Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, is taking the Food Stamp Challenge during the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He is living on the Food Stamp allowance of $21 for the week. He is keeping a diary and blogging during this time.
Jewish tradition demands that we leave the corners of the field and the gleanings of our crops for the poor and the stranger. The Torah prescribes a special tithe for the stranger, the orphan, the widow and the Levites. Deuteronomy says unequivocally in the name of G-d: “There shall be no needy among you.” One only need walk down the streets of any major urban area to see that we have failed to do as we are commanded.
With Rosh Hashanah past and Yom Kippur looming, I look inward. How have I met my obligations to G-d? Where have I failed? How can I improve next year? It is with those questions swirling in my head that I am currently undertaking the Food Stamp Challenge to highlight the problems with the current assistance system and kick off JCPA’s year long campaign.
Twenty-one dollars. That’s the weekly amount allotted for individuals under the current federal food stamp assistance program: one dollar per meal per day. The inadequacy of the amount forces individuals to forgo foods most of us take for granted as everyday necessities. The staples are unhealthy and boring. Food stamp recipients do not go to Starbucks or Whole Foods. They also consume a low-quality diet that compounds health problems.
America is the world’s wealthiest nation. Yet poverty remains entrenched among us. The U.S. Census Bureau says an alarming 36.5 million Americans (roughly 12 percent of the population) live in poverty. Some 26 million of them rely on food stamps for sustenance.
This situation cannot be allowed to fester out of indifference. That’s why Jewish communities across the United States are coming together this month to launch a Jewish Council for Public Affairs-sponsored, year-long anti-poverty campaign. The name of our confronting poverty initiative is “There shall be no needy among you.” Our first action is the food stamp challenge..
I’m joined by JCPA Chair Lois Frank, U.S. Reps. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Raul M. Grijalva of Arizona and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, plus members of more than 20 Jewish communities from around the nation in experiencing firsthand, if only briefly, what those forced by circumstances to survive on food stamps must endure week in and week out.
Those elected officials taking the challenge with me underscore more than an interest from government – they highlight the interfaith commitment to this issue. Keith Ellison, the only Muslim member of Congress, takes the challenge with me during the Muslim holy time of Ramadan. Congressman Grijalva and Chris Van Hollen, Christians, join us as well. Jew, Christian and Muslim all led by our faiths and our consciences working together to highlight the needy among us and hope to serve as an example.
In a few days the great prophet, Isaiah, will tell us as he always does in the Yom Kippur liturgy, that the reason we are fasting is the feed the hungry and to clothe the naked. He is clear. When he issues his challenge to us, we intend to tell him about the challenge we have undertaken. We want Isaiah to smile wide and to be able to say: “My people are listening!”
Rabbi Steve Gutow, Executive Director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, is an activist, organizer, attorney, rabbi, and advocate for social justice.
