AP: Ellison to join rabbi in living on $21 for a week

Associated Press
WKBT TV
September 18, 2007

Congressman Keith Ellison wants to make a point about food stamps.

Ellison will be joined at a news conference today by Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. They, and others, plan to live for a week on $21 -- the national average for food stamp benefits.

Ellison and others will announce a weeklong "Food Stamp Challenge." One of the goals is to raise the minimum food stamp benefit.

Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, is the first Muslim elected to Congress. The week that he and the rabbi will join the challenge falls during Islam's holy month of Ramadan and between the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

The food stamp challenge is part of a yearlong initiative on poverty.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.