(Campaign for America’s Future) — Starting today, Massachusetts Rep. James McGovern is joining the state’s Health and Human Services Secretary John Polanowicz and other Massachusetts officials in the “SNAP challenge.” For the next seven days, they are going to be living off a food budget of $31.50, the average weekly benefit received by an individual in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as “food stamps.”
They join others, including members of Congress, their staffers and partners, in the Congressional SNAP Food Stamp Challenge to raise awareness of how vital the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is in the lives of low-income Americans.
Started by the Food Research and Action Center, this challenge not only illustrates the lack of access low-income Americans have to healthy food items, but also the limited access they have to even basic food staples.
