Gwyneth Paltrow is slashing her food budget to raise awareness about hunger. But sometimes even the best intentions are met with criticism, eye rolls and sarcasm.
Last week, the Oscar winner announced that she had accepted The Food Bank for New York City challenge to live on food stamps for one week, with a grocery budget of $29 or about $1.38 per meal.
According to the #FoodBankNYCChallenge, needy families are given $29 per person as part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, after Congress cut food stamps twice since 2013.
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
Once Paltrow accepted the challenge, she tweeted a picture of her $29 in food choices — brown rice, black beans, peas, eggs, tortillas, cilantro, limes and fresh vegetables.
But apparently the tweet left a bad taste, with many Twitter users eating the “Iron Man” star alive.
“Vast difference living on food stamps for 1 week knowing you’ve a safety net of millions, and that being your life every day
Paltrow accepted the challenge at the urging of celebrity chef Mario Batali, who is a board member of the Food Bank for New York City.
The actress, who also runs the luxury lifestyle website Goop, tweeted that she was taking the challenge and “walking in their shoes to see how far we get.” And that set people off, too.
“Don’t Worry, Poor People:
Below is a sampling of reaction to Paltrow’s food stamp challenge.
https://twitter.com/GayPatriot/status/586984729733234689
Vast difference living on food stamps for 1 week knowing you've a safetynet of millions, and that being your life every day @GwynethPaltrow
— THE SPIRITUAL SLOB (@spiritualslob) April 12, 2015
its so cool how celebs (gwyneth paltrow) can challenge themselves to live off a food stamp budget like its a game or something
— the knight queen (@jul_knight) April 12, 2015
dude gwyneth paltrow is living off a 'food stamp budget' for seven days and I can't imagine anything less useful as a political statement
— deck the hod (@iiiidler) April 12, 2015
https://twitter.com/iesrec/status/587274227822137344
Gwyneth Paltrow's food stamp stunt is further proof that she has no one in her life to tell her when she's being stupid.
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) April 11, 2015
https://twitter.com/chelsea_elisa/status/587074691145281536
https://twitter.com/mybigblondelife/status/587314675991216128
https://twitter.com/ZachIsWeird/status/586607301760589824