Gwyneth Paltrow's SNAP challenge is certainly well publicized, but is it accurate?

Brett T. | 1:03 AM on April 12, 2015

Actress and “grandstanding limousine liberal” Gwyneth Paltrow’s promise to live on a food stamp budget for a week managed to secure her quite a bit of news coverage Saturday. Media outlets ranging from the New York Daily News to the Daily Mail to the Huffington Post to the Tech Times detailed her challenge to live on a food budget of $29 a week.

As usual with such challenges, the fact that the “S” stands for “supplemental” was lost entirely, with many families receiving WIC benefits. Even so, is Paltrow’s budget of $29 — “what families on SNAP (i.e. food stamps) have to live on for a week” — correct? When Senator (then-Mayor) Cory Booker took the SNAP challenge as a single man, he was given a weekly budget of $35. FreedomWorks’ Kristina Ribali, on the other hand, estimated that a family of four would receive an average of $126 for food expenses.

.@GwynethPaltrow's claim that a family has $29 per week to live on through SNAP is a complete fabrication. The facts: http://t.co/ithfYXZ5If

— Ari Armstrong (@ariarmstrong) April 11, 2015

Have a click through and see if you don’t calculate quite a bit more than Paltrow’s $29.

https://twitter.com/GayPatriot/status/586984729733234689

https://twitter.com/MrDonCarpenter/status/586985661812441091

The average benefit in 2014 for a family of four was $110.75 per week. @MrDonCarpenter @GayPatriot @GwynethPaltrow pic.twitter.com/FUysdsKMf7

— Erik Soderstrom (@soderstrom) April 11, 2015

@soderstrom @MrDonCarpenter @GayPatriot @GwynethPaltrow it's actually $102.23 for fy 2014 according to the picture you posted.

— Danny Biscuits (@DaninFortWorth) April 11, 2015

Yeah yeah, I divided by 4, I should've multiplied by 12 and divided by 52. @Dan_in_Ft_Worth @MrDonCarpenter @GayPatriot @GwynethPaltrow

— Erik Soderstrom (@soderstrom) April 11, 2015