Welcome Challengers,

This blog will be devoted to my experiences with and critical analysis of the SNAP challenge, a media trend in which someone who is not receiving aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) attempts to live on this budget for a certain period of time. I begin only with questions. Is this an exercise in empathy or in poverty tourism? How can this challenge misrepresent the everyday experience of a SNAP recipient? How can and has this been used to further a spectrum of political agendas surrounding food access, by conservatives to “prove” that the SNAP program is overfunded and by activists to “prove” the lack of funds? This week, I’ll be examining these questions through research, my own experience with the SNAP challenge, and through a dialogue that I hope to begin about the subject here on this blog.

By the end of the week, I am not aiming to develop a “good” or “bad” stance on the SNAP challenge, but to explain its complexities, insights, oversights, and political power. How does the rhetoric of food access debates change when Gwyneth Paltrow, a woman whose net worth approximates $140 million, can claim to speak towards the plights of the chronically hungry through this challenge? What about when I, a college student who has never had to look hunger in the eye, attempt the same? Before beginning my research, I questioned whether there was any possible way to conduct a critical analysis involving my own experience ethically, if the simple fact of sharing my experience took space from those voices that can speak to the experience of being a SNAP recipient every day. I have therefore compiled an ethical code of conduct for the SNAP challenge, inspired by MAZON in order to engage with the challenge in an open, empathetic, and ethical way.

1. Continually analyze the privileges and support systems that mitigate my discomfort throughout the week, and in what ways the SNAP challenge does or doesn’t acknowledge them.

2. Don’t promote your experience as one that can override what SNAP recipients say of their own experiences.

3. Never treat the exercise as an adventure into another lifestyle or use language that promotes this idea.

4. While sharing my own experience, research and share stories of those who’ve known true hunger, their thoughts on food access debates, and their opinions on the SNAP challenge when applicable.

Eggert-Crowe, 2016

MAZON, a national nonprofit working to end hunger, has collected many stories through interviews surrounding hunger and food access in their “This is Hunger” series, which can be found in this link. https://mazon.org/this-is-hunger/stories One particular pattern they found was that in response to those who say that the SNAP program is over-funded, interviewees “invariably respond” with the challenge to “try it yourself and see what it’s like.” It is possible that this call to step outside of our own experience can be uniquely answered by the SNAP challenge.

And so I begin the SNAP challenge with my first day of meals: an omelette with onions and cheese, and for dinner, pasta with pork. In tomorrow’s post, I will discuss my experience with shopping on a SNAP funding budget and the notable differences compared to my average grocery spending.

SOURCES

Eggert-Crow, L. (January 2016). The Do’s and Don’ts of the SNAP Challenge. Retrieved from https://mazon.org/inside-mazon/the-dos-and-donts-of-the-snap-challenge

This is Hunger Series. MAZON. Retrieved from https://mazon.org/this-is-hunger/stories

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