A problem with food stamps is the scope of foods that one can purchase which was just about anything edible. Another problem is who gets how much and what criteria is being used.

I know someone who is 100% disabled and gets less than $100 per month. I also knew a scam artist who would go apply to college, take that admissions form down to welfare and get $200 because he was a student. I asked why this person was getting this amount because he did not go to school. "Well how do you know that? We have an application and he has no visible means of support". Well, I know this because mommy, daddy and grandma deposit at least $1200 a month in his checking account for his rent and whatever he wants. I know how much he would get deposited because he saw no need to recycle and while I was separating things so I wouldn't get fined, I would see his bank statements and deposit slips. It took welfare 3 semesters to figure out that something wasn't right and by that time the little slime moved to Florida, sticking them and me.

There has to be a better way. Those that truly need don't get while there is always someone out there with no conscience about who they may be denying.

I bought a loaf of bread, peanut butter and a 12 oz bag of perchuto ravioli... It came out to 12.65. Everyone that runs this country is full of shit.

Sheesh. You can't even buy lunch for $5 a day.

i agree that food stamp benefits need to be improved, but i think much more needs to be done to encourage better meal planning among the urban poor. sometimes, i look at what are buying with their snap and it is just frightening - maybe the rules should be changed so that only a modicum of high fat, high starch foods can be purchased with these benefits. perhaps flotus michelle o can lead the effort!

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That is a key phrase. There are a lot of people on food stamps today. Some are middle-class people going through a tough time during this economic downturn. But A LOT of the recipients are working minimum-wage jobs and have no time to plan meals or peruse the grocery circulars for sales. They are even more screwed if they don't live in an area with a supermarket. Bodegas are expensive if you are living on $4.20 per day.

$4.20 a day is supposed to supplement the income towards food on top of what you make working.

Terrence T. McDonald | The Jersey Journal

$4.20 a day.

That's the amount Jersey City Assemblyman Charles Mainor will be able to spend on food for one week starting Monday.

Mainor, 47, a Democrat, will join 10 other state lawmakers and nearly three dozen community leaders in the Food Stamp Challenge, which dares participants to eat only the amount of food they could buy if they were on food stamps.

That's about $30 for one week for food and beverages.

Mainor says he's up for it.

"I think it's important for us as legislators to understand how others live," he told The Jersey Journal. "And there's no better way to understand them than to actually put yourself in their shoes."

The challenge was created to bring attention to the plight of participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly referred to as food stamps. The average monthly food stamp allotment per person was $134.97 last year, or about $34 a week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Mainor won't be alone in his Food Stamp Challenge. In addition to legislators like Sens. Ray Lesniak, D-Union, and Tom Kean Jr., R-Westfield, Mainor's 9- and 14-year-old sons are spending next week with him and the assemblyman said they're not going to eat more than $4.20 a day, either.

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