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This is no joke.....
"...for those on food stamps, higher prices for milk, eggs, bread and other staples often mean tough choices and empty bellies. Many are forced to forgo fresh vegetables and meat, while loading up on pasta and potatoes. Others are turning to churches, food banks and other charities, which are already strained by the increased demand."
I thought food stamps were to supplement buying groceries, not be the sole source of food? I think that now is the time to plant home vegetable gardens. In Boston, there are several community garden plots for residents to grow their own vegetables.
Otherwise, I've stood in line behind people paying with food stamps, and I've never ever seen those people choosing their groceries wisely. I'm a big fan of marked down dented cans, sale price vegetables, and meat with extra coupons because those packages need to be sold that day. Or going to Costco with another family and splitting up bulk items. Meat is still cheaper than buying vegetables. Americans eat too much meat. And tap water is free. Skip the soda and juice drinks. Whole chickens are cheaper than buying cut up sections.
And some people need to think hard before having children. If you can't afford them, then don't have them or offer them up for adoption. If you can afford to feed them, then you also can't afford to help them into college. Adoption is a good option. I know many people with adopted children and they are good happy loving family units.
This is no joke.....
"...for those on food stamps, higher prices for milk, eggs, bread and other staples often mean tough choices and empty bellies. Many are forced to forgo fresh vegetables and meat, while loading up on pasta and potatoes. Others are turning to churches, food banks and other charities, which are already strained by the increased demand."
You know I've never understood - and if someone here known please tell me - why they don't accept food stamps in places like Sams or Costco or BJ's. I started shopping at Sams when I first started college because of the savings you get when you buy in bulk and even now I can go to Sam's and buy enough food to last for a month (except dairy stuff) for me and my son for $200, but when I was on food stamps during a brief unemployment I was awarded $268 monthly and I didn't get half as much. I tried shopping at Wal-mart, Publix, Albertsons but I always ended up with less food. I ended up - yes I know this is illegal - selling my foodstamps to my girlfriend. I would take her to the store and buy her about $80 worth of food, she'd give me $50 and then I'd go to Sam's and buy my meat. You would think the govt would want them to shop at wholesale places because it gives them more food and they would be able to lower the amount of assistance people receive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by miu
And some people need to think hard before having children. If you can't afford them, then don't have them or offer them up for adoption. If you can afford to feed them, then you also can't afford to help them into college. Adoption is a good option. I know many people with adopted children and they are good happy loving family units.
I hate when people say this. Yes, people do need to think about their finances before having children. But 1/2 of us are here because of unplanned pregnancies - should they have all been terminated? Adoption -what about all those kids who spend their whole lives in orphanages? Was that better for them then being with a mother who may have needed food stamps to feed them? Or what about the people who get divorced after they have their planned children? Or those people who at one time could afford children but have been laid off? Lost a spouse? Become critically ill?
Life is something that is not going to go according to plan no matter how well you plan it - there are no guarentees. People need to stop using that "you should think before you have kids" answer for every govt assistance program because there are quite a few single and married people without children who are receiving government assistance just as there a quite a few single and married people with children who are not.
"...for those on food stamps, higher prices for milk, eggs, bread and other staples often mean tough choices and empty bellies. Many are forced to forgo fresh vegetables and meat, while loading up on pasta and potatoes. Others are turning to churches, food banks and other charities, which are already strained by the increased demand."
Bear stearns and overindebted upside down "homeowner" yuppies needed to be bailed out. That's what Helicopter Ben and Peso Paulson told me on the boob toob.
Remember, inflation = growth. Even for the poor (growth in food prices).
The article didn't mention whether or not the father of the 4 month old baby is in the picture or not and how much he's contributing to his family's food budget.
The food stamp program was set up to sell agricultural products, not necessarily feed people efficiently. It was, and is, a price support program for agribusiness. They do not want to encourage efficient buying through Costco etc.
The food stamp program was set up to sell agricultural products, not necessarily feed people efficiently. It was, and is, a price support program for agribusiness. They do not want to encourage efficient buying through Costco etc.
But you would think this would be the smarter way to go. Their always trying to find ways to cut the food stamp program or reduce the amount of assistance they're giving people - you would think bulk and wholesale would be the way to go.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sean98125
The article didn't mention whether or not the father of the 4 month old baby is in the picture or not and how much he's contributing to his family's food budget.
Of course he's not, if he were she wouldn't have been chosen for this article. No one wants to read about a family who's struggling to eat. That's why they always get the single mothers so people can make comments like "she knew she couldn't afford that baby when she was having sex" which may be true but it has a horrible affect on the whole rising food crisis because it makes it seem as if it's a problem for one particular group of people.
The person in the article is in a culinary training program. You think she'd know how to take cheaper raw ingredients and turn them in to something good. There are people who spend a whole lot less than $280 a month on food, but they eat things that take some preparation rather than things that you pop in a microwave.
Canned ravioli? That's insane - it would be a lot cheaper for her to make her own tomato sauce to keep in the fridge. Better for her, too. It doesn't take much flour or eggs to make your own pasta and your own ravioli. Make a batch and freeze some of the ravioli for later. You can use TVP in the sauce for protein - a little goes a long way.
Her real problem is that she can't afford the convenience of having other people do most of the prep work for her meals. She's not realizing that she can still eat well on her budget if she stops paying other people to prepare her meals for her.
I happen to work with a program that provides nutrition education to folks receiving food stamps. Many, many of them are people who were part of an intact family when the children were born. In some cases daddy took a powder and mom is struggling to support a family on a minium wage job ...while paying rent and usually paying for daycare too. In other cases daddy is still in the home but has gone from making a decent living working at a blue collar job to having that job sent to China or India and daddy and mom are both working minium wage jobs. The myth that food stamp receipients are all "welfare freeloaders" is so far from the truth it is funny. For every one family I work with that would fall into that category there are 10 that don't. Like this one guy that two years ago he was making 45k a year, owned his own home, and was starting a college fund for his 3 kids. He also looked down his nose at folks on food stamps. Then the place he had worked since graduating high school...and where he had planned to work until retirement....shut down. He discovered that every factory within the county was either gone or cut to the bare bones. The only jobs were fast food jobs and that is what he is now doing. The house was foreclosed, both he and his wife are working full time and making less than half of what he once made. And now he is one of the folks on food stamps. He never thought it would happen to him. You don't think it will happen to you. But what is frightening is that it can happen to anyone. With our govenment making deals with lobbyist instead of protecting us...no one is safe.
I chuckle. The sheer stupidity of that statement would make any Irish Catholic woman with at LEAST two birth control babies smile.
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