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I wonder if Food Stamps (SNAP) were eliminated tomorrow what would people do for food?
Maybe work for food? .........(does not apply to elderly or disabled)....
It seems ridiculous that your family member's only food they know is: Extra Crispy Chicken with Thick Potato Wedges and French Fries.
Tell your family to buy a digital pressure cooker, pick up a whole chicken, season it with lemon pepper and cook it for 10 minutes in the pressure cooker. Now, that is healthy!
OP, What does it cost this family to eat fast food every day? I guarantee they could eat healthy food cheaper. But they won't because they have no incentive to change as long as someone else is paying for it.
Boldened for truth which applies to all issues involving gov't handouts.
Food stamps can't be used at any restaurant. If you see someone using food stamps at a restaurant - report the restaurant. And IIRC, they can't be used to buy food that's been prepared by the store - such as the roasted chicken and salads from a store deli.
The OP's family is buying the cheapest and most filling frozen food they can get at the grocery store. This is food that has been doctored with HFCS, cheap fat, salt, and sugar, engineered to please human taste buds, the same way that Purina chow is engineered to please your dog and cat. Just like lots of Americans.
I agree they'd be better off buying bulk rice and beans and growing a garden (food stamps can be used to buy vegetable seeds and plants), but that diet is not advertised on TV. Nor do dry rice and beans figure prominently in the store sales flyers. It isn't the food stamp program that causes Americans to eat poorly.
Edited to add - I haven't searched c-d for the user names of people complaining about the OP's family. But if I did, I bet I'd find some of the same people have been complaining about Michelle Obama's efforts to promote better food in the school lunch program.
Before you have your knee jerk reaction, no I am not a right wing nutjob. I absolutely do not mind paying to have social safety nets to catch people when they fall.
Few questions:
1. Why do you think that their food habits will improve if they will have less money to spend on it?
2. Why are you so involved in life of those strangers? Don't you have your own problems?
3. From when FS can be used for fast food chains?
Few questions:
1. Why do you think that their food habits will improve if they will have less money to spend on it?
Right now, they don't have the incentive to better themselves and make better living. Welfare is giving them just enough to keep them going, so they can afford to walk out of their jobs again and again.
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2. Why are you so involved in life of those strangers? Don't you have your own problems?
They are my boyfriend's family. I can't really avoid them.
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3. From when FS can be used for fast food chains?
Fast foods are the same crap that you find in grocery stores when you go the cheapest frozen sections.
Let me give you an example of how dependent they are to the cheap stuff. Last night, we offered the sister fresh squeezed orange juice. My boyfriend and I are health freaks... yeah we're a typical gay couple. We poured her a glass. She smelled it and made a face. She said it smelled weird and wouldn't drink it.
The thing is she's not the first person I've encountered that have such a reaction to fresh foods products. As I've said, I used to work for habitat for humanity. I've seen it over and over where kids who grew up on food stamps can't eat anything but cheap crap.
This is why I'm against food stamps now. If they can just barely survive on cheap foods, why improve their lives?
I wonder if Food Stamps (SNAP) were eliminated tomorrow what would people do for food?
Maybe work for food? .........(does not apply to elderly or disabled)....
Many people receiving food stamps *are* working. They just make so little money that they still qualify for food stamps. For instance, a lot of W*Mart employees...
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Originally Posted by WannaliveinGreenville
It seems ridiculous that your family member's only food they know is: Extra Crispy Chicken with Thick Potato Wedges and French Fries.
Tell your family to buy a digital pressure cooker, pick up a whole chicken, season it with lemon pepper and cook it for 10 minutes in the pressure cooker. Now, that is healthy!
I agree, they'd be better off doing this. So would any family - but do you think that only people on food stamps buy the frozen chicken fingers? I personally would like to see an advertising limit on certain kinds of foods, much like the advertising limits on tobacco, and for exactly the same reasons.
Fast foods are the same crap that you find in grocery stores when you go the cheapest frozen sections.
Let me give you an example of how dependent they are to the cheap stuff. Last night, we offered the sister fresh squeezed orange juice. My boyfriend and I are health freaks... yeah we're a typical gay couple. We poured her a glass. She smelled it and made a face. She said it smelled weird and wouldn't drink it.
The thing is she's not the first person I've encountered that have such a reaction to fresh foods products. As I've said, I used to work for habitat for humanity. I've seen it over and over where kids who grew up on food stamps can't eat anything but cheap crap.
This is why I'm against food stamps now. If they can just barely survive on cheap foods, why improve their lives?
You're right, many people don't know what real food tastes like anymore, and they think they're cooking when they turn on the microwave. The thing is, it isn't food stamps that causes this attitude.
