m.bajko@ebar.com

Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) are getting by on only $21 worth of food this week in recognition of National Hunger Awareness Day.

The money is the average weekly benefit for a food stamp recipient. The Bay Area lawmakers said they decided to limit their consumption this week in order to highlight how measly the federal food allotment is for those in the program.

"This program provides a critical safety net," said Lee, who received food stamps when she was attending college as a single mother of two, in a statement. "I think it is important for the public to understand how many people rely on this program and just how limited their nutrition options are."

The food stamp program helps feed more than 2 million low-income Californians, two-thirds of which are children. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is responsible for administering the program, the nationwide average monthly benefit is $94.05, approximately $3 a day or $1 a meal.

Leno said he took the challenge to get a better understanding of what so many California residents experience on a daily basis.

"Most of us will never know the desperation a parent must feel when trying to feed their family nutritious foods using food stamps," said Leno. "But for two million Californians on food stamps it's an every day reality. Through the 'Food Stamp Challenge' I hope to raise awareness about hunger in California and gain a better understanding of what so many in the state experience."

On Sunday, Leno stopped by the Bell Market in Noe Valley and bought two boxes of cereal, six cans of chicken soup, and a quarter gallon of milk. His total came to $20.

"I am having cereal each morning and night then soup mid-day," said Leno, who has fasted for 24-hour periods during Jewish holy days. "The little I eat only dulls the hunger. So the hunger becomes a chronic experience. It doesn't go away when I wake up the next day or the day after that."

Lee stopped at a Safeway and bought $13.38 worth of food on Tuesday, June 5, said a spokesman. The shopping trip netted her some vegetables, green peas, two cans of beans, some brown rice, grits, wheat bread, chicken thighs, and bananas. She also spent $1.10 on a McDonald's chicken sandwich, leaving her $6.52 for the remaining six days.

The so-called food stamp challenge seems to be a growing trend among Democratic lawmakers fighting to increase the federal government's contributions to a program that helps more than 26 million low-income people purchase food for themselves and their families. Oregon Democratic Governor Ted Kulongoski became a national news sensation in April when he and his wife, attorney Mary Oberst, announced they were taking the challenge and would limit their eating to only $3 worth of food per day.

Approximately 65,000 people in Alameda County are enrolled in the food stamp program, only 53 percent of those who are eligible. Through her participation in the food stamp challenge, Lee is hoping to build support for improving benefits and access to the food stamp program, which is due to be reauthorized this year as part of the farm bill.

"Taking the challenge not only shines a spotlight on hunger in our country, it also gives members of Congress a personal understanding of the daily reality of millions of Americans," said Lee.

The food stamp program is designed as a safety net to help ensure people have access to food during difficult times, with the majority of people leaving the program within nine months. More than half of food stamp recipients are children and 8 percent are over 60 years of age.

Changes to the program made during the welfare reform legislation in 1996 effectively eroded the purchasing power of food stamps, so while the price of food has increased, the value of the food stamps has not kept pace, resulting in the current average of approximately $1 per meal.

Last year Leno authored AB2384 to develop a Healthy Food Purchase Pilot Program meant to improve access to fresh fruits and vegetables for food stamp recipients in low-income communities. In 2004 Leno authored AB1796, which overturned a lifetime ban on food stamps for non-violent, former drug offenders.

This year he is backing AB1382, which would remove California's requirement that every adult household member must get fingerprinted and photographed in order to qualify for food stamps. California is one of only three states with such a requirement.

"Only 34 percent of California's working poor receive food stamps and we lose more than $2 billion in federal funds per year that could go to otherwise eligible California families," said Leno. "Additionally, such requirements have been made obsolete by sophisticated fraud detection systems, including the electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards that track each transaction."

Leno will keep a "food stamp challenge" diary on his Web site that will be updated throughout the week at http://www.assembly.ca.gov/leno. On his Day 2 entry Leno described several temptations he faced.

"A generous staff member happened to bring in four dozen hand-dipped chocolate strawberries. An array of cheeses and fresh fruits tempted me in the Assembly member's lounge. All of it was off limits," he wrote. "The afternoon didn't get much easier as directly following session I made a quick stop at an event overflowing with delicacies that a person on food stamps certainly couldn't afford."

He didn't eat until 10:30 that night, sticking to his one bowl of cereal, although he wrote, "the temptation to have a second bowl was tempered by the knowledge that the two boxes of cereal I bought on Sunday need to get me through the entire week."