Mayor Cory Booker Vows To Spend A Week on Food Stamps
Newark Mayor Cory Booker has announced that he’ll be spending the week on food stamps.
He hopes his efforts will combat the stigma associated with government assistance.
He’ll operate on a budget of $30, which is roughly the amount alloted to those currently on New Jersey’s SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) program.
Booker, who’s considered a potential gubernatorial candidate in New Jersey’s 2013 race, vowed to go on the budget after getting into a debate last month with a Twitter user, who argued “nutrition is not the responsibility of the government.”
“In my own quest to better understand the outcomes of SNAP assistance, I suggested to this specific Twitter user that we both live on a SNAP equivalent food budget for a week and document our experience,” Booker wrote in a blog post Monday.
To promote the experiment, Booker, who’s known for his frequent Twitter posts, will use the hashtag “#SNAPChallenge.”
Will Booker’s efforts shed light on the lives of those who depend on things like food stamps to eat?
Is a week enough? Is this just the latest in Booker’s social media shenanigans?
Sound off below!