Food Stamps

The Governor of Oregon, Ted Kulongoski, last week took a "Food Stamp Challenge" and urged all Oregonians to do the same -- to live off the state's weekly food stamp budget of $21 per week of food.  This was part of his Hunger Awareness week according to an official press release.  The story has been covered by The New York Times (which also showed exactly what he purchased), the Associated Press, CBS News, etc... As one blogger noted when they dropped out of the challenge, it is hard to live on $3/day. 

Additional Useful Resources on Food Stamps:

• Diane Whitmore, "What are Food Stamps Worth?" Princeton Working Paper #468 (July 2002) 
• Characteristics of Food Stamp Households (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Food Stamp Program 2006)
• GAO Report: Payment Errors and Trafficking have Declined despite Increased Program Participation (Jan. 2007)
• Food Stamp Benefits and Child Poverty in the 1990s (Economic Research Services USDA)

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- The photo is one I took on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.  I took the photo because the backboard shows the connection -- at least in my mind -- between E.B.T. (Electronic Benefits Transfer) and Native reservations such as Pine Ridge where per capita incomes remain well below national averages.  Given this posting on food stamps, it seemed an appropriate photo. 

For more on Indian economic development, see here.

- E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu