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Published: June 17, 2007 11:54 pm    print this story   email this story     

Lawmakers learn food stamps can’t buy healthy diet

The old saying “walk a mile in my shoes” is advice meant to provide someone first-hand experience in what it’s like to live the way another person lives.

Some Oklahoma lawmakers took that advice to heart when they participated in a challenge to live on an average food stamp budget of $21 for one person per week. What at least one lawmaker found quickly was healthy foods are out of the price range of those on food stamps.

The lawmakers took the Food Stamp Challenge by agreeing to live on that small amount each week. The lawmakers couldn’t accept meals from anyone else, and they couldn’t eat whatever was already in their cupboard.

It was definitely an eye opener. The Tulsa lawmaker, who recently has been on a nutrition program to lose weight, said he had to sustain a diet primarily of apples, oatmeal, rice and turkey sandwiches. He said he managed to stave away the hunger by eating primarily starchy foods, and the apples were about the only healthy fruit he could afford.

By taking the challenge, this particular lawmaker learned eating healthy on the state’s food stamp program is pretty much impossible. People can survive, but what they eat isn’t necessarily healthy or nutritious.

“It’s a sad thing, but to eat healthy costs money,” he said after the experience. “Without a doubt, the healthier you want to eat, the more expensive it is.”

This experience could serve as a way to work toward revamping the program to include more incentives for healthier foods. Perhaps more credits or points could be provided to go toward the healthier foods, such as fruits and green vegetables. The more these kinds of foods are available through the food stamp program, the better chance children served through the program will get more nutritious food.

Since these lawmakers walked that mile in someone else’s shoes, they are now in a better position to make improvements toward healthier choices for food stamp recipients.

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