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The Poverty Diet
Download Poverty Diet information by <click.pdf)>
We invite you to participate in a three-day “Poverty Diet” experience. The “Poverty Diet” will expose you to
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Charlottesville <click>
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the realities of living on food stamps in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
More than 195,000 individuals received food stamps in Virginia in 2003. The average food stamp benefit is $77.47 per person per month. This equates to approximately $2.55 per person per day! Though some citizens and legislators in the Commonwealth have an overall understanding of the food stamp program, few have experienced the reality of subsisting on such a diet. For this reason we invite you to participate in the “Poverty Diet.”
Each participant is asked to adhere to the “Poverty Diet” for a period of three full days. Please spend no more than $2.55 per person per day (or $7.65 over the 3 day period) on food and beverage items. Please refrain from eating or drinking any food items purchased at an earlier time, such as items in your food pantry.
On the third evening of your poverty diet experience, we invite you to gather with members of your community at a local church, mosque, or synagogue. Constituents and legislators will gather for a simple bean supper for an hour or so of sharing our common experiences of the poverty diet. We will speak together about our struggles, laugh at our temptations, and ponder our misconceptions of what it means to be poor in Virginia.
A full curriculum including personal stories and statistics concerning hunger and poverty is provided at no cost and can be duplicated as needed. <click(.pdf)>
We hope that through this experience you will gain a newfound understanding of the difficulties related to poverty and nutrition. It will not be an easy task, but we anticipate you will be up to the challenge. Good luck!
Virginia Interfaith Center
P.O. Box 12516
Richmond, VA 23241
804-643-2474
office@vicpp.org
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