Mahoning Valley leaders to kick off Food Stamp Challenge

Youngstown

Area public officials and community leaders will join national religious leaders, members of Congress and senior Obama administration officials in the national weeklong Food Stamp Challenge to focus attention on hunger and poverty.

From Monday through Nov. 7, those taking the Food Stamp Challenge will eat only the food they can buy with $31.50, the average weekly Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program allotment for a single adult.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17, and other participants will kick off the challenge at a press conference at 11:30 a.m. Mondayat Save-a-Lot at Gypsy Lane and Belmont Avenue.

Also participating are Senate Minority Leader Capri Cafaro of Liberty, D-32nd; State Rep. Sean O’Brien of Brookfield, D-65; John McNally, Mahoning County commissioner; Brian Corbin and George Garchar of the Diocese of Youngstown; Bonnie Deutsch Burdman of Youngstown Area Jewish Federation; the Rev. Lewis Macklin from Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church; and Joe Rossi, executive director of the Area Agency on Aging.

This local challenge is held in conjunction with the fourth annual national Fighting Poverty with Faith mobilization.

Fighting Poverty with Faith, co-founded by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Catholic Charities USA, and the National Council of Churches, includes more than 50 national faith organizations brought together by shared traditions of justice to act on behalf of those living in poverty in America. Ryan is one of nine members of Congress, and the only member of the Ohio delegation, to participate.