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See the thread titled "food stamps stigma". People spent pages and pages attacking the character of people on food stamps like we are a monolithic group. Sorry, I'm a little defensive.
The category idea isn't a bad one in theory, but doing the categorizing would be an absolutely gigantic task with all of the many foods and brands out there. Not only that, but an experiment I did for a social work class shocked me: A snickers bar provides more nutrient value than many "healthier" foods by weight and cost. As I said before, drawing the line gets very tricky.
I think most people have good intentions when they say they think the program should be limited. But doing the limiting would be an incredibly time-consuming ad expensive endeavor.
For a good programmer it would not be hard to do at all. Registers already allow buyers to look up items by name a-z and type of food. Everything is catorgerized and if you think stores dont keep and know what type of food it is by sku you are then nieve. The problem is having the goverment do the program will mean it is done wrong. Heck if they cant get a insurance sales website up and running they definatly cant get a food card reformed like this.
The problem is that the folks on food stamps/SNAP are using money forcefully taken from me (taxes deducted from my paycheck) to pay for their junk food/celebration food.
I know multiple struggling families who get no benefits at all who plan celebrations in accordance with their limited means - they bake a cake/cupcakes from a mix or from scratch, for example, with a half gallon of ice cream, not a $20 store bought cake. In other words, a lot more modest celebration, not spending money they don't have.
An increasing number of SNAP recipients have paid their own taxes for years before hard times hit. They should be able to access the safety nets their taxes supported, IMO. That's what they are there for.
I know families like the ones you describe, too. I'm just saying that SNAP recipients should have the ability to celebrate occasions with related food involved. Not saying they shouldn't do it conservatively. My point is that it wouldn't be fair to say people can't use SNAP funds to do it if they don't have other means.
For a good programmer it would not be hard to do at all. Registers already allow buyers to look up items by name a-z and type of food. Everything is catorgerized and if you think stores dont keep and know what type of food it is by sku you are then nieve. The problem is having the goverment do the program will mean it is done wrong. Heck if they cant get a insurance sales website up and running they definatly cant get a food card reformed like this.
I'm very familiar with retail systems. I am also familiar with coding and programming. I'm saying that making the decisions entails a very large gray area. The cost of the government getting into this sort of minutia would be a huge waste of tax dollars...probably more then the annual cost of the existing program. There also has to be political will to revamp the system properly. Lord knows that ain't happening anytime soon.
An increasing number of SNAP recipients have paid their own taxes for years before hard times hit. They should be able to access the safety nets their taxes supported, IMO. That's what they are there for.
I know families like the ones you describe, too. I'm just saying that SNAP recipients should have the ability to celebrate occasions with related food involved. Not saying they shouldn't do it conservatively. My point is that it wouldn't be fair to say people can't use SNAP funds to do it if they don't have other means.
They're on the dole. Party with someone else's money? Heck no.
I remember an article quoting some mother who was on welfare who said that if her SNAP benefits got cut then she wouldn't be able to take her kids on vacation like other middle class kids.
Are you kidding me? That's exactly the entitlement attitude I referred to in my original post. Any entitlement programs should be for the basics, not for the "extras." You want the extras, then work for them or find a charity to give them to you. Not using the taxpayer's money so your kids can go on vacation.
Food stamps are an entitlement program, and in the United States we have a liberal democracy, where we feel that even though people are too poor to buy their own food, they deserve the respect to pick food they want.
Also, there are lots of food manufactures lobbyists that actively lobby for their own interest.
Why is Papa Murphy's found in lower class areas? Because it is pizza you can purchase with EBT. Why should EBT used to purchase pizza, at a chain? It meets the guidelines of not being "prepared" or hot...
I hear a lot of Nazi type crap being said in here..from people who seem to have never been hungry..or known what it's like to try to eat healthy while the cost of food goes up..and up..and up.
