About Food Stamps


Did you know that the 27.8 million* Americans who qualify for food stamps receive only $4 worth per day?


The food stamp program in the United States is covered by the Farm Bill, which is currently under congressional consideration.  The minimum benefits for food stamps have not been sufficiently adjusted since the program was established in the 1970’s.


This amount is astoundingly low when you consider that price of the following generic brand items at our local Safeway:


Loaf of white bread - $2.99

16 oz tub of ham - $3.99

3 lb bag of apples - $3.99

Gallon of whole milk - $3.99

16 oz bag of pasta - $1.20

26 oz pasta sauce - $2.50

12 oz box of macaroni and cheese - $2.50






















Since the end of last year, Congresspeople and individuals across the nation have undertaken the Food Stamp Challenge - where they simulate the experience of being a food stamp-dependent American and live on $28 of food for a week.  These efforts have been publicized on personal blogs and news articles, bringing awareness to an issue that has been neglected for too long.


*http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/31/america/31foodstamps.php


All information about the Food Stamps Challenge can be found on the FSC page.


Food Stamps Awareness Week

About the Food Stamps Awareness Week


Twenty-eight million Americans have incomes low enough to qualify them for food stamps.  Food Stamps Awareness Week is STOP's initiative to draw attention to their lives and struggles and raise awareness of the hunger that still exists in the world's richest country.  Throughout the week, policy makers, nonprofit leaders, food stamp recipients, and community activists will share their perspectives on food stamps and hunger in America, and on Wednesday, Stanford students themselves will see what it feels like to live on $3 a day -- the average food stamps budget -- during the first Food Stamps Challenge ever held on a college campus.  These events seek to provide Stanford students a forum to think and talk about one of the most urgent and overlooked issues in America today, and to act as a springboard for student action to end hunger at home.

Events


  1. Bullet  Panel Discussion: Perspectives on Food

      Insecurity in America

     Panelists will provide unique perspectives on

      the issue of hunger and our country and ways

      we can move forward to end this injustice.    

      Panelists include:Leo O'Farrell, Food Stamp

      Program Director for the City and County of

      San Francisco, Colleen Rivecca, Advocacy

      Coordinator for the St. Anthony's Foundation

      David Kane, Food System Change Coordinator

      for Collective Roots, Matthew Stoltz, Stanford

      graduate

      Room 209 in the Nitery, Free Dinner Served


  1. Bullet  FOOD STAMPS CHALLENGE

      Rely on $4 a day for food - the food stamps budget (lunch and dinner

      provided).

      Old Union Lobby

      FSC WEBSITE


  1. Bullet SLAC Workshop

      Interactive workshop on low-income issues.

      Location TBA

The next Awareness Week will take place in May 2010