Cory Booker's food stamp challenge: 3 lessons

The popular Newark mayor vows to spend a week eating off of only $4 a day. What's he trying to prove?

Newark's Cory Booker: Empathetic mayor, or political panderer?
(Image credit: AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a popular Democrat widely seen as a strong potential candidate for a New Jersey Senate seat in 2014, has vowed to spend the week eating off of $4 a day, which is what the average food-stamp recipient receives in benefits. Booker — known for heroic exploits such as rescuing a constituent from a burning building — agreed to take the so-called "food stamp challenge" after having a spat over Twitter with a 39-year-old North Carolina mom who said taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for school lunches and breakfasts for low-income kids. Booker said Americans "have a shared responsibility that kids go to school nutritionally ready," and urged the woman to take the challenge with him, to see what it's like to survive on what the government provides for low-income families. Here, three lessons from Booker's crash diet:

1. People who depend on food stamps don't have it as easy as conservatives think

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.