Tuesday, May 22, 2007

$21-a-Week: The Follow-Up

There was a follow-up article in today's Washington Post about the members of the House Hunger Caucus who were trying to live on $21-per-week. They knew it was going to be difficult when they started, but I don't think they realized just HOW difficult.....
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Pangs of Hunger -- and Bit of Guilt
by Lyndsey Layton

A pork chop and a bag of peanuts proved too tempting for Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), one of four members of Congress who has struggled for the past week to subsist on $21 worth of food -- the equivalent of benefits received by the average food stamp recipient.

Last Friday night, in New Hampshire to deliver a commencement speech, Ryan succumbed to a pork chop in the hotel restaurant because he feared he would otherwise be too weak to give the address.

5 comments:

karen said...

21 bucks a week.....that wouldn't feed my labrador....
I'm torn on this subject.
But the "succumbing to a pork chop"--too funny!

ipanema said...

ha! I can picture him with the pork chop. Oh how nice it is to eat 'normally' again.

I hope they learned a lot with this endeavour.

Unknown said...

This is great. I'm glad a few people on the hill are willing to walk in the shoes of their constituents for a short period of time. I just hope they realize the people they represent aren't able to succumb to a pork chop or bag of peanuts. They just stay hungry, or have to commit a crime to get it.

Last year in Oklahoma there was a state legilator who introduced a bill that (for a short 365 days)would change the salaries of all state legislators to the equivalent of teachers in the public schools in the state. It recieved only one vote in favor.

Kristen said...

They did seem to learn a lot from their week and to acknowledge that the people who really do have to live on $21 don't have the luxury of succumbing to a pork chop. I still wish more legislators had participated and that there had been more coverage, though. And, I was moved by the food stamp recipients who offered recipes and tips for stretching the $21.

susan said...

I had no idea this was going on--thanks for the story! There's a sermon in there somewhere...