Political Quotes

“On Thursday, I will join my colleague Representative Barbara Lee, Catholic Charities USA, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the National Council of Churches, and several other Congress Members that my colleague mentioned to participate in the Food Stamp Challenge, an effort to draw attention to the crisis of hunger in America. {time} 1100 As part of the challenge, participants will eat on the average SNAP allotment. That's what we call it now. There's no more food stamps. Now people get a card that they can actually use to charge the food. But we'll eat on the average SNAP allotment of $1.50 per meal for a week. Having participated in this event in the past, I know it is extremely difficult to eat a healthy diet under such strict budgetary guidelines. Nevertheless, SNAP is the difference between chronic hunger and a basic meal for 45 million Americans. Now, obviously, that means I'm going to give up any Starbucks coffee. But even the $1 coffee that I was able to buy in the cloakroom just before I came out here is something that will be just too precious to spend. That's almost a whole meal's worth just to buy that cup of coffee. In 2010, 14.5 percent of American households were food insecure, meaning they lacked the capacity to put enough food on their tables. They relied on nutrition programs like SNAP to make ends meet.…”