In a first-person account, The Daily Caller‘s part-time 23-year-old reporter Matthew Boyle, who is simultaneously earning a master’s degree at American University, goes on food stamps for a three-part story.

Reasons for writing the story:

1) To see how easy or hard it is to get them (Answer: Not hard even if you are middle class and have a job. The process isn’t so simple, however, and it’s long. Much like going to the DMV, you have to have all your papers in order or else deal with returning multiple times.)

2) To experience what it is like being in the federal supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and getting $105 a month.

Excerpt:

You wouldn’t think I’d qualify. As a master’s student at American University and a part-time reporter for The Daily Caller, I don’t meet the traditional definition of a poor person, and in fact I’m not poor.

Boyle’s monthly income:

Daily Caller: $600

AU teaching assistant: $493

Much of his rent, student loans, other: His parents pay.

Boyle’s second story published today addresses American colleges urging students to go on food stamps. What can you buy on food stamps? Turns out a meal of a thick swordfish steak, fresh roasted coffee beans, goat’s milk, fancy cheese and Chanterelle mushrooms is possible. The reporter explains here.