You may have heard of Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio’s 17th district and his “Congressional Food Stamp Challenge,” where he (and three other Congressmen) planned to live a week in the shoes of someone on food stamps. He began the challenge on May 15th with $21.00 for the entire week, buying items from Safeway like cornmeal, peanut butter, bread, jam, coffee, and pasta. (If you’re interested, you can see everything he bought — receipt included — here.)
Fast forward to yesterday. On his blog, Tim writes, “You aren’t going to believe this, but all I have left is cornmeal.”
Apparently, to stay true to the challenge, Tim had packed most of the remaining ration in his suitcase while he traveled to Franklin Pierce Law School to give a commencement speech. Running late for his plane, he rushed through the airport and decided to carry-on instead (‘atta boy!) of checking his bag. “I step up to the metal detector, take my shoes off, place my bag through the scanner and come out the other side to the most dreaded words in travel, ‘Bag Check!'”
After a bit of searching, TSA found and confiscated his peanut butter and jelly. “What am I going to do now?” he writes. “It’s not like I can just go to Safeway and grab another jar. I have .33 cents and a bag of cornmeal to last today and tomorrow.”