SNAP Into Reality!

Part of today’s Kojo Nnamdi show on WAMU was dedicated to a nonsensical, “immense-government” era propaganda event currently taking the country by storm termed “SNAP the Silence” or “The SNAP Challenge” whereby participants show solidarity with the poor by attempting to live on roughly $5 a day, the equivalent of the daily stipend for a typical Food Stamps recipient.

Formally the Food Stamps program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP for short) function, as its new name directly implies, is to “assist” low income individuals and families in getting basic nutrition.

Given the simple fact that recipients are explicitly NOT expected to actually live on the assistance, what is the purpose of attempting to meet such a challenge?

Keep in mind that there are federal representatives from around the country (look up yours here) supposedly taking up this challenge and various groups participating and even producing videos that seek to strategize living on such a small sum.

For a hilarious example, watch this video of a guy who while first drawing the viewers attention to the plight of the poor and the small $5 a day stipend then goes on to suggest that he’s so far making it through the challenge “unscathed” due mostly to the fact that his “nutrition coach” has made him up a menu of “healthy and interesting meals” including such delights as “sweetened quinoa and berries”, a “tuna fish and hummus sandwich and a side salad”, and a “whole bunch” of “carrot ginger soup” which along with a diet soda came in at $4.75.

Again, the stated purpose of the SNAP program is only to provide “assistance” and is specifically not intended as the sole source of a recipient’s nutritional requirements.

With over 47 million Americans (23 million households) receiving SNAP assistance at an average individual monthly benefit of $135.72 ($281.21 per recipient household), the burn rate for just this one assistance program comes to $6.47 billion/month or $77.64 billion/year, but listening to these propagandists, you would think our country was providing little to nothing.