When the rich try to
eat like they’re poor
What happens when
you cross a celebrity chef with a celebrity actress/lifestyle coach?
You get the “Food
Stamp Challenge.”
Last week, American
chef and restaurateur Mario Batali challenged Gwyneth Paltrow, the Academy
Award-winning actress and avid foodie, to eat on $29 a week, purportedly the
amount a single food stamp user receives in benefits.
The stunt is part of
an awareness campaign by the Food Bank for New York City to highlight
congressional budget cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program —
SNAP (formerly food stamps) — and asks people to participate so they can
“understand what our friends and neighbors are going through.”
So what did Gwynnie
buy? Aside from smart choices like eggs, rice and black beans, the actress
purchased pricier items like an avocado and romaine lettuce. She also purchased
several limes, which perhaps she needs for some kind of citrus cleanse. No meat,
no dairy, no fruit. (I’m not sure where she shops because the items on her
grocery list can be purchased at Wal-Mart for roughly $15.) But Ms. Paltrow —
indeed the entire exercise — misses the point. It shouldn’t ask famous people
to buy kale and quinoa with only a few bucks; the challenge should show SNAP
recipients how to eat on a limited budget. That approach would not only aid
food stamp users, but also help millions of working families that struggle to
buy groceries each week.
It’s not enough that
Middle America is squeezed with higher taxes and food costs; the culinary elite
wants to serve up a side dish of guilt for even the most marginal government
spending cuts.
SNAP is a prime
example of America’s generosity and compassion. No one wants people —
particularly children, the elderly and disabled — to go hungry. But over the
last decade, SNAP has exploded in both cost and number of participants.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, in 2008, SNAP cost $29 billion
and served about 28 million people. Next year, SNAP will
cost approximately
$84 billion and serve more than 45 million people.
In addition to SNAP,
the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
receives nearly $7 billion. (According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
the program serves more than half the babies in the U.S.).
The Child Nutrition
Program — which pays for billions of school lunches, breakfasts and snacks —
costs an additional $22 billion.
So why the food
stamp challenge? With a nationwide network of nonprofits — in addition to
costly government programs — it’s hard to argue that America’s commitment to
feeding the poor and hungry is inadequate. The challenge is directed at
Republican lawmakers and policies that the liberal culinary elite don’t like.
Placing any limits on an exploding government program earns the ire of the
elite foodies who then seethe that cost-cutting Republicans are “pro-hunger.”
At the same time,
working families that don’t qualify for food support are ignored by the food
movement leaders (but please buy their $30-plus cookbooks and watch their TV
shows). The struggle to buy affordable and healthy food remains a daily reality
for millions of families.
So here’s a real
challenge for chef Batali and his celebrity pals: Get up to make breakfast and
pack a nutritious, satisfying lunch for your kids every day. Then shop, cook
and serve a healthy dinner for a family of four after work. And do it on
$36,000 a year, which is just over the income requirements to qualify for SNAP.
Then maybe the culinary elite will really “understand what our friends and
neighbors are going through.”
ANOTHER OPINION From
Tribune News Service.