cnn.com:
CNN reporter has a newfound respect for leftovers after a month living on food stamps in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Blog: Getting by during the last week - CNN.com
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I don't understand CNN's priorities; why one story is told and another is ignored, why one story is valued and another is discounted. It makes me sick. Congratulations to CBN's David Brody because it looks like you frauds are safe and sound! Anyway, thanks to the "most trusted name in news" for sending out this journalist in his fancy fast Mercedes to live real life. At least he knew where the cameras were and had control over how much of him is seen. My impression of this journalist is good, based on this report. It must be nice to be in control of your own image, of your own story, what people know and what they don't.
BooHoo. Try living on $700/mo disability insurance and be eligible for a whopping $10/mo food stamps.
Then write a story.
As anyone who ever used food stamps out of necessity will tell you, you have to know how to stretch every dollar you get -- even if it means you have to go to the food pantries to augment what you don't have once the monthly allocation runs out.
Been there, done that. It's a necessary evil, particularly when you're in survival mode.
And given that many unemployed actors and writers are getting their monthly food stamps around this time, it's safe to say that government is supporting the arts to some extent.
Isn't that just precious.. The well off news anchor showing us all the novelty of Poverty and how to stretch some mac and cheese.. Here in America these are things most of us unfortunately Already KNOW!
An actual honest to god journalist would have done an in depth investigation of hunger and poverty in America and asked people who are actually Hungry how they are making it.. because I don't think anyone cares if chunky butt survives the off brand peas..
LOL Amen!!
$176 food stamps for a month for one????
He was rich...try less then that for two...if it were not for the food bank once a month and church meal once a week, we would be eating only 4 days a week.
And forget breakfast and lunch...we only eat dinner.
I KNOW! Where the heck did he get that figure?
On that much money, anyone could live very well indeed!
I am not on foodstamps and I spend less than that.
Sure don't know how he qualified for that amount. Try $10 for one person for a month. Hardly worth the paper work.
I contacted Sean at CNN at the beginning of his month of food stamps and again at the end to ask him to try the shopping and eating program I've put together at CookforGood.com. I never heard from them.
CookforGood.com shows you how to eat very well on $1.25 a meal shopping at a regular grocery store and for only $1.78 a meal shopping "green" -- with mostly organic, kindly or sustainably raised ingredients, using prices from January 2009. (The food-stamp allowance in NC is $1.53 a meal.)
Instant mashed potatoes and boneless, skinless chicken are a waste of money. He could have been eating delicious bean chili, spicy curries, homey Hoppin' John, carrot cake, chocolate pudding, and home-made yogurt and bread. Making all this great food from scratch takes about the same amount of time as eating out and less time than the sort of lightly-planned cooking I used to do.
The best part was that my husband and I have started experiencing the Seven Lively Savings right way. We saved money, yes, but we also felt better, had much less trash and recycling, kept our carbon footprint low by not eating meat, and even had food to share with friends and neighbors. It was hard to figure out, which is why I put up the CookforGood.com website to help others get started. But it's possible to eat very well on less than a food-stamp allowance.
But cooking oil, flour, salt, sugar, spices, are not all used up every month...so if you have them to start out with you can add to them as you go. Then have eggs, butter, ( that fake stuff it bad for your health, use real butter in small amounts) milk and I buy the big 2lb block of Cabot cheddar. ( no bovine growth hormones)
My favorite pasta, a Hannaford store brand curly ruffled tri color. One pricey yellow or orange pepper, will last, to season dishes through the month. Same with mushrooms, celery,.......onions.......really healthy! But some kids will NOT eat them no matter how young they are when they encounter them.
The fake crab/lobster flavored pollack is inexpensive and makes a great salad, soup.and is good for you.
GROW THINGS! Parsley is easy to grow in a window and a great source of vitamin C. Those sprouted potatoes from the low income market? Cut them in pieces, ( around each sprout) and plant them in a big pot or $2.00 scrub bucket. with dirt of course. THEY multiply! My red potatoes didn't keep this winter,but they are nwo booming along in a pot, making more potatoes.
Funny, this society knows well how to multiply our human population, and CLUELESS that this works in the vegetable kingdom as well!
This was a great story, but someone should do the same for a family of three or four. That's when it gets really, really hard.
We couldn't get food stamps, or welfare. I don't know why not to this day.
