Gwyneth Paltrow has officially thrown in the towel and admitted that she could not survive a week eating only groceries worth $29. In a recent announcement she made in her website, GOOP, the health guru admitted to failing the New York Food Bank Challenge.
The actress shared that her family only made it to four days before finally giving up. "As I suspected, we only made it through about four days, when I personally broke and had some chicken and fresh vegetables (and in full transparency, half a bag of black licorice)," she wrote in her blog.
Paltrow then went on to state that her "perspective has been forever altered by how difficult it was to eat wholesome, nutritious food on that budget, even for just a few days-a challenge that 47 million Americans face every day, week, and year."
Due her failure to complete the challenge, Paltrow teasingly gave herself a grade of C- for her efforts. Although she has been hailed as one the leading healthy food gurus of this generation, the star admitted that she learned a thing or two from the challenge. "A few takeaways from the week were that vegetarian staples liked dried beans and rice go a long way-and we were able to come up with a few recipes on a super tight budget," she said.
The GOOP queen also expressed her outrage over the fact that there remains an unequal play in the workplace. "Sorry to go on a tangent, but many hardworking mothers are being asked to do the impossible: Feed their families on a budget which can only support food businesses that provide low-quality food," Paltrow shared. "The food system in our beautiful country needs to be subjected to a heavy revision-it is a cyclical problem, with repercussions that we all feel. I'm not suggesting everyone eat organic food from some high horse in the sky," she further said.
"I'm saying everyone should be able to afford fresh, real food. And if women were paid an equal wage, families might have more of a choice in the grocery aisles, not to mention in the rest of their lives," she indicated in her post.
To further highlight her point, Paltrow cited statistics from the White House that noted the discrepancy between the earnings of men and women. According to the quoted numbers, "Full-time women workers earnings are only about 77 percent of their male counterparts earnings. The pay gap is even greater for African-American and Latina women, with African-American women earning 64 cents and Latina women earning 56 cents for every dollar earned by a Caucasian man."
Paltrow calls this "unacceptable" and "reprehensible," urging her readers "to do something" regarding the situation. While she recognized the efforts of Patricia Arquette, the Clinton Foundation's No Celiling, and Moms Rising in this arena, she pointed out that the public can also contribute to the solution by "making it an issue that we all talk about." She also highlighted the efforts of the Food Bank For New York City and implored her readers to donate to the cause as well.
"I know hunger doesn't always touch us all directly-but it does touch us all indirectly," Paltrow told her fans and followers. "After this week, I am even more grateful that I am able to provide high-quality food for my kids. Let's all do what we can to make this a basic human right and not a privilege," she concluded.
