Snapped

Corey Booker, mayor of Newark, is taking the food stamp challenge. Not only is he taking the challenge, but he is taking to social media to publicize his experiences and reflections. Now into the fifth day, he admits how difficult it is to count pennies, budget every meal, deal with hunger pains, and forego some vices like coffee. His motivation is to highlight the growing problem of food insecurity in our country.

As I begin this journey, I am doubling down on my commitment to the Food Justice Movement that is gaining awareness and participation in this country. We have much work to do at the local level to address a legacy of structural inequities in the American food system. As more and more working people and families - many holding down more than one job - face greater and greater challenges to juggle housing, medical, and transportation costs, meeting nutritional needs becomes a serious problem and a social justice issue. The struggle of children, seniors, and families to have access to essential nutrition is a struggle we are all invested in and we all benefit when families succeed. Now more than ever we are all in this together.

Personally, I believe every politician should be required to take the food stamp challenge. And try to support their family on a minimum wage job. Or live on the fixed income of senior citizen living on Social Security. That will never happen. Courage and compassion are not marketable commodities for politicians.

So far, Booker's efforts have been met with some criticism. There have been the typical slings and arrows from folks complaining about any government program for people in need. Their blessings in life do not extend to compassion and empathy. Christine Romans, a finance sector talking head at CNN, dismissed the food stamp challenge as unrealistic.

"It's not meant to be your only calorie intake source," Romans said. "'Supplemental' is the key. The government designs it so this is on top of what little money you might have, food pantries, soup kitchens."

What this "journalist" does not understand is that food banks and soup kitchens have limited resources and are not accessible to all the people that need them. The real conversation should be how threadbare the safety net is in our society.

The artifice in the food stamp challenge is that it only lasts for 7 days. Booker is counting down the days until his diet goes back to abundance. For the millions of people that cannot find work or are getting by on a minimum wage job, the food stamp challenge never ends.