Cory Booker Living off Food Stamps for a Week

Cory Booker

Pol Light Moment #34 is when Cory Booker decided to live off food stamps for a week from December 4-11, 2012. Cory Booker has served as a United States Senator from New Jersey from 2013 to the present. Prior to that he was the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey from 2006-2013.

Cory Booker's food stamps challenge originates from a discussion he had on Twitter about government food assistance that all started from the reaction he got when he posted this quote on his Twitter account.

"An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics" Plutarch ancient Greek historian (c. 46 – 120 CE)
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) November 19, 2012

In the exchange with Booker, a Twitter user questioned whether someone could be too poor to afford breakfast (Source). That led to Booker inviting the Twitter user to join him in trying to live a week on food stamps, as he noted the high cost of living in New Jersey.  Cory Booker will live off the average food stamp weekly budget from December 4-11, 2012. During the week he will be limited to $1.40 per meal (Source- Associated Press). No free food is allowed to be accepted during the week as part of the rules of the challenge.

Cory Booker tweeted on Twitter that you can follow his experiences the week of December 4-11, 2012 on his various social media pages.

I will document the #SNAPChallenge experience on @waywire @linkedin @twitter and @facebook 12/4 – 12/11
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) November 21, 2012

The #SNAPChallenge hashtag on Twitter associated with this Pol Light moment is because Cory Booker is using his involvement in the challenge to to raise awareness for the realities of living on food stamps and the importance of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP).  SNAP is having nationwide food stamp challenges to bring attention to what life can be like for those on the food assistance program. This is the goal of the SNAP Challenge:

The SNAP Challenge gives participants a view of what life can be like for millions of low-income Americans. Most participants take the Challenge for one week, living on the average daily food stamp benefit (about $4 per person per day). Challenge participants find they have to make difficult food shopping choices, and often realize how difficult it is to avoid hunger, afford nutritious foods, and stay healthy (Source).

For more information on the food stamps challenge read these articles on Cory Booker.

• Newark Mayor Cory Bookers Food Stamp Challenge
• Cory Booker Food Stamp Challenge Starts Tuesday
• Mayor Cory Booker Issues Food Stamp Challenge -- To Himself

Cory Booker has appeared on other moments on Pol Light. If you would like to see other posts by Cory Booker on Pol Light search with the label Cory Booker.

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The photo of Cory Booker is from the Creative Commons of Wikipedia.