Five seniors have brought the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge to George Washington’s campus, pledging along with 50 university community members to live on a $31.50 grocery budget for a week.
As the final project for their “The World on a Plate: How Food Shapes Civilization” course—taught by chef, restaurateur and Urban Food Task Force member José Andrés—the students decided to raise awareness on campus about the difficulties faced by low-income families on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Seniors Theresa Lonetti and Tae Min Kim attended the recent food and nutrition expo sponsored by the Urban Food Task Force, where they received encouragement for the SNAP project from Diane Robinson Knapp, a nutritionist, chair of the task force and wife of GW President Steven Knapp.
“Food insecurity is an important concern, and I’m really pleased that GW students are actively engaged in studying the issue and raising awareness about it,” Ms. Knapp said.
SNAP has gained attention as government spending cuts threaten to slash its budget. The SNAP Challenge is a national effort to rally behind the program and ensure low-income families don’t lose assistance.
Under their limited budget, participants can only spend about $4.50 a day on their meals. To prepare for the challenge, Ms. Lonetti said she shopped at different stores to find the lowest prices on groceries, while Mr. Kim planned out recipes days in advance, seeking out filling foods like pasta and potatoes.
Mr. Kim said although it’s difficult to fully experience the struggles many on the program must live through every day, the SNAP Challenge “brings us closer to understanding it.”
The students’ effort hasn’t gone unnoticed. D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, B.S. ’64, tweeted the group to thank them for initiating the program at GW, and D.C. Central Kitchen has partnered to help promote the effort. On campus, the School of Public Health and Health Services, GW Interfaith Council, and student groups and fraternities have also supported the SNAP Challenge.
“The scope and reach of what we’ve been doing is phenomenal,” Mr. Kim said.
The activism won’t end once the challenge is over.
“After the SNAP Challenge, we want to gather our information, reach out to Congress and lobby our representatives to say, ‘We’ve done it, here’s what we found, now don’t cut the SNAP budget,’ ” Mr. Kim said.