Talkin about Food

Foodbank of Santa Barbara County head honcho Erik Talkin has begun his fourth Food Security Challenge.

For one month in alternate years, the executive spends on food only what he can afford using the maximum CalFresh – food stamps – benefit for a household of one: $194 a month.

This year for the first three weeks, Erik will draw attention to the experience of furloughed federal employees during the government shutdown, local veterans and local college students respectively.

During the last week of the challenge, he will eat only foods contained in a Foodbank Disaster food box to highlight the reality that in cases of natural disaster, many more of us with ample final coal resources could face hunger.

“What we’ve learned in the last year is that hunger is a risk for all of us under certain circumstances, whether due to natural disaster or unexpected loss of income like a government shutdown,” notes Erik, who was in Washington, D.C. for President Donald Trump‘s State of the Union Address as a guest of congressman Salud Carabajal. “And that is beyond even the much larger demographic that only manages to put food on the table until there’s a car repair or illness with doctor’s bill.”

The public can follow the challenge as it unfolds on his blog at FoodSecurityChallenge.com.

Here’s my Number, Call me Maybe

Carpinteria actor Ashton Kutcher wants you to text him.

The 40-year-old tweeted his cell phone number, with the message: “I miss having a connection with real people. My community. From now on you can just text me.”

He added that he wouldn’t be able to respond to everyone, “but at least we can be real with each other and I can share the latest and greatest in my world.”