Article Critique: Huffington Post on Food Stamps

(SNAP logo, en.wikipedia.org)

                An article published in the Huffington Post called “Food Stamps: Democrats In Congress Attempt to Eat On $4.50 A Day To Protest Potential Budget Cuts” gave a handful of democrats a budget of $32.59 a week. The article stated that one politician could not figure out how to eat a balanced diet on about $5 per day. While in college, I personally lived off of $20 while in week, buying my staples of rice, beans, pasta to last me about a month and then buying fresh produce, fish, ground turkey, bread and yogurt off of that $20 per week for each week. I work at WIC and meet low-income mothers with large families each day, many of whom manage to go out to markets such as Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, despite living in food deserts, and talk about the GOOD and HEALTHY food that they are making at home

                I am not saying that the food stamp budget should be lowered, but the fact is that making foods at home and from scratch is the cheapest way to eat and is simultaneously the healthiest way to eat. Secondly, people who are not knowledgeable about nutrition clearly come from all different backgrounds and income levels and cannot be expected to afford healthy diets on a budget. This experiment is flawed and should not successfully sway the way people view food stamps. I wonder what this Representative Spier eats on a regular basis. It probably amounted to the same amount of nutritious value as her “food stamp” diet.

“Food Stamps: Democrats In Congress Attempt to Eat On $4.50 A Day To Protest Potential Budget Cuts” Date accessed 06 November 2011. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/31/food-stamps-congress-budget-cuts_n_1068336.html