NJ mayor to live on food stamps starting Tuesday
Published – Nov 29 2012 06:48PM EST
KATIE ZEZIMA, Associated Press
(Associated Press)In this Friday, Nov. 9, 2012 file photo, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, left, greets 13-year-old Blonbzell Taylor outside of Clinton Hill Community Resource Center, where residents impacted by Superstorm Sandy received clothing donations in Newark, N.J.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Mayor Cory Booker said he will live on food stamps for a week starting Tuesday.
Booker told The Associated Press on Thursday that he will honor the challenge he made to a Twitter follower earlier this month and try living on the monetary equivalent of food stamps for at least a week.
“December 4 to 11. Seven days,” Booker said after the ribbon cutting for new loft apartments in Newark. He said he will be limited to $1.40 for each meal.
The North Carolina woman Booker challenged plans to accept, but she is not sure she will do it next week.
Welfare changes in the 1990s helped slash cash benefit rolls, yet the use of food stamps is soaring today. About 15 percent of Americans use food stamps. The program has become what some call the new welfare.
WASHINGTON — The Senate has begun laying the groundwork for a half-trillion-dollar farm and food bill that would end unconditional subsidies to farmers, but House Republicans’ resolve to cut its biggest component — food stamps — by $13 billion a year dims its prospects of passing Congress.
What you know (and don’t know) about the SNAP program may surprise you. Feeding America has compiled an excellent resource clarifying many facts and myths relating to the former Food Stamps program.
Not all broken records are a good thing.
