Gwyneth Paltrow Eating Only $29 of Food This Week
Amagansett actress Gwyneth Paltrow is putting aside her love for the finer things and live on $29 worth of food—equivalent to a week of food stamps—for seven days.
The “goop” lifestyle guru, who is no stranger to dinners at Nick & Toni’s in East Hampton or The Crow’s Nest in Montauk—not to mention a panoply of four-star restaurants around the world—has accepted her chef pal Mario Batali‘s #FoodBankNYCChallenge. “Use $29 per person for all your food for 7 days,” Batali, a longtime supporter of Food Bank NYC, writes, explaining the challenge on the organization’s website, foodbanknyc.org. “Share your experience, challenge a friend, and challenge Congress to strengthen food stamps.”
On their challenge page, Food Bank NYC notes that $29 for a week of food breaks down to just $1.38 per meal. “Congress has cut food stamps twice since 2013, and soup kitchens and food pantries saw an immediate increase in visitors,” the site points out, adding, “New Yorkers can’t afford any cuts to Food Stamps.”
For her week, Paltrow purchased a healthy selection of items—including a dozen eggs, a package of corn tortillas, green peas, brown rice, black beans, an avocado, seven limes, a clove of garlic, one tomato, one onion, one yam, an ear of corn, fresh cilantro, kale, Romaine lettuce, a jalapeno and chives—which she promptly photographed and tweeted on Thursday morning, noting, “This is what $29 gets you at the grocery store—what families on SNAP (i.e. food stamps) have to live on for a week.” (see below)
Paltrow has since tapped chef Roy Choi for the challenge.
This is what $29 gets you at the grocery store—what families on SNAP (i.e. food stamps) have to live on for a week. pic.twitter.com/OZMPA3nxij
— Gwyneth Paltrow (@GwynethPaltrow) April 9, 2015
We’re walking in their shoes to see how far we get. I nominate @RidingShotgunLA to do #FoodBankNYCChallenge & donate: http://t.co/eBEJ0hqEHG
— Gwyneth Paltrow (@GwynethPaltrow) April 9, 2015