Could you live on $29 of food each week? Gwyneth Paltrow has admitted that she couldn’t, after actually trying it out.
The 42 year-old mom, cookbook author and lifestyle guru attempted a week-long food stamp challenge, in which she tried to make healthy meals with the same budget that people on food stamps have.
“Last week, chef (and great man) Mario Batali challenged me to raise awareness and money for the NYC Food Bank by trying to live on $29 dollars for the week (what low income families on SNAP are trying to survive on),”Gwyneth explained in her newsletter, GOOP. “Dubious that I could complete the week, I donated to the Food Bank at the outset, and all of us at the goop office began the challenge.”
“As I suspected, we only made it through about four days, when I personally broke and had some chicken and fresh vegetables (and in full transparency, half a bag of black licorice),” she admitted. “My perspective has been forever altered by how difficult it was to eat wholesome, nutritious food on that budget, even for just a few days—a challenge that 47 million Americans face every day, week, and year.”
Still, she said she learned that “vegetarian staples liked dried beans and rice go a long way.”
Gwyneth spoke out against wage inequality, which she thinks is a big part of this problem. “Many hardworking mothers are being asked to do the impossible: Feed their families on a budget which can only support food businesses that provide low-quality food,” she wrote.
Would you ever consider trying the $29 challenge?
