(Newser)
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Cory Booker began his food stamp challenge yesterday, showing off his decidedly modest grocery haul for the week to the New Jersey Star-Ledger. The vegetarian mayor spent $29.78 on an assortment that included 17 cans of beans, seven yams, two bags of frozen vegetables, and two apples. "If I could go back and do it over again, I definitely would have gotten a dozen eggs and I would have clipped coupons," he says.
Booker says he's hoping to foster compassion for people living on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) food stamps, even as Congress considers cutting the program. "People have a real lack of understanding of the struggles that many families have to go through," he says. In a blog post about the challenge he says he's "doubling down on my commitment to the Food Justice Movement." He promised to document the experience on social media, and indeed, this morning he tweeted an image of his chickpea-and-lettuce breakfast.
