living on government foodstamps

there have been so many well known people (politicians, etc.) who have attempted a week of eating on a budget afforded by food stamps. they all make it seem so difficult to do so. I agree that it's difficult, if you're shopping at Whole Foods or other high end grocery store. it's also hard when you expect the food to already be prepared-- a huge part of that cost is labor. we eat out once a week, but when we eat at home, we eat within the food stamp budget, which is $149/mo/person in FY2012 in CA.  (but just to be clear-- we are not on food stamps)    I'll follow up with some posts about how we can do this. this follows my previous post on eating frugally.