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But you are talking about a food bank, right? How are you going to decide who is worthy to get food at a food bank? What you are talking about is a small minority, but yes it happens. And it's not just young men with gold teeth. Here is a video that shows elderly asian ladies getting into the foodbank line 3,4,5 times https://www.kron4.com/news/people-be...814/1032880032
But they don't stop there, they throw the canned food away and set up shops on Market street selling the food that they got from the food bank:
Totally agree; disgusting behavior is found in all races and ethnicities. The common denominator is being poor, likely secondary to low intellect and lack of personal responsibility as well as selfcenteredness and laziness.
I agree and they should do spot checks and send a field agent in to shop at random times and try to buy things not on the approved list. Weed the shady gas stations and stores out of the program as well.
Who will decide what's approved, and how many separate lists of approved foods would need to be compiled to accommodate restricted diets? We have diabetics, lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant, low sodium, low carb, low fat, or low protein diets...or soft diets for people who have trouble chewing which is a fairly common problem with the elderly. Can you imagine what a cluster F that would be, not to mention if your doctor changes your diet, how long would it take SNAP to issue you a new list of approved foods?
I understand that poor shaming is really important to some people, but when the rubber hits the road, these kinds of schemes to marginalize the poor just aren't feasible. Maybe an alternative would be to tattoo the forehead of every person who receives SNAP or WIC, would that make you feel better?
It has been interesting to me to read about the apparent variety of food banks out there.
I volunteered for a Denver area food bank serving families, and most of our donations came from Food Bank of the Rockies (who got most of their food from grocery stores -- soon to be expired EVERYTHING -- and food drives, and locally from Panera Bread (a LOT of leftovers) and people just dropping off stuff. We had a LOT of good meat and dairy, in addition to non-perishables, and a lot of cookies, too, but NO soda and very few frozen desserts. We would give allotments per family, depending on the size of the household -- so many pounds of meat, so many cans or jars of fruits and vegetables, and so on. If I recall correctly (it's been close to ten years since I volunteered), most families got only one or two "treats" like cookies or bags of candy, depending on the size of the family. (Each family could only get a three-day supply of food per month.) Btw, each shopper selected what they wanted -- we did not make the selections for her. (It was almost always a woman doing the shopping.)
I would say that about 95% of our clients were poor due to their own poor choices (imo) in life, but my heart really went out to the 5% or so who were poor through absolutely NO fault of their own. They were just unlucky, and I realized that their misfortune could just as easily have happened to me. But what really irked me were the salaries of the people who ran the food bank. You are free to disagree with me, of course, but I really don't know how some people can run charities like that and feel good about getting six-figure salaries (and in the case of many national charities, seven-figure salaries). But maybe I am just too idealistic in some ways.
The salary issue is a big one. The problem however is very large organizations need experienced top tier executives, and they are not going to be able to attract someone who can make 5x more in the private sector.
I didn't think it was possible to use food stamps to buy booze and/or cigarettes today with the EBT card. (I had heard that some people used to sell the paper "food stamps" for cash in the past, though.)
A way to get around that for some people is to buy a qualifying SNAP item and 'lose' the receipt and try to get a cash refund. Our store will only offer store credit for such items and they can't be used for cigarettes or alcohol. We have had a few angry or disappointed customers over the last several years because of that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by robertbrianbush
Why is people who get food stamps once a month buying most of their groceries for the month on the day it is loaded on the cards wrong or irresponsible?
I didn't say it was wrong, I simply said it was true.
Quote:
Originally Posted by arwenmark
Also I fail to see why you or anyone else has the right to tell someone else what they can buy or eat. Does not matter that it is taxpayer money.
It is self righteous and very annoying. As to what is or is not nutritional or necessary food, it is NOT your call.
What is or isn't nutritional isn't anybodies 'call', it's simply a matter of fact. Some foods are more nutritious than others, kind of hard to dispute that.
As far as telling someone what they can or cannot buy or eat, I personally don't advocate that, but I do think some level of education about nutrition should be made a condition of receiving assistance. If Joe Blow wants to live off of candy bars for a month it's his decision, but it should an informed decision and he should have the power to choose based on knowledge.
Children will eat what is put in front of them if they are truly hungry. And it's possible to make tasty child friendly meals from ingredients that are budget conscious.
