Speier to take food stamp challenge beginning Monday

http://www.ktvu.com/news/29621870/detail.html

About one in seven Americans use food stamps, and Congresswoman Jackie Speier wants to experience what it is like to live on a food stamps budget.

Starting Monday, Speier, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, will participate in a food stamps challenge in which she will eat on a food budget of $4.50 a day for five days.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is responsible for administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the California average monthly benefit in fiscal year 2010 was $136.75, or approximately $4.50 a day.

According to a statement from Speier's office, "with the poverty rate in the U.S. at a historic high of over 15 percent, she wants to experience firsthand how a growing number of Americans are forced to live in this tough economy."