Anti-hunger advocates today praised New York City Council Member Eric Gioia for anchoring the New York City leg of the national Food Stamp Challenge, in which prominent Americans throughout the nation (including U.S. Reps. Jim McGovern and Jo Ann Emerson and Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski) are spending a week in which they will be eating only the amounts and types of food they would be able to buy if they were enrolled in the federal Food Stamp Program.

Gioia kicked off this week by shopping at a food retailer in Woodside for meals he could purchase for $1.30 or below, which equals the average food stamp allotment per meal in New York City. The average weekly allotment per person in New York City is $28.25.

Food stamp benefits can generally not be used to pay for hot or prepared meals at food retailers, nor can they be used to purchase food at restaurants or take-out establishments.

Joel Berg, the executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, an umbrella group for the more than 1,200 charitable food pantries and soup kitchens citywide, also joined Gioia in taking the challenge for the week.

“We are extremely grateful that Council Member Gioia has taken on this vital challenge. He has long been a leader in the fight against hunger in New York City, but now he is going the extra mile by experiencing first-hand some of the difficulties faced by hard-pressed food stamp recipients.”

The challenge is taking place just as the U.S. Congress is poised to consider the Farm Bill, which sets the size, scope, and cost of the Food Stamp Program for a five-year period. “Helping New Yorkers feed their families is a moral issue. There is not a single child who should go hungry in the 21st Century,” said Councilman Gioia. “It is a sad fact that millions of New Yorkers struggle to put food on the table and in the mouths of their children every day. A budget limited to $1.30 per meal makes it very difficult for food stamp recipients to have enough food every day, not to mention the incredible challenge of making that food nutritious.”

Added Berg, “None of us will spend the week pretending that we will truly know what it’s like to be hungry. However, this exercise will provide a stark demonstration of the extremely difficult choices that low-income New Yorkers are forced to take on a daily basis.”

Currently, 1.1 million New York City residents receive food stamp benefits, and between 300,000 – 700,000 New Yorkers are eligible for, but do not currently receive, the benefit.