Gwyneth Paltrow is Living off $29 Worth of Food This Week and People Are Not Impressed
To raise awareness and funds for New York’s food banks, 42-year-old actress Gwyneth Paltrow has vowed to participate in Mario Batali’s “Food Bank Challenge.” Here, she’ll be required to live on $29 worth of food for the week, NYC’s weekly food allowance for people on food stamps.
We’re walking in their shoes to see how far we get. I nominate @RidingShotgunLA to do #FoodBankNYCChallenge & donate: https://t.co/eBEJ0hqEHG
— Gwyneth Paltrow (@GwynethPaltrow) April 9, 2015
Last week, she tweeted a photo of what she bought for $29.
This is what $29 gets you at the grocery store—what families on SNAP (i.e. food stamps) have to live on for a week. pic.twitter.com/OZMPA3nxij
— Gwyneth Paltrow (@GwynethPaltrow) April 9, 2015
Since her tweet, she’s been under scrutiny for her choices not being realistic to what a typical person on food stamps buys.
Vast difference living on food stamps for 1 week knowing you’ve a safetynet of millions, and that being your life every day @GwynethPaltrow
— THE SPIRITUAL SLOB (@spiritualslob) April 12, 2015
dude gwyneth paltrow is living off a ‘food stamp budget’ for seven days and I can’t imagine anything less useful as a political statement — ♥ (@iiiidler) April 12, 2015
Gwyneth Paltrow’s food stamp stunt is further proof that she has no one in her life to tell her when she’s being stupid. — neontaster (@neontaster) April 11, 2015
Trying to be one of the ppl, Gwyneth Paltrow used her $29 food bank allowance to buy limes, cilantro & parsley. Forgot the Patron, I guess.
— Hannah Elisabeth (@mybigblondelife) April 12, 2015
The Frisky notes that if Paltrow ate this for the week, she’d be consuming less than 1000 calories a day.
Rebecca Vipond of The Frisky wrote:
“Nutritionally speaking, this is a vitamin bonanza […] But people who live on [food stamps] don’t just have to get nutrients, they have to get actual calories, because they tend to have very physical lives, doing service labour and taking care of children and not necessarily being able to afford a car and so forth.”
Apart from all the harsh critique, I’m sure we can all agree that at least she’s bringing awareness to a serious issue, right?
Written by Jacob Wagner of NextShark
