, as you take the Challenge.

Part of the power of the Challenge is that it gives people like you a chance to learn about the challenges people on food stamps face, and then to educate others and to take action to make the world a bit better.

Here are a few ideas for how you can take action in your community:

1. Talk to a local food bank 0r social service agency to arrange a tour of their facility to learn why food stamps are so important.
2. Organize a post-Challenge forum so people in your community can share what was easy and what was hard for them.
3. Plan a press conference before the challenge so that the media sees who is taking the challenge.

We’ll be adding to these ideas as the challenge moves forward. How about you? What suggestions do you have for actions? Share your ideas by leaving a comment below.

“It’s been terrible. I feel lousy. I’m tired. I just don’t feel like myself.”

The New Yorker has a great piece on Queens City Councelman Eric Gioia taking the food stamp challenge.  For Gioia, it was rough. His last meal of the week was “a sliver of butter, a bowl’s worth of ziti, and six carrots.” Not exactly fill-you-up food, and this is after he scored some emergency bounty from a local soup kitchen.

Thank you Joan Doughty of the Community Action Network for sharing this story. It makes me wonder how I’ll fare when my turn comes.

The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) has a great analysis of how the President’s proposals for the farm bill reauthorization and the 2008 budget provide a double danger for families in poverty.

According to FRAC, changes to the food stamp program would “mean that 329,000 people in working families with children which are low-income but not receiving cash assistance would lose eligibility.”

That’s bad news for the families that depend of food stamps to put food on the table. Show that you’re concerned, sign up for the food stamp challenge today.