I started the Food Stamp Challenge yesterday, an awareness building and advocacy exercise being co-sponsored by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. I skipped my coffee in the morning and did my grocery shopping for the week—under $30.00. When I first saw the challenge, I thought that it was a fantastic idea, a great way to engage people in some of the difficult issues related to food stamp benefits—how they are hard to access and insufficient, among other issues. Most of all, the goal of the initiative is to protect the SNAP program in a climate where cutting government programs is happening right and left.

This is from their website: “The U.S. Census Bureau just reported that the U.S. poverty rate rose to one out of every six Americans, or 14.2 million, living in poverty last year. We cannot stand idly by; we need to take action now.

And so, the JCPA invites you to join us in taking the Food Stamp Challenge from Thursday, Oct 27 – Thursday, Nov 3. This is a challenge to live for 1 week on the average food stamp allotment of $31.50, or approximately $4.50 per day and $1.50 per meal.

The JCPA is also providing you with a unique opportunity to multiply the impact of your Food Stamp Challenge and to support the JCPA’s anti-poverty work. After you register, you can ask your friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors to sponsor your Food Stamp Challenge by making a contribution to the JCPA’s Confronting Poverty Campaign. Contributions in increments of $31.50, the average weekly food stamp benefit, will allow those in your network to help you reach your fundraising goal and support the JCPA’s vital anti-poverty efforts.”

Ok, you ready? I’m about to expose my soul to you. Read on:

I started the Food Stamp Challenge yesterday. I might end it today. This is not because I believe it is a bad program, at all—it’s an incredible way to get people involved in some of the issues, especially if communities are mobilizing to do it together. That kind of initiative is immensely powerful.

Personally, however, I am finding it to be ethically problematic. This will not be everyone’s experience, but it is mine.

First, my studies and my activism immerse me in issues of inequality and poverty. I am constantly exploring the complexity of these issues, and it feels demeaning and oversimplified to think of the issue this way. The CUNY FoodFEST conference that I helped to plan last week was all about the complicated dimensions of these issues. Second, the challenge is beneficial to me. I’m saving money! Learning how to budget! Losing weight! This is not the goal of the project. Thirdly, and most importantly, I feel I am caricaturizing those on public benefits in this country.

Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed was one of first non-fiction books I’ve ever read and enjoyed.  I remember sitting up in my bed past my bedtime, reading about how she to tried to work minimum wage jobs while supporting herself. The book made me furious, and although I did not have a compelte grasp of all the issues, I felt some sort of a commitment to do something, even if that just meant talking about it to other people. This passion is not something I would have received if I were to read a New Yorker article about poverty in America at age 14. I feel the same way about Shira and Yoav Potash’s Food Stamped, an engaging documentary about the Food Stamp Challenge. If I were writing a book, if I felt I had the means to inspire people in a big way through my participation in the food stamp challenge, I might continue.

And I still will continue. I will continue blogging about hunger in America and the food stamp program for the duration of the entire week. Considering I’ve already bought my groceries for the week, I’ll stick to the budget, for the most part. But I might stop when I feel like I’m being disingenuous.

I really would love to hear your comments on this—post below if you have any.

Here’s to a world without hunger—where people never have to make a decision between healthcare and dinner, between a home and breakfast, or between feeding their kids and feeding themselves.