I’m really not going to have much negative to say about this.  Nothing wrong with trying to see how little you can get by on:

Gwyneth Paltrow is trying out a new kind of diet.

The actress and lifestyle guru [OK, I’m chortling a bit at that–PGE], who regularly champions high-end healthy eating, wellness tips and luxury items on her Goop website and in her cookbooks, will spend the next week living, and cooking, on a food stamp budget.

Paltrow accepted celebrity chef Mario Batali’s call to participate in the Food Bank NYC Challenge, and will spend the next week making meals from just $29 worth of groceries, or $1.38 per meal.

(source: Gwyneth Paltrow is living on food stamps for a week – CBS News)

And it looks like the selections are pretty good (incidentally, Paltrow obviously has access to a better produce section than most food stamps recipients–but let’s don’t be spoilsports):

But here’s the thing:  I’ve gotten by on less than that, and on worse shopping than that, for longer than that, in grad school and while living in Japan.  And some folks whose poverty is more structural than mine has ever been are doing this, not for a week or even for several weeks at a time, but for months or years; and they aren’t feeding one at a time, but trying to make meals suitable for a whole family; and they aren’t just trying to get the most nutritious options, but to make sure the kids actually do eat on the schedule that the ridiculous work and school hours common in our society, exacerbated by the vulnerability of the poor to exploitative employers.  I don’t think trying to make the cheapest meals possible for one week is a particularly good way to make any point about these programs.

But having said that, let me just say that that is a really good bit of shopping for a week.  I admit, I would have had to toss some meat in, and thus thrown off the proportions.  And if it were Fall, I’d really be sorry there wasn’t a squash or two in the mix, as they’d blend in with this set of ingredients really well.  But there’s a cilantro/lime black bean preparation, there, and the makings of succotash, possibly; and my wife and I have definitely dined well on that.  Toss in the rice for ballast, and the salad greens and tortillas as delivery/combining methods, and you can do OK on that.

But I bet you’d be looking forward to Sunday brunch, just the same….