Before you have your knee jerk reaction, no I am not a right wing nutjob. I absolutely do not mind paying to have social safety nets to catch people when they fall. So, please hear me out before you put me together with the right wing bigots.
I have been dealing with my boyfriend's family for a number of years. I've written about them here, so you can read the thread at this link...
Let's focus on their eating habits. As I've mentioned in the linked thread, the sisters can't seem to eat anything but chicken fingers and french fries.
Earlier tonight, we had one of the sisters over. Turned out she didn't have dinner, so we brought out some roast duck. Very good stuff. She made a face and said "ewwww what is that?"
A life time of living in poverty and on food stamps has made her incapable of enjoying anything other than... fast foods.
Which brings me to my main point. We all know that people are obviously not eating quality foods while on food stamps. But here's the thing. While food stamps aren't enough to give them quality foods, they're just barely good enough to keep them going virtually forever. Once people are adapted to the cheap stuff that they normally get from food stamps, there's little reason for them to improve.
The sister has walked out of several jobs because she doesn't like them. She currently sits at home. Both sisters, the mom, and the dad have been on food stamps forever. It's not a social safety net to them. It's a way of life.
I know I'm going to get a lot of flack by the politically correct, but such way of life is downright degrading!
Food stamp just isn't enough to give people quality foods. It's just barely enough to keep them going forever and ever. And unfortunately, many people have turned it into a way of life.
And unfortunately, my boyfriend's little sisters, after having grown up on food stamps, can't enjoy anything but chicken fingers and french fries. Neither of them work. They don't seem to mind at all that they are barely surviving being on a permanent state of food stamp collectors.
If they paid cash, would they eat differently?
It doesn't sound like it.
SNAP in and of itself is not the problem. While it may not be easy, it is possible to eat a varied diet while on assistance.
Sounds to me like there are more issues operating here than just food choice.
It could well be argued that their dependence on what they know is a form of comfort and security.
Could just as easily be laziness.
Whatever it is, it seems a poor excuse to use as the basis to eliminate a program that benefits the elderly, disabled, children...
I must disagree w/ OP not all food stamp recipients use them to buy fried foods. I had a friend who was attending Univ. of Illinois, which is the elite among state U's in Illinois and especially known for engineering and computer science programs.
My friend had gotten together with 5 or 6 friends and rented a house while attending. One of the housemates was a grad student in computer science who had applied for and received food stamps because he said it would mean 'more steaks, less hamburger.' My friend was very liberal (still is) and related it to me w/ disgust. This was roughly 40 years ago.
So not all recipients use their food stamps to buy unhealthy foods.
Before you have your knee jerk reaction, no I am not a right wing nutjob. I absolutely do not mind paying to have social safety nets to catch people when they fall. So, please hear me out before you put me together with the right wing bigots.
I have been dealing with my boyfriend's family for a number of years. I've written about them here, so you can read the thread at this link...
Let's focus on their eating habits. As I've mentioned in the linked thread, the sisters can't seem to eat anything but chicken fingers and french fries.
Earlier tonight, we had one of the sisters over. Turned out she didn't have dinner, so we brought out some roast duck. Very good stuff. She made a face and said "ewwww what is that?"
A life time of living in poverty and on food stamps has made her incapable of enjoying anything other than... fast foods.
Which brings me to my main point. We all know that people are obviously not eating quality foods while on food stamps. But here's the thing. While food stamps aren't enough to give them quality foods, they're just barely good enough to keep them going virtually forever. Once people are adapted to the cheap stuff that they normally get from food stamps, there's little reason for them to improve.
The sister has walked out of several jobs because she doesn't like them. She currently sits at home. Both sisters, the mom, and the dad have been on food stamps forever. It's not a social safety net to them. It's a way of life.
I know I'm going to get a lot of flack by the politically correct, but such way of life is downright degrading!
Food stamp just isn't enough to give people quality foods. It's just barely enough to keep them going forever and ever. And unfortunately, many people have turned it into a way of life.
And unfortunately, my boyfriend's little sisters, after having grown up on food stamps, can't enjoy anything but chicken fingers and french fries. Neither of them work. They don't seem to mind at all that they are barely surviving being on a permanent state of food stamp collectors.
This kind of focus, reasoning and intellectually bankrupt thinking is probably the biggest problem facing America right now. Not only are you complaining about a program that is 2% of the federal budget and helps millions of America's poorest people, but you don't understand how the food stamp program actually works. Not to mention that the economic benefit to GDP is almost twice every dollar spent on food stamps.
Let's focus on some real issues in society rather than taking the moronic position of demonizing the poorest in our country.
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.........(does not apply to elderly or disabled)....
