Members of Congress of Foodstamps

There many Con­gres­sion­al hear­ings and inves­tiga­tive trips that are expen­sive and/or point­less. How­ev­er, this one is nei­ther, in my opin­ion: four mem­bers of Con­gress have pledged to live for one week on $21 worth of food – the aver­age amount of food stamps peo­ple on that pro­gram have to spend. Liv­ing through what all too many Amer­i­cans have to go through for food, and for more than just a pho­to op, is a les­son in both humil­i­ty and com­pas­sion that many of us would have a tough time deal­ing with. Myself includ­ed. You can read the sto­ry for your­self, and vis­it a cou­ple of the blogs regard­ing their expe­ri­ences, but I just want­ed to pub­licly thank Rep.s Jim McGov­ern (D‑Mass.), Jo Ann Emer­son (R‑Mo.), Tim Ryan (D‑Ohio), and Jan­ice Schakowsky (D‑Ill.) for shed­ding some atten­tion on Amer­i­ca’s hun­gry and poor by tak­ing on McGov­ern and Emer­son­’s “Food Stamp Challenge.”