Lawmakers Find $21 a Week Doesn't Buy a Lot of Groceries

Although the idea of raising hunger awareness through low-budget eating is not new, it's nice to see people who can change legislation try to do it--too bad there are only a handful of lawmakers who have the grit to actually take it up. I guess the rest can't "afford" the experience:

Lawmakers Find $21 a Week Doesn't Buy a Lot of Groceries : "Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) stood before the refrigerated section of the Safeway on Capitol Hill yesterday and looked longingly at the eggs.

At $1.29 for a half-dozen, he couldn't afford them.

Ryan and three other members of Congress have pledged to live for one week on $21 worth of food, the amount the average food stamp recipient receives in federal assistance. That's $3 a day or $1 a meal. They started yesterday.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), co-chairmen of the House Hunger Caucus, called on lawmakers to take the 'Food Stamp Challenge' to raise awareness of hunger and what they say are inadequate benefits for food stamp recipients. Only two others, Ryan and Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.), took them up on it.

'All of us in Congress live pretty good lives,' said McGovern, who ate a single banana for breakfast yesterday and was going through caffeine withdrawal by midday. 'We don't have to wake up worrying about the next meal. But there are a lot of Americans who do. I think it's wrong. I think it's immoral that in the U.S., the richest country in the world, people are hungry.'"