In an effort to raise awareness regarding the challenges faced by New York City residents who rely on food stamps, celebrity chef Mario Batali is trying to get by on about $1.48 per meal.

Batali has taken the Food Bank for New York City’s “Food Stamp Challenge,” which encourages people to live on a food stamp budget for one week.

The temporary lifestyle change has surprised the chef who has been eating beans and rice for lunch since beginning his pledge. But, he says that he and his family have been able to stick to the program.

“I thought spare ribs were cheap,” Batali told The Associated Press. “Spare ribs this week are $5.95, so I’m making pasta sauce with two pork chops that were $1.39 a pound. It won’t have as many bones to chew on but it’ll have more edible meat, which at the end of the day is probably a better deal.”

Batali also is promoting the cause on his show The Chew, which airs on Scripps Networks Interactive‘s (NYSE:SNI) Food Network.

“We, hopefully, aren’t pretending or being like a bunch of yuppies saying, `Oh yeah, this is how you can do it. Look, we can grind our own oats!’ We want people to think about calling and talking to their representation about cuts to the Farm Bill and the food stamp program,” Batali told the AP.

The chef said that his kids have been eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and the family has not dined out since the challenge began. He also had to say “so long” to expensive shopping markets. During the challenge, Batali and his family shop for groceries at Trader Joe’s, a dollar store and a discount supermarket chain.