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Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Highlighting Hunger in Montgomery Co., Leaders Take $5 Challenge

Feeding a family on $5 a day is not a challenge for thousands of families, it's a necessity. Even in affluent Montgomery County, thousands struggle to live on the federally funded supplemental nutrition assistance program, or SNAP, known to most people as food stamps.

In an effort to draw attention to the needs of residents in need, Montgomery County Council member Valerie Ervin came up with the idea of the SNAP Challenge: Get public officials to try to pay for their meals on just $5 a day.

The program is designed to to make an impression on lawmakers to influence their policy-making decisions.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What will they do after they get their morning Starbuck's?????

Anonymous said...

They are buying booze,lottery tickets, and smoking products.

Anonymous said...

Would like to think the influence would be to convince these people that getting food stamps is different from a career; they're supposed to be supplemental not subsistence.

Anonymous said...

What part of "Supplemental" do these people not get. The amount they give them is not suppose to be their entire food budget. They are suppose to contribute some of their own money towards it. Most get free breakfast and lunch at school and then get food from the food pantries.

Anonymous said...

An overwhelming number of Mont Co residents live well below poverty levels. There is hugh wealth disparity due to small pockets of wealth one known as Potomac and a few others to a lessor extent but for the most part Mont Co is very very poor. What makes it the wealthiest county is because they use median incomes and average to calculate so the few who are making 6 and 7 figure incomes a year substancially raise the median incomes for the whole area and people come to believe the whole county is flush with money which is no where near the truth.

Anonymous said...

3:10
Small pockets of wealth? There are some parts that have turned into poor sections because of people immigrating to those areas. Places like Gaithersburg, Germantown, Darnestown, Olney, Bethesda and all the towns in upper Montgomery county are not poor. Most of the poorer towns seem to be those that are closer to the DC line. Places like Silver Spring, Wheaton and some of Rockville. The taxes alone on a house in that county are absurd. Most people are sick of the high taxes and are moving into Howard or Frederick county. Some are even leaving the state and going up as far as West Virginia.

Anonymous said...

If you don't know how to cook from scratch and aren't willing to use humble ingredients like beans and ham bones like our grandparents did you will not be able to feed your family for $5 a day.