Food Stamp Nation
I like how the article said you are not allowed to buy hot food with food stamps
$100 in food stamps can buy a lot of food. I will be the first it might not be what people "want", and it might require that meals be planned and cooked but it's food. Less than $8 will get you split pea and ham soup, 6+ quarts of it. $5 will get you 2 cans of tuna, a jar of mayo and a loaf of bread. $9 will get you 9 or more cans of store brand spaghettios. $8 will also get you a bag of double stuff oreo's and a 12 pack of Coke but let's see how that works out for you.
I grew up on food stamps and to this day my brother refuses to eat chicken since it was so cheap when we got it in bulk we had chicken ALL the time. I know how the system works, I used to really want stuff like lucky charms, doritos, coke, etc. Instead our cart was full of condensed soups, rice, chicken, the cheapest bread we could find.
Yes we had a garden and we had fresh blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries all over the place for eating. The garden was so much work, it was about 50 feet wide by 80 feet long but it didn't kill me. You can get seeds with food stamps.
Walk the talk?
You know whats in my food stores? Split peas, tuna, spaghettios, cheap store brand beans, condensed soups. If I can buy a weeks worth of food for myself for under $50 (how about under $15 like I did on Saturday) for long term storage, and someone who is making $9 an hour who also gets food stamps can't afford food the problem isn't the food stamp program itself. It's probably whats in the shopping cart.
My son, daughter-in-law and their two little ones were on food stamps for several years. They received $650 a month for two adults and a two and three year old. They'd eat steak and drink starbucks bottled coffees. They have the mentality that they deserve this type of food. Food stamps are intended to supply basic food so people don't starve.
ReplyDelete$650 in food stamps a month for 4 is a tight budget, I certainly couldn't buy steaks with it. I would buy powdered milk and basics and cook.
ReplyDeleteI love to cook, and it seems you do as well, and I imagine that's one of the major differences. The older I get, the less the younger people want to do anything, especially cook. New people we hire at work actually have no idea how to make anything... not even oatmeal, and when I bring a loaf of bread to work for people to share they stare at it like it's foreign.
Bliss. What can I say.