Unconventional Approach to Poverty Advocacy in Virginia

A coalition of progressive groups in Charlottesville this week resurrects the Virginia Interfaith Alliance’s successful “Poverty Diet” program from two years ago. The experience, inspired by a (failed) piece of legislation in the 2004 General Assembly to force the Commonwealth’s legislators to restrict their food consumption for two weeks to only that which could be purchased on the average food stamp allotment. The author of the ill-fated bill, then-Delegate Mitch Van Yahres (D-57), wrote at the time of his own experiences in the C’ville Weekly:

The nutritional challenges alone are daunting. As I mentioned, I normally eat a heart healthy diet rich in fresh fruits, vegetables, and fish. This would be difficult if not impossible if I had to rely on food stamps. It takes a lot of time, effort, and creativity to plan cheap nutritious meals. I am reminded again that poverty is a full time job.

At the time of the first Poverty Diet Experience, the average daily allotment was about $2.55; this year, the per-person average is $2.83. The program calls upon community members in Charlottesville city- where 16% of the population lives below the poverty line- to subsist on that amount for three days, and then join tomorrow night in a rice and beans dinner discussion about the causes, consequences, and solutions for poverty.

It’s a unique angle on the issue, certainly, and former Delegate Van Yahres was onto something worth noting in trying to confront fellow legislators with this. It would be interesting to see how a similar approach might work out in other states in the region, where poverty and hunger issues are even more widespread than in Virginia.