Snap Out Of It

It's a bit disingenuous of a CEO who makes about $3 million per year to eat on only $4.50 per day for a week.

And the scientific community is united in that fact.

To the Ragister's editorial board, who usually has disdain for CEO's, he's some sort of hero.

The Register's Editorial: People on food stamps don't eat like a king

Ron Shaich, CEO of Panera Bread, is taking the “SNAP Challenge” by trying to eat on only $4.50 per day, the average benefit amount for food stamps recipients.

SNAP used to be known as food stamps.

SNAP is not intended to be the only source of income for food, that's why the first word in the acronym is SUPPLEMENTAL.

According to the USDA, about 75 percent of SNAP participants use their own money, in addition to SNAP benefits, to buy food. That is because the program is designed so that the assumed family contribution to the food budget (which is set at 30 percent of net income after deductions) plus the actual monthly benefit will always equal the maximum benefit.

USDA also publishes an extensive list of recipes that can be used to produce a healthy low-cost meal. A search for dishes costing $4.50 or less turned up 444 options, many of which were for eight or more servings. Dishes costing less than $1.50 produced 116 results.

It would have been nice to have that info in 1980, during the stagflation ridden economy of Jimmy Carter, when I was just beginning in radio and living on $600 a month with the help of popcorn and Kool-Aid.

Chew on that Capitol Square Crapper.