What Can You Buy on Food Stamps?
By Monica @ 7:41 AM   
Last year, Colorado resident and blogger Ari Armstrong set out to show the types of purchases one could make on the government's food stamp budget at less than $3 per person per day with his Food Economy Challenge. Ari is at it again! He will now show how it's possible to eat a "low carb" diet -- generally heavy in nutrient dense foods and often claimed to be too expensive for the poor -- on the government's new food stamp allotment of $4.74 per person per day:
MEDIA RELEASE
ACTIVIST PLANS LOW-CARB DIET ON FOOD STAMP BUDGET
New Diet Protests Food Stamp Increases
A healthy diet is achievable on a food stamp budget, and Ari
Armstrong plans to prove it, again. Armstrong, who previously spent a
month eating for $2.57 per day -- see http://tinyurl.com/c35e8q --
will spend February 4-10 eating a highly nutritious, low-carb diet
for less than food stamps provide.
Armstrong said, "Not only has Congress increased the food stamp
budget since my $2.57 per day diet, but the so-called 'stimulus'
package calls for additional food-stamp funds. Enough is enough. I
oppose any increases to the food stamp budget, and call for the
program to be replaced with voluntarily funded food banks, which
offer more nutritious food at lower cost."
Armstrong's new diet, unlike his previous one, will be low-carb,
roughly following the advice of such writers as Gary Taubes and
similar to "paleo" or "cave-man" diets. The diet will consist of
meat, dairy, eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts, olive oil, chocolate, and
spices. It will not contain any grains, vegetable oils, hydrogenated
fat, potatoes, or processed sugar.
Armstrong will limit his daily budget to $4.74 per day, less than
food stamps provide to a single individual. The Department of
Agriculture -- see http://www.fns.usda.gov/FSP/faqs.htm -- offers a
family of four $588 per month, or $4.74 per person per day. (The food
stamp allotment is reduced for those deemed able to fund some of
their own food.) Armstrong will not accept any free food, and he will
shop only at nearby regular grocery stores. He will track all his
purchases and receipts at FreeColorado.com.
"With the previous diet, my goal was to minimize daily expenses. With
the new diet my goal is to show that a very healthy diet is possible
on a limited budget. The cost of my diet will actually be inflated,
not only because I'll be eating no free food, but because a week's
diet is not able to take advantage of bulk purchases of sales items,"
Armstrong pointed out. "I've been known to purchase 40 pounds of
bananas, a dozen squash, or twenty pounds of meat when they're on
sale; obviously that's not possible for a single week."
Part of the motivation to track the new diet was a recent CNN report
-- see http://tinyurl.com/d2lb5g -- in which a woman on food stamps
complains, "We get like the mac and cheese, which is dehydrated
cheese -- basically food that's no good for you health wise...
Everything is high in sodium and trans fats... and that's all we
basically can afford. There's not enough assistance to eat healthy
and maintain a healthy weight."
Armstrong replied, "That's nonsense, and I'm prepared to prove it.
I'm frankly irritated that some food stamp recipients waste our tax
dollars on overpriced junk food, then complain about their grocery
budget. I'll make the following offer. For anybody on food stamps who
complains that they can't afford good food, I'll be more than happy
to evaluate your entire monthly budget, including your grocery
budget, and recommend judicious cuts, limited to the first five
people who reply."
This ought to provide some wonderful evidence to contradict the claims of those suggesting that a food stamp budget doesn't allow them to eat healthily. Kudos to Ari for initiating the new Food Stamp Challenge!Labels: Conventional Wisdom, Food Stamp Program, Individual Rights
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5 Comments:
My view is that the main objection to Food Stamp programs is not waste from ignorant food choices, but the immorality of the way the programs are financed: forcing some individuals (those who must pay taxes) to give up their wealth.
That approach is an attack on the right of property, which is one of the three basic rights (after the right of life and the right of liberty).
Of course. But the idea that people can't feed themselves healthily on the Food Stamp program has been a major impetus for increasing the Food Stamp budget as has recently been done -- and those assertions definitely need to be dealt with.
I'd like to see the Food Stamp program completely eliminated, too. but in the meantime I'll continue to point out the irrationality of the "we can't feed ourselves healthily on this diet" myth -- and I'm glad Ari is doing so.
Back in high school, I had a part-time job as a cashier in a supermarket.
Back then, and many times since then, in the checkout lines, many of the people with food stamps are buying more expensive foods than me; not just the packaged stuff that costs an arm and a leg, but also more expensive cuts of meat and more deli foods to boot.
I find it intriguing that although Taubes' book may have been more or less ignored by the mainstream, it is getting noticed everywhere else, and especially that Armstrong is going to prove that even people on food stamps can eat better.
Yes, smart people can live on a food stamp budget, but most people on food stamps are pretty clueless. I agree that food stamps should be phased out and food pantries increased. Then the food pantries could accept more federal money and hand out weekly menus and recipes on how to cook real healthy meals from the food that was just given to them AND they could offer cooking classes taught by volunteers or whatever. $588 for a family of 4??? We are a family of 4 that spends less than that every month on food, gas, & clothing. The difference??? I am college educated and I do lots of research of healthy inexpensive meals and bulk shop the sales. Oh yeah, I can cook too!! See the problem... Most, not all of these people need to be shown the right way to budget and cook the food they are given.
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