Am I annoyed or sympathetic?

[KristyHall]

Quote:
btw, i agree with you on some of the others about sometimes needing the "junk" food items due to lack of resources for cooking and kids needing access to easy meals especially when the parents are over worked.

my great grandmother worked the fields picking cotton in the Alabama sun with active tb and crippling arthritis so bad she had to uncurl her fingers on the faucet every morning to survive and worked herself to death.

My grandmother worked herself to death, she worked up to the day she died of pancreatic cancer, my mother worked up until she collapsed at the job and was unable to walk, she even worked with an un-fixed broken back to support us.

My sister worked two full time jobs with congestive heart failure. btw my mother and sister both have bachelors and every woman I mentioned above has an IQ over 150. They each had times where they had only commodity food, scavenged food or canned food to feed their kids because they were either too sick, too exhausted, or too poor top feed their kids properly.

 

[KristyHall]

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I don't have a problem with kids getting free lunches. I was being sarcastic, probably too sarcastic. I just had an epidural today so I think my censor is off due to the meds.

I am not saying ignore it I am justing that just because you see abuse doesn't mean it's broken, since there is abuse in every system no matter how well it's made, and unless we actually find solid stats we can't be sure if it is being abused by a majority of the people or not. You only know what you see and assume from the people you see.

Having grown up in o poverty, having spent a lot of time among impoverished people, see a lot more people who do not abuse the system than those who do, so I am quick to defend it by people who claim the system is broken just because they see people they don't know earing things and buying things they assume is inappropriate without knowing the circumstances behind it.

 

[ChooksinChoppers]

What I've said repeatedly is the system is ripe with abuse. The whole reason they went to the plastic cards was an attempt to reduce fraud and people selling their paper fs for cash or other non-approved items.

Yeah well in an ideal world that wouldnt happen. Neither would it be so hard to get FS in the first place (unless you lie to them) But I know of a couple of people who "sell" their FS on a regular basis as payment for cash loans they recieved. they dont have the cash to repay the loan so they hand over the FS card

whatever happens to the children involved ..i have no idea. so sad. darn this thread is getting me depressed.​

 

[mom'sfolly]

Actually, I've never seen anyone use foodstamps who drove a fancy car, dressed to the nines, spending $400 on junk.

I've lived in public housing with neighbors who used foodstamps. We were considered working poor. My widowed mother was working fulltime as a clerk, after about 15-20 years out of the work force, and had two school age kids. My neighbors were also working poor; women who had gotten out of bad marriages, married couples with children where both parents worked, but had low paying jobs; all sorts of people. But none of them wore fancy clothes, drove fancy cars or bought $400 worth of candy.

I do hear a lot of judgments based on appearance and supposition. Again, are the poor expected to be poorly groomed, wearing sack cloth and ashes? Is it possible that the unemployment insurance payment card looks just like the foodstamps card?

All of this is totally off topic....

As to the craiglist ad, perhaps my mother's old adage of "beggars can't be choosers" should come into play.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

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not necessarily. one thing i taught in my nutrition on a budget class is that most junk food, pound for pound, is actually more expensive. compare a container of whole oats that takes less than three minutes to make, to a box of sugary cereal. compare pop tarts to a pound of in season fruit and vegetables. a pound of beans can be as little as 50 cents a pound, i challenge you to find meat for that price consistently (other than chicken).

Also healthier food sticks with you longer, making you less hungry, making you consume less which saves you money in the long run. healthier diet means healthier body, more energy, better work output, and less visits to the doctor. also making your own baby food, which can take less than five minutes and is not labor intensive in the slightest can save a parent hundreds of dollars to thousands a year.

You're correct in principle, but like you said - for starters neighborhood stores offer less fresh food and often charge a great deal for it. The rest is right, but also rough when you are starting a new kitchen after having to run for your life.

I used to relocate women. When I would try to shop for their first load of groceries we struggled mightily with what kitchen implements did we have what seasoning did we have and my sorrow over what such stores were charging for any fresh fruit. The only stores that had loose food rather than processed stuff was too far by bus or you could only buy it in such large quantities which required too much money upfront or a car to move.

I wish your class was available for more women. I wish more people would think for just a minute about what it means to have nothing and be trying to start over. I wish more people that claim to read the bible would actually try to live by some of what Jesus said about casting stones......

 

[lucky123]

If a person has a five to seven hundred dollar car payment, they need to change their life style before asking for help. Let me also say that anyone who asks for name brand items when begging is nothing but a flimflamer who uses people. I'm surprised she didn't ask for prime rib. I understand there are millions who need help, but i have nothing but contempt for those who take advandage of kindness. I have witnessed the foodstamp system in my business for a long time, and yes its broke. If you have worked hard all your life and fall on hard times, you will most likely get no help, on the other hand, if you never worked but have been a bum all you life, no problem!

 

[GallusGal]

Plus, the healthy food is expensive next to the junk.

While this is true of certain foods (ie. tropical fruit for example), this is mostly a popular misconception that perpetuates bad dietary choices. For example, you can spend $5 on a meal at a fast food place and feel like you're getting a deal. But realistically, you get a single meal of poor quality. With the same five dollars, you could alternately buy a pound of rice or barley for about 85 cents (becomes about two pounds cooked), a pound of beans for 95 cents (becomes about two pounds cooked), a bag of frozen mixed veggies for $1-2, and a carton of eggs for about a dollar. That will allow you to make SEVERAL high quality meals. Heck, just for the price of a large fry, you can buy a whole BAG of potatoes - pounds of them! - that can be prepared into a ton of different healthy meal choices. I was shopping today and was shocked at how much a simple bag of chips costs these days. The "pounder" bag of chips or pretzels costs $4-5, which is more pound for pound than most meat and infinitely more money pound for pound than most fruit/veg; bananas are only about 50 cents per pound and are PACKED with great nutrition!

I do agree on the time constraint matter as it's near and dear to my heart, having to care for a large number of farm and personal animals, help manage a business, and work long hours outside of the home; it's a lot like having multiple jobs even though only one of them is paying! However, there are even ways around that. I often cook rice/beans because it is a very inexpensive but hearty meal, but obviously when you buy bulk dry, it tends to take a while to cook. What speeds up the process is soaking the rice/beans overnight so they cook in less than half the time. Likewise, I move frozen food down into the fridge to thaw overnight. And when I want a really nice meal, I cook it on my day off then make portions to eat over the next few days.

I think overall if more nutrition education and budgeting information was made readily available to people of a low SES, they would probably make more prudent AND healthier spending choices, both of which would benefit them financially in the long run.​

 

[ChooksinChoppers]

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Yep it's true! Teens here locally apply for FS. They tell them they are homeless..staying on friends couches. Give a freinds address. vwalla! food stamps! the 8 teens living in the house get $200 a month a peice. All paperwork goes to different addresses.
No wonder those who really DO need it are rejected.
And no I wouldnt give those people on CL soda or brand name anything

 

[kuntrygirl]

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I just found this out a few months ago when someone with a EBT card was at the ATM in Walmart getting cash to go to Happy Hour at the local bar. And I know this because she and her boyfriend/husband were talking about how much it costs to get in and that money would cover the cost to get in the bar, along with the alcoholic drinks they wanted.

 

[kuntrygirl]

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We must have been at the same Dollar General because I saw a lady that came in to the Dollar General and had about $18.00 left on her card. She said that she had to spend the balance on her "BENEFITS CARD" because it wasn't going to be carried over. Guess what she bought? GUM, GUM, GUM and some more GUM.