Over a year ago, Queens City Councilman Eric Gioia tried to prove a point by going on a food stamp diet of $28 a week. He couldn’t make it past day five, felt lethargic, and gained two pounds, as chronicled in the Daily News. The power of his example is the slippery slope of poverty. Being only able to afford cheap, processed food leads to a cycle of bad health and despondency. In his struggle to empathically live like over a million New Yorkers on food stamps, he draws attention to the need for food stamps reform. Does it have to take experiencing another’s life to initiate change? A sincere effort, but not much has changed, and food prices have gone up, in a catch up piece a year later. Will it be a hunger strike next?
