Fighting poverty with faith

[rug]

JCPA partners with national faith groups to kick off food stamp challenge

10/26/2011 11:59:00 AM

by Emily Jacobs
Staff Writer

How much do you spend on each meal in the day? Five dollars? Ten?

What about on food for the entire week - $50, $60?

For one in six Americans, the answer to those questions is $1.50 a meal, and $31.50 per week.

That meager dollar amount is provided by SNAP, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistant Program, to more than 45 million people nationwide, a staggering increase from the 37 million aided by the program just four years ago in 2007.

http://washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=15969

[enki23]

1. Looks to me like they're fighting it with money. Which is good, as it works a lot better.

.

[darkstar3]

3. +1

[rug]

4. One does not negate the other.

[darkstar3]

5. One doesn't actually "fight" anything.

[rug]

7. And?

[Iggo]

13. And the other one does.

[NMMNG]

8. Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day

Teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime
Teach a man to pray, he'll starve to death praying for fish

[grasswire]

2. we did this challenge on DU a couple of years ago...

...when the governor of Oregon took the challenge himself. We did the shopping on paper. He made the mistake of buying coffee and honey. Many of us budgeted much better than that.

[SheilaT]

6. Invarialby when regular

politicians try to live on a food stamp budget, they give up before a week is out. If you're used to spending even a reasonable amount on food, it can be incredible difficult to do it at a much lower amount.

I aim to feed myself on $2.00 per meal, two meals a day, so fourteen meals a week. I don't quite keep it that low because I also allow myself certain luxuries, like the makings for baking cakes or brownies, but I come fairly close.

I also find that the need to stock up on things like spices kills that budget. It IS possible to eat on a very meager budget, but the meals will tend to be meager and perhaps bland.

[LuvNewcastle]

9. I thank them for their work.

Many people are allotted far less than that in food stamps. For some reason which I don't get, the existence of the food stamp program just galls many Americans. I've heard people say the nastiest things about others who they've seen using food stamps in stores. Why does it bother people to see others getting free food? For centuries, governments have been giving food to the poor and no one really batted an eye, but now people in modern America are all uptight about it. It's like they're watching others take food from the mouths of their children, or something. I guess they're just blinded by greed.

[NMMNG]

10. Some people think those who use food stamps

are just lazy bums who could work if they wanted but instead choose to "mooch" off the taxpayers. They buy into the RW meme that "welfare queens" are sitting around in cushy homes, driving luxury cars and eating prime rib all on the taxpayer's dime.

[cleanhippie]

11. Maybe I am just not seeing it, but where does the "faith" part come into play?

How is "faith" providing food to hungry people?

[Iggo]

12. I'm glad they're using money and not relying on faith. (n/t)

[cleanhippie]

14. Unrec for yet another attempt to make it look like "faith" is actually doing something productive...

when in fact, its money and hard work.

:puke:

[rug]

15. Oh no, an unrec!

As usual you miss the point so you simply reshape it into some prefab intellectual niche.

[cleanhippie]

16. Uh, yeah rug, its me.

:sarcasm: