Rep. Tim Ryan falls off the food stamp wagon
I blogged here about the four members of Congress who pledged to live on the equivalent of food stamps for one week and their challenge to their colleagues to do the same; this meant they could spend no more than $21 per person on food for the entire seven days. The four brave souls who embarked on this challenge were:
- Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Missouri)
- Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.)
- Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio)
- Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.)
Earlier, the governor of Oregon and his wife did the same thing.
A few days ago, Rep. Ryan was getting near the end of the challenge when some TSA goons confiscated his jars of peanut butter and jelly at an airport. At that time, he wondered how he would make it with only cornmeal left to eat on for the remainder of the week.
He didn't make it all the way:
So yesterday, in the Cleveland airport on his way back to Washington from a funeral, Ryan bought a bag of peanuts. "I feel bad I couldn't do it the whole time, but I certainly got the point," said the lawmaker, who lost four pounds during the week and ended his test early, with dinner at a Washington restaurant last night.
And, yes, he cheated once during the week:
Last Friday night, in New Hampshire to deliver a commencement speech, Ryan succumbed to a pork chop in the hotel restaurant because he feared he would otherwise be too weak to give the address.
Still, how many of us, with our nice, comfortable, middle-class lives would take the original challenge and try to live in someone else's shoes for a week? Not many. Rep. Ryan and the others who took this challenge should be commended for their efforts to raise awareness about the real problem and scandal of hunger in the richest country the world has ever seen.
Most people on food stamps can't just snarf a random pork chop to stave off hunger. They either go hungry or must depend on the charity of randomly located food pantries.
It shames all of us to let this happen.