Thread by @AnnieGabstonH

Someone tweeted the question: Do you think a person could eat on less than $25 a week?

Lots of people in the U.S. do it out of necessity.

1st week
10 lbs rice $5
8 lbs beans $5
12 eggs $4
5 lb flour $2
1 cn baking powder $2
cooking oil $2.5

I "shopped" on the evil Walmart to make checking my prices easier for those who doubt me.

Your menu is rice and bean burritos for lunch and dinner and egg burritos for breakfast. You have to make the tortillas from scratch, but that tastes better anyway.

Your second week is 'easier' because you still have plenty of beans, rice, flour and oil left from the first week.

2nd week
Yeast $5
4 lb sugar $2.5
7 cans veggies $7.00
2 pk Spam $6
20 oz peanut butter $5

In that second week, we added dinners of spam with rice and veggies to our dinner menus, served with fresh, home-made bread. Using the $2 left from week one, we can even have butter on our bread! If we make the batch small, we can indulge in peanut butter cookies now.

In the third week, you'll still have rice and beans, but you probably need more flour...

The list doesn't contain coffee. Too expensive. Maybe week three or four.

I've lived this. Too many people are living it now. We are a rich nation that allows people to live on the edge of surviving.

The safety nets are unraveling.

We can, and must, do better for each other.

The SNAP amount for one person, without countable income, is around $190 monthly. The average actual allotment is $around $134.

If the Trump administration has its way, many of those who are currently eligible will be cut off the program.