There was a time in my life when my mom and I wouldn't have had anything to eat for Christmas if someone hadn't left a gift box of foods on our porch. All we had in the house at that point was flour. My dad's child support of $40 a month kept us from staving many a time. Later, there was a period of several months that my husband and I lived on hot dogs and canned soup. Once a month or so we would splurge and buy a package of breaded shrimp. We always looked forward to that.
Pick up and read a copy of "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America" by Barbara Ehrenreich if you want a real eye opener. She did a similar experiment and relates what it's like to try to live on minimum wage in America. So many people, especially a great many who make really snarky posts here on HufPo have no idea what it is really like to live on a minimum wage job and try to qualify for Food Stamps. Making minimum wage in Ohio might qualify you for $10 a month in Food Stamps if you can afford the day off to go through all the hoops. It's no fun when you worry about where you're going to get your next meal, or having a warm place to sleep when its 7 below and the wind is howling and your shoes have thin soles, and you don't even want to think about getting sick. The lack of compassion I read on these blogs is really an eye opener. So many "Christians", so little charity for the less fortunate.
You are so right, Graywolf. A lot of out of touch, heartless people on both sides of the political spectrum, unfortunately.
I don't remember their names but last year there were a couple of congress people who tried something similar - for a week. Afterwards they reported that they had a new, respectful understanding of the problems faced by those people who were trying to feed their family on food stamps after having lost their income thru no fault of their own. One of these people said that, while she normally did her weekly shop inside an hour, it took her well over two-and-a-half hours just trying to keep the costs within limits while trying to provide healthy food for herself and her husband. Her comment about trying to feed growing children on food stamps was something to the point that it would have to be a 'full time job.'
In many areas of this country the run on the community food banks is at an all time high - and they are having to turn people away because they are running out of food - and too many children in this country are going to bed hungry. From personal experience I know exactly how they feel (WW-11 Europe) - and I'm sad.
Gimmicks like this are truly disgusting.
Really?? Try it sometime. Maybe you will learn how to deal with life 'on the ropes'.
Your probably a recipient of food stamp yourself citizen ,so stop hating on the peoples who really need this service to feed their families , thing will get worst before they get better in this country more American will continue to lose their jobs so never say never you could be next.
I took this post differently. When I saw this headline, I too was disgusted. This is not a joke or a game, there are people--way too many people--who are really living on food stamps and couldn't make it at all without them. There are even more people who can't get them and are making choices between paying the rent and feeding their family.
Stunts like this nauseate me. This guy knows he has money in the bank and a stratospheric (compared to real food stamp families) salary waiting for him when his game is over and he gets tired of Kract Mac n Cheese.
The "gimmick" is the news suit pretending to live on a food stamp budget for a month.
Was that so hard to figure out?
Living on government handouts is never going to be easy. I have known many people that for one reason (usually health related) or another find themselves in need of this type of assistance, it is painful to watch and makes one wonder if we (the richest country in the world) couldn't find a better way.
I do wonder though, wouldn't it be a little easier to get through a month on assistance if you knew it was just going to be that month, probably a lot scarier for those without a light at the end of the tunnel.
one point you made that needs to be clarified, this is not a government handout. It's taxpayers money, money that every working American (most times including the recipient) taxes go into.
I do agree with you that from a research perspective it might be daunting but not impossible. However, I'd like to see a family of 3 (single parent 2 children) and a family of 4 ( couple and 2 children) take this on. Single congresspersons and reporters just don't impress me I'm afraid. I'd like to see a story on the health and mental ramification this has on a middle-class family who's luck changed that quickly.
Mostly people resent food stamp recipients because they perceive them as lazy minorities. I think that would make people more sympathetic and empathetic to people whose lives have changed.
I don't think food stamp recipients are lazy necessarily, but all too often (happened just yesterday) I see the person in front of me in the checkout line with a huge shopping cart full of soda, frozen meals, chips, cookies and other junk food. I roll my eyes when I see them pull out their food stamp card. Shopping like this, by the end of the month they have to use the food bank. I can feed a family of 5 (including 3 adult kids who are living at home and chipping in for mortgage and utlities) very, very well on under $500 a month.
I don't believe for a minute he didn't eat out and stuff like that.
There are still a few people out there who do 'real life' things as research. You obviously have never been in a position where things have been difficult for you to survive, so I doubt you even realize that these conditions are REAL.
Given, but this whole reporter doing it thing reeks of fake.
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cnn.com | 03/ 1/09