Data crawled on behalf of Internet Memory Foundation . This data is currently not publicly accessible.from Wikipedia The Internet Memory Foundation (formerly the European Archive Foundation) is a non profit foundation whose purpose is archiving web content, it supports projects and research which include the preservation and protection of multimedia content. Its archives form a digital library of cultural content. ||||| This morning, I will begin living on a food budget of $30 a week / $4.32 per day. This is the financial equivalent of the budget provided to people participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, in the State of New Jersey. 
 
 I will live only on a SNAP equivalent food budget for the next seven days. 
 
 Undertaking what is referred to as the #SNAPChallenge began with a social media-based conversation on Twitter. A Twitter user tweeted me her opinion that "nutrition is not the responsibility of the government". This comment caused me to reflect on the families and children in my community who benefit from SNAP assistance and deserve deeper consideration. In my own quest to better understand the outcomes of SNAP assistance, I suggested to this specific Twitter user that we both live on a SNAP equivalent food budget for a week and document our experience. 
 
 A simple conversation on Twitter drew me into the #SNAPChallenge I am beginning today. My goals for the #SNAPChallenge are to raise awareness and understanding of food insecurity; reduce the stigma of SNAP participation; elevate innovative local and national food justice initiatives and food policy; and, amplify compassion for individuals and communities in need of assistance. Over the next seven days, I plan to highlight the voices of people involved in local food policy, the SNAP program, and other related initiatives. 
 
 As I begin this journey, I am doubling down on my commitment to the Food Justice Movement that is gaining awareness and participation in this country. We have much work to do at the local level to address a legacy of structural inequities in the American food system. As more and more working people and families - many holding down more than one job - face greater and greater challenges to juggle housing, medical, and transportation costs, meeting nutritional needs becomes a serious problem and a social justice issue. The struggle of children, seniors, and families to have access to essential nutrition is a struggle we are all invested in and we all benefit when families succeed. Now more than ever we are all in this together. 
 
 Throughout this week, I will document my #SNAPChallenge experiences and reflections on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and through video on #waywire. If you are interested in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, I encourage you to click the reference links below. 
 
 Originally posted on Linkedin 
 
 REFERENCE LINKS ||||| NEWARK — In Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s career of glitzy photo shoots, this was by far the most humble. 
 
 He stood in his kitchen Tuesday, glumly assessing the 17 cans of beans, seven yams, two bags of frozen vegetables and two apples that will constitute his diet for the next seven days as he embarked on a week-long effort to shed light on the plight of roughly 46 million Americans who rely on food stamps to survive. 
 
 Tuesday was day one. And though the normally caffeinated mayor was trying to be upbeat, the look on his face suggested it’s going to be a long week without his two signature vices: Diet Pepsi and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. 
 
 He’s already learned a few lessons about shopping on a budget. 
 
 "If I could go back and do it over again, I definitely would have gotten a dozen eggs and I would have clipped coupons," he said. 
 
 Yet behind the publicity stunt, Booker says, there’s a bigger purpose at hand. 
 
 "People have a real lack of understanding of the struggles that many families have to go through — hard working families that play by the rules," Booker said when he first set up the challenge last week. "One of my main goals will be to shine light on programs like this and dispel stereotypes that exist." 
 
 Booker spent $29.78 on groceries Tuesday, the average weekly bill of a single person who receives food stamps as part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. 
 
 For the next seven days, and at a time when Congress is considering $16 billion in cuts to the federal program, Booker will put himself in the same position as 850,000 other New Jerseyans who receive food stamps each month. 
 
 Since the Food Research and Action Center, a national advocacy group, began tracking SNAP challenges in 2006, hundreds of mayors, city councilors and advocates for the poor have spent a week living on the equivalent of what they would qualify for in food stamps. 
 
 Though Booker is among the most high profile officials to take the challenge, he is not the first in New Jersey. Jennifer Velez, commissioner of the Department of Human Services, took the challenge last year. 
 
 "It was a tough week. Not just because of the Food Stamp Challenge but because it was busy and stressful and nearing the holiday, which creates a whole different kind of chaos," Velez wrote in the daily diary of her week. "What I realized ... is that hunger affects everything: energy, patience, mood and sleep." 
 
 While Booker has been chided by some for turning the challenge into a publicity stunt, Nicole Brossoie, a spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services, said that’s the point. 
 
 "You cannot get the full experience of a person who is a SNAP recipient from a seven-day experience," she said. "What you do is raise awareness." 
 
 That much Booker has done. 
 
 Media outlets from CNN to the Christian Science Monitor have picked up on the challenge since one of Booker’s 1.3 million Twitter followers got a little mouthy with him in a debate over the government’s role in nutrition assistance. 
 
 "Why is there a family today that is ‘too poor to afford breakfast? Are they not already receiving food stamps?" wrote the unnamed tweeter who goes by the handle "TwitWit." 
 
 Booker told the North Carolina woman to put her money where her tweets are. 
 
 "Let’s you and I try to live on food stamps in New Jersey (high cost of living) and feed a family for a week or month. U game?" Booker tweeted. 
 
 STAY CONNECTED 24/7 Download our Download our free NJ.com mobile and tablet apps to keep up with the latest New Jersey news, sports and entertainment. 
 
 This weekend, Booker took a shopping trip with Elizabeth Reynoso, Newark’s Food Policy Director, and bought just under the weekly limit for an individual on food stamps. 
 
 The average monthly food stamp benefit was $133.26 per person in New Jersey in fiscal year 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s a little more than $33 per week, or $4 per day. 
 
 Generally, a single person with a gross income of $1,723 a month would qualify. Each additional person in the household bumps up that requirement by about $600. 
 
 But Brossoie said there are numerous caveats that affect that income level. 
 
 As of August, there were 842,973 New Jerseyans on food stamps, up 7 percent from 2011. In the third-wealthiest state in the nation, more than a third of all households are unable to provide basic necessities, according to the United Way of New Jersey. 
 
 And while the acronym says the assistance is "supplemental" many anti-hunger advocates say between bigger expenses, like housing and transportation, that’s a misnomer. 
 
 "For many people, the food stamp allotment is your food budget," said Alexandra Ashbrook, Director of Washington D.C. Hunger Solutions, who has taken the challenge several times. "It’s insufficient, but it’s also critical to defend against hunger." 
 
 Follow @starledger 
 

– Cory Booker began his food stamp challenge yesterday, showing off his decidedly modest grocery haul for the week to the New Jersey Star-Ledger. The vegetarian mayor spent $29.78 on an assortment that included 17 cans of beans, seven yams, two bags of frozen vegetables, and two apples. "If I could go back and do it over again, I definitely would have gotten a dozen eggs and I would have clipped coupons," he says. Booker says he's hoping to foster compassion for people living on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) food stamps, even as Congress considers cutting the program. "People have a real lack of understanding of the struggles that many families have to go through," he says. In a blog post about the challenge he says he's "doubling down on my commitment to the Food Justice Movement." He promised to document the experience on social media, and indeed, this morning he tweeted an image of his chickpea-and-lettuce breakfast.