Who will decide what's approved, and how many separate lists of approved foods would need to be compiled to accommodate restricted diets? We have diabetics, lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant, low sodium, low carb, low fat, or low protein diets...or soft diets for people who have trouble chewing which is a fairly common problem with the elderly. Can you imagine what a cluster F that would be, not to mention if your doctor changes your diet, how long would it take SNAP to issue you a new list of approved foods?
I understand that poor shaming is really important to some people, but when the rubber hits the road, these kinds of schemes to marginalize the poor just aren't feasible. Maybe an alternative would be to tattoo the forehead of every person who receives SNAP or WIC, would that make you feel better?
I agree with you but want to add to that poster, if you take convenience stores out of the equation, you eliminate the only nearby source of food in many inner city and poor rural areas. There are no supermarkets in Atlantic City, Camden, etc., but there are a lot of elderly and others who don't drive. People tend to have a picture in their mind with food stamps of a single mother with kids all over her, but a lot of the poor on food assistance are elderly people.
Can you explain why? I don't get food benefits, but I prefer to make a major shopping trip once every month or two for staples. That way, I only have to make a quick occasional trip for whatever perishables I might need.
BTW, whether someone's using SNAP or not, just because they're stocking up on food doesn't mean they're blowing everything they have.
because they spend it all at one time. Maybe buy so much that some goes bad and has to be thrown out.
Its like when I was in the military. People had a tendency to say "wait for payday". We made decent money - not hard to save. But for some, that paycheck hit and it was lets go shopping time.
I agree with you but want to add to that poster, if you take convenience stores out of the equation, you eliminate the only nearby source of food in many inner city and poor rural areas. There are no supermarkets in Atlantic City, Camden, etc., along with a lot of elderly and others who don't drive. People tend to have a picture of their mind with food stamps of a single mother with kids all over her, but a lot of the poor on food assistance are elderly people.
You're right when I did volunteer work in Reno I would give people rides to Walmart or another Grocery store to shop because the only stores nearby were "stop and robs" (liquor stores that sold just enough food products that they could qualify as an EBT retailer). They would end up with garbage food that was extraordinarily expensive.
A way to get around that for some people is to buy a qualifying SNAP item and 'lose' the receipt and try to get a cash refund. Our store will only offer store credit for such items and they can't be used for cigarettes or alcohol. We have had a few angry or disappointed customers over the last several years because of that.
I didn't say it was wrong, I simply said it was true.What is or isn't nutritional isn't anybodies 'call', it's simply a matter of fact. Some foods are more nutritious than others, kind of hard to dispute that.
As far as telling someone what they can or cannot buy or eat, I personally don't advocate that, but I do think some level of education about nutrition should be made a condition of receiving assistance. If Joe Blow wants to live off of candy bars for a month it's his decision, but it should an informed decision and he should have the power to choose based on knowledge.
Children will eat what is put in front of them if they are truly hungry. And it's possible to make tasty child friendly meals from ingredients that are budget conscious.
People returning food? I don't think very many stores allow refunds for food unless maybe you are talking about canned goods, there's too much of a chance that someone would adulterate the food and return it. But here's the thing. When I worked with the poor, there were plenty of elderly recipients who sold some of their SNAP benefits for 50 cents on the dollar so that they could pay their rent or utilities. They weren't doing it to buy drugs or booze, they needed more cash in order to avoid being homeless.
I think we should quit micromanaging and give the poor the cash equivalent of SNAP benefits, if they don't buy food with the money they will go hungry, if they don't feed their kids the schools will likely call CPS and they will lose their kids. Why do some people feel that we have to treat the poor like imbeciles incapable of managing their lives?
because they spend it all at one time. Maybe buy so much that some goes bad and has to be thrown out.
Its like when I was in the military. People had a tendency to say "wait for payday". We made decent money - not hard to save. But for some, that paycheck hit and it was lets go shopping time.
Your assumption is some food goes bad and has to be thrown out but that doesn’t have to be the case.
because they spend it all at one time. Maybe buy so much that some goes bad and has to be thrown out.
Its like when I was in the military. People had a tendency to say "wait for payday". We made decent money - not hard to save. But for some, that paycheck hit and it was lets go shopping time.
So would you suggest that military families be prohibited from doing a major shopping on payday and having their money doled out to them, or do you only suggest that we only do that with the poor?
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