If a frozen pizza at Walmart is 3 dollars....and a small bag of raw spinach is 2.95...what do you think I will buy? I will buy what will fill me up...because while I would love to eat raw spinach as a salad...it will leave me still very hungry...
can't wait to read the hateful remarks from people in reply to my honesty.
Also let me add...the cost of buying everything that it would take to bake a cake...is more than the cost of buying a cake.
Moral of the story? stop trying to control someone else's life...keep YOUR side of the street clean...
Thats not the problem.
But when someone spends 100% of their foodstamps on pop, ice cream, candy, sugar cerial, and frozen foods, then we have a problem.
Catigorize the program. Allow some junk but limit the amount.
I hear a lot of Nazi type crap being said in here..from people who seem to have never been hungry..or known what it's like to try to eat healthy while the cost of food goes up..and up..and up.
If a frozen pizza at Walmart is 3 dollars....and a small bag of raw spinach is 2.95...what do you think I will buy? I will buy what will fill me up...because while I would love to eat raw spinach as a salad...it will leave me still very hungry...
can't wait to read the hateful remarks from people in reply to my honesty.
Also let me add...the cost of buying everything that it would take to bake a cake...is more than the cost of buying a cake.
Moral of the story? stop trying to control someone else's life...keep YOUR side of the street clean...
I've had lean times when I was just starting out and in college, but I always worked my butt off, so I didn't run short. I came from a middle class white collar/pink collar parents who had working class backgrounds - mom grew up on welfare when it was just for abandoned wives/widows with children (Aid to Dependent Children). We always had extra food in the house, just the basics, but if you had unexpected expenses or lost a job (job loss didn't happen) there was food in the house. I have been on unemployment for once, for one month, in my entire working life. Work ethic was instilled in me. I hustled. Unfortunately, too many people don't. If you can't get a job, then you baby sit, clean houses, run errands/grocery for seniors (I know someone who makes a good bit of extra cash this way), rake leaves, cut grass, shovel snow.
If someone is not managing their food stamp money and buys expensive junk instead of less expensive basic, healthy food - well, let me tell you, a lot of folks don't want to learn how to cook or make their benefits stretch. I've worked with multiple programs that put basic, simple recipe pamphlets in food boxes from the food bank. Many of the recipients laughed in our faces and stopped on the literature when they picked up their food, saying we were wasting our time. One food distribution location had fresh garden produce donated by folks in the community or grown in a community garden. Very few people wanted it. It mostly got sent home with the workers, so it wouldn't go to waste.
Eating healthy frugally isn't rocket science. Fresh veggies too expensive? Buy frozen or canned.
Cake mix requires nothing more than eggs and veggie oil added. $2.75, maybe at the most (regular grocery store prices), for cake mix. Less at Aldi/dollar store. A decently stocked kitchen will have the eggs and oil already, as well as the pan to bake the cake in. A can of frosting is cheap, too. So saying that making a cake would cost more than a $20 store bought cake is blatantly false.
When I was 16, I worked at a Super Market after school. I've always known about Food Stamps existing, but I never heard of WIC. We had to do a 1/2 day training in regards to what WIC is, how it works, how to process it on the register, etc.
Once I started to see it more often, I realized that it's a terrific program that (at least to my knowledge) is hard to abuse. You get a check and a list of food that your able to buy INCLUDING the ounces or amounts. What's even nicer is that, the people don't receive change and the money just goes back to the WIC office (yet, people would fight with us about it, lol)
So, why shouldn't Food Stamps act more like WIC? If my tax dollars are going to be used in order to help families (yes yes I know people abuse it, but not everyone) eat.. I rather them eat real food and not Cheetos.
Never understood why people can use food stamps for sodas, chips, COLD prepared foods like subs/sandwiches, and other crappy not-even-real-food.
WIC actually gets a lot of abuse. I agree it's a better program and Food Stamps should be more like it. But I think it should go to a card system like F/S and should have the name and pic of the person it belongs to on there.
"Vee vill kontroll EVERYSSING zeeze pooorz put to zair leeps!"
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