Ga. cuts food stamps for thousands with new system tracking recipients

[bUU]

Originally Posted by ronricks

We don’t have a hunger or lack of food problem. We have an obesity epidemic. Look up the obesity rate for Georgia. Then research the obesity rate for people in Georgia who are on food stamp assistance. It is embarrassing.

Your comment exhibits a lack of understanding of the causes of obesity, especially in the context of poverty, such as that unhealthy food costs less and therefore fits better within a limited food budget. That disconnect raises a question: Have certain biases adversely adversely affected the work that society could have undertaken to better understand such conditions, and learn and address their root causes?

Six Sigma is one of the most prominent approaches for investigation and improvement in industry. One of its most relied-upon techniques is the techniques of the 5 Whys. The underlying research methodology theory is that of cause-and-effect, and the realization that most of the time people - especially people who are responding to their own personal, inwardly-focused and internally-motivated concerns - see only the surface issue, and fail to look at situations with integrity, to delve deeper and get to the root cause that needs to be resolved.

It is perhaps fun for some and quick-and-easy to blame victims for their state, and is a preferred approach when the desire is to avoid having to exhibit social conscience and advocate for something that doesn't benefit one's self personally. However, it isn't honorable and isn't helpful.

[ronricks]

Originally Posted by Atlanta Scientist

That is a very complicated issue but simply unhealthy food is cheaper than healthy food. I would imagine that areas with higher SNAP usage also overlap with areas that are food deserts. Those areas rely more on "quickie" marts and dollar generals. Buying cheaper, unhealthy foods allow families to stretch their SNAP benefits. More is being done in the realm of better nutrition with farmer's markets accepting SNAP and those markets being more accessible by being held at places like MARTA stations. Believe it or not we do have a hunger problem. Many families have food insecurity and some children's only meal is at school. Dekalb county over the holiday, served lunch and dinner.



From a study by the USDA.

Sorry but “food deserts” don’t cause Obesity. Over eating and being a glutton does. There is no shortage of food in America. In fact we produce, consume, and throw away more food in a week than other countries do in 6 months.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...=.a7c860cfdc97

[SavannahLife]

Originally Posted by Atlanta Scientist

That is a very complicated issue but simply unhealthy food is cheaper than healthy food. I would imagine that areas with higher SNAP usage also overlap with areas that are food deserts. Those areas rely more on "quickie" marts and dollar generals. Buying cheaper, unhealthy foods allow families to stretch their SNAP benefits. More is being done in the realm of better nutrition with farmer's markets accepting SNAP and those markets being more accessible by being held at places like MARTA stations. Believe it or not we do have a hunger problem. Many families have food insecurity and some children's only meal is at school. Dekalb county over the holiday, served lunch and dinner.



From a study by the USDA.

how overweight are these food insecure? I don't buy it that lower income people eat fast food because it's 'cheap". Ridiculous. It's far cheaper to cook food. But they also shop food at Walmart because they think it's cheaper when in reality most things are cheaper if you shop sales at grocery stores. Sorry, but if you don't want to put in effort to eat healthy food affordably, tough. the kicker, because they eat all their food from mcdonald's I have to pay for their cardiovascular problems from them choosing to eat Big Macs instead of cook a cheap tilapia and rice dinner. You could feed a family for the price of one person's meal and McD's. Ridiculous. I am not a Republican because I know their policies will cost everyone more (like for example the fact we have private health insurance at all I believe is a waste of $ as well as creating poor care) but on this case, I can see their logic... Enough. It'd be one thing if the 1% were paying for the EBTs but it is the middle class that fund the gov't not the 1% and so I think it is time to tighten the belt here literally and figuratively.

[bUU]

Originally Posted by SavannahLife

I don't buy it that lower income people eat fast food because it's 'cheap".

The main mechanism used to perpetuate oppression (of any sort - not just against the poor) is fostering among the electorate dogged denial of any reality that undercuts the regressive political perspective.

[SavannahLife]

you don't cook do you? it's cheaper.

[bUU]

Originally Posted by SavannahLife

you don't cook do you? it's cheaper.

The question is *what* is cheaper? When such analyses are undertaken, they usually fail on two counts:

• They don't ascribe an opportunity cost to the time spent shopping (which for some may even include a lengthy commute to the nearest grocery) and the time spent turning (for example) a bag of dry beans and whole, fresh vegetables into bean soup.
• Meanwhile, they paradoxically do assert a projected cost of healthcare that consumption of processed foods is believed to cause.

It's a case of "the only valid hand-waving is the hand-waving that supports the perspective that the hand-waver wants to be true."

The poor people I have the most contact with cannot afford apartments, refrigerators or stoves, so the whole matter of cooking food is irrelevant.

[Mattie]

Originally Posted by bUU

The question is *what* is cheaper? When such analyses are undertaken, they usually fail on two counts:

• They don't ascribe an opportunity cost to the time spent shopping (which for some may even include a lengthy commute to the nearest grocery) and the time spent turning (for example) a bag of dry beans and whole, fresh vegetables into bean soup.
• Meanwhile, they paradoxically do assert a projected cost of healthcare that consumption of processed foods is believed to cause.

It's a case of "the only valid hand-waving is the hand-waving that supports the perspective that the hand-waver wants to be true."

The poor people I have the most contact with cannot afford apartments, refrigerators or stoves, so the whole matter of cooking food is irrelevant.

And this is the truth. Another truth is that cutting off food stamps puts the burden on food pantries, such as the one at the charity I work at. We are well supported by the community, and even so, it's hard to keep up.
Clients are given a food allowance valued at 1/3rd of the normal costs to feed a family. And many of the donations we receive from area groceries are high calorie, low nutrition items, like breads and cakes. Produce does not have a long shelf life, we get it at the very end of that period.