Ohio Governor John Kasich to Follow Panera Bread CEO’s Lead in Taking the SNAP Challenge
In case you missed it, Panera Bread CEO Ron Shaich (founder) is taking the SNAP Challenge.
“in an effort to find out how the other half lives by limiting grocery purchases to the average benefit amount shelled out by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It’s not much. A typical food stamp recipient receives just $4.50 per day in food aid, according to Feeding America.“
The CEO and founder of Panera Bread,Ron Shaich has an income of over $4 million per year and can easily afford more than the supplemental $4.50 per day SNAP allots for food expenditures to single people. Shaich’s effort is to increase the awareness of hunger in the US. His efforts come as Congressional Republicans and state governors such as John Kasich of Ohio attempt to cut back on the Food Stamp program by forcing able-bodied-people to work even when no paying jobs exist. I am not going to say Ron Shaich has never gotten his hands dirty; but, I will pass on some of his comments on cutting back on his meals.
“Over the last few days, my thoughts have been consumed by food. When is my next meal? How much food is left in my cabinet? Will it get me through the week? What should I spend my remaining few dollars on? What would I eat if I had no budget at all?” he writes.
On top of the anxiety about food is actual hunger. Shaich notes that he opted to spend his budget on cereal and pasta, which has left him “feeling bloated . . . yet not really full.”
the feelings of anxiety and hunger led to another sensation: “an underlying sense of resentment.” For him, it was sparked by driving past restaurants he usually frequents. For a colleague trying the same challenge, resentment was triggered by “the price difference between branded and off-brand foods.”
One in seven people rely on the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) program to supplement their food expenditures. 75% of all people on SNAP spend more on food than what SNAP allots to them under its guidelines. Ron Shaich goes on to note;
“Hunger is not synonymous with unemployed or homeless,” he writes. “The inability to put food on the table is not equivalent to lazy.”
And what about Ohio Governor John Kasich taking up the SNAP Challenge with Panera Bread CEO Ron Shaich? I was dreaming; although, that suit John wears is beginning to look a bit tight. Republican Governors are good at making demands on people with little political power. Rather than forcing 130,000 people to work in a state where ~15,000 jobs exist according to the Ohio Jobs Office; maybe, Governor John Kasich should take up the SNAP challenge and see how some of his constituents are living. Or maybe Governor Kasich will accept a challenge from one of his constituents to do an honest day’s work and live off SNAP for food? Doubtful . . .
I assume the state of Ohio will be doing a lot of hiring soon? : )
Daniel:
heh, heh. Like I said somewhere else, they would be better to invest in their digging holes and filling them.
There is not a city in the US that couldn’t benefit from additional street cleaning and other forms of public sanitation. There is no reason why the “good” Governor Kasich couldn’t expand the numbers of Ohio employees to do such work. Of course he would be expected to pay fair wages, though republicans rarely think logically when it comes to the income of someone else. There is certainly no reason to require anyone to perform do-nothing work when there is o much dirt to clean up. Ohioans might do well to start the cleaning process in Mr. Kasich’s office and their state legislature.
Jack:
It would be far better to have idle labr do something beneficial to the local in which they live; but if politics or an impratically should prevent such, the digging of holes and filling them for pay would suffice.
“If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coalmines which are then filled up to the surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again (the right to do so being obtained, of course, by tendering for leases of the note-bearing territory), there need be no more unemployment and, with the help of the repercussions, the real income of the community, and its capital wealth also, would probably become a good deal greater than it actually is. It would, indeed, be more sensible to build houses and the like; but if there are political and practical difficulties in the way of this, the above would be better than nothing.”
Though I appreciate the motive of at least some people who undergo the SNAP challenge it really doesn’t get to the reality.
If you start from the position of having reliable transporation for bulk items, a pest free pantry in order to keep those bulk items and a refridgerator for the perishables, and a fully functioning stove/oven to cook said foods, and are feeding a single typical adult American male you could over a short period of time do quite well on SNAP. Because odds are you were eating way too much animal fat and such to begin with. That is given a full kitchen and a car (and perhaps a driver) and access to Whole Foods or equivalent (at perhaps a better price point) and you too good have a satisfying heart healthy diet. For a while.
On the other hand if you are barely surviving in some SRO type room with maybe an hot plate and a barely functioning mini-fridge when you are constantly barely able to pay the electricity bill for those and the summer fan and winter space heater then buying healthy foods in bulk and cooking up big batches of beans and rice and storing them in your sealed containers in your big Artic Whatever refridgerator maybe just isn’t your reality.
Yes you could buy the bulk ingredients for even the cheapest fast food much cheaper than what you pay off the Dollar Menu on net. Because MacDonald’s does exactly that, mostly they are not just giving food away. But if you don’t have food storage and food prep facilities or the ability to transport that 30 lb bag of beans or the ability to devote such a big percentage of your currrent food stamp allotment to foodstuffs you won’t realistacally be consuming for weeks then you really can’t afford to save money on food purchases in the same ways a suburban coupon clipper can. So what if there is a super deal on Spaghetti Sauce this week and you can buy four jars of higher end sauce for the cost of two cheap ass Ragu’s? You don’t have the physical or financial space to save that food ahead. And you quite likely don’t have access to the WalMart style superstores that offer those deals anyway.
So it is not enough to embark on a SNAP budget. Instead you need to embark on the typical SNAP total lifestyle and figure out how you are going to cook all those healthy meals on a single burner hot plate using a skillet you picked up at the 99 cent store.
For example people whose income is low enough to qualify them for SNAP often don’t make enough to pay for daily public transit, much less own a car. How then do you even get to the grocery store and then transport large quantities back home? On the other hand for $5 you can stuff your kids with crap from the local 7/11. Because discounted for travel costs that bag of chips is actually more cost effective given your entire budget. I mean who has $5 to take the bus both ways to the store to save $3 on a $20 grocery bill? In a lot of urban areas in particular poor people just can’t afford to buy cheap food. It only sounds like a contradiction.
On the other hand I ate like a king on food stamps. For a while. I was living rent free in a condo with a full kitchen waiting for the inevitable foreclosure after I stopped paying my mortgage. For as long as I had it I had a big fridge and full cooking facilities and a Safeway discount card and though nothing of buying four bottles of pasta sauce or six cans of tuna at a time when they were on sale (and those food categories always are on sale during any given month). It is a lot different when you are feeding a family day by day on nearly that same amount. You are missing all kinds of ‘space’, not least fiscal and physical.
Bruce:
“you need to embark on the typical SNAP total lifestyle and figure out how you are going to cook all those healthy meals on a single burner hot plate using a skillet you picked up at the 99 cent store.”
The author agrees with you within the article. A single week or two is not going to give one the impact of a restricted diet over an extended period much less where one must be involved in physical labor by mandate. Neither do many on SNAP have the means of storage and preparation required for the more basic and unprepared healthier food items. How many of us could prepare a bag of navy beans with some cheap cuts of meat and a few veggies in it much less have the time to do so if working?
Eat healthy is today’s paradigm; but without stores in walkable or city bus transit distance, the inner city and suburbia (faster growth of poverty here) dwellers have a tough time getting to the healthier and more expensive choices. The food pantries are scattered and often times difficult to get to find or within walking distance. Our food pantry is in Howell and a person in Brighton or South Lyon would have to have a vehicle to get to it. There is no public transportation.
The alternative is fast fooding it when possible and taking in large amounts of salt, fat, and sugar which later leads to health issues. Fast food restaurants and the convenience store equivalent exist in far greater numbers in low-income neighborhood numbers than legitimate grocery stores. Higher income areas would limit the numbers of fast food restaurants and convenience stores through master planning and zoning requirements. The numbers appears to be higher in lower income and minority neighborhoods and many are within walking distance.
On one hand, we have a Ron Shaich who is willing to try a limited SNAP funded diet to begin to understand restricted diet; and on the other hand, we have the John Kasich governor-types chasing the welfare recipients of Pink Cadillac fame allegedly buying booze and drugs with stamps. Ron is attempting to understand and pass on a message. John is pandering to those who believe others are getting are getting a free ride as paid for by themselves. Both Ron and John are recognizable people of status within society and each is carrying a message.
I would love to see more of our icons try to eat on a SNAP budget. For that matter throw in the politicians and populace who believe in the luxury of SNAP provided food.