Why I'm Taking the SNAP Challenge

Hello All,

Welcome to my blog site chronicling my experiences through the SNAP Challenge. For those of you that are confused, SNAP is an acronym for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This is basically a fancy term for food stamps. In future blogs, I will provide staggering statistics that will make your jaw drop describing how many people need SNAP assistance, how many people get it, how many people that don't and need it, so on and so forth. The purpose of this post however is to give a brief description as to why I'm participating and why you should too.

There have been hundreds of people across the country that are taking the SNAP Challenge to get awareness to the general public about a hunger epidemic in America, most notably Newark, New Jersey Mayor, Cory Booker. The SNAP Challenge basically consists of an individual or family, living, voluntarily, on what a typical food stamp recipient would receive. There are constant budget cuts to these programs and the demand for it continues to grow. As of now, the average SNAP recipient receives roughly $4 per day. That's my goal for one week is to survive for 7 days on $28 worth of food.

I'd read about people doing this Challenge and always thought it would be a humbling experience. I grew up in a single parent household in which we, for a short period anyhow, received government assistance, and I always had reduced, if not free lunch at school. I know first hand that these programs, more often than not, help people lift themselves from poverty and continue to become productive members of society. I caught some breaks through life, got a college education, I've never been unemployed, and I've since lived a comfortable lifestyle in which I haven't had to think much about my grocery bill. This will force me to realize the realistic lifestyle that over 46 million Americans feel. The social and moral benefits to this nation far outweigh the minimal fiscal costs. Congress sees these rising costs as numbers on a balance sheet, I see them as a life saver.

I've comprised a menu that I'll be sharing in my next post. This consists of a lot of rice, bananas, apples, yogurt, and bread. There's very little meat in the eating schedule, one pound of ground chicken and a can of beef stew is all that I've been able to fit into the budget. Those two items take up more than 1/5 of the entire week's allotment ($5.98 out of the $28).

In addition to this blog, you'll be able to follow my adventures with this program through facebook (https://www.facebook.com/curtis.carpenter.cos ) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/CarpenterCurtis).

Thank you for reading!
Curtis Carpenter