Food Stamps Have Come A Far Way

[dancingalone]

I didn't realize you could get anything more than peanut butter, bread, milk, eggs, and cheese. Now you can have roasted rabbit with butter, tarragon and sweet potatoes.

http://www.salon.com/life/pinched/2010/03/15/hipsters_food_stamps_pinched/

 

[Carol]

You can buy just about anything that is not prepared in advance and hot at the point of sale with food stamps. Saffron, cavaiar, sushi, etc. There was a change in 2007 I think to include organic veggies.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

In NY, beer, lotto, smokes, hell, probably hookers n crack too.

 

[grydth]

Nothing new here... in the late 1970's a batch of 20 and 30 something law students figured out how to get food stamps.... from then on they ate steak while the rest of us had chicken.

It hasn't really come a far way, just in a big wide circle...

 

[CoryKS]

I didn't realize you could get anything more than peanut butter, bread, milk, eggs, and cheese. Now you can have roasted rabbit with butter, tarragon and sweet potatoes.

http://www.salon.com/life/pinched/2010/03/15/hipsters_food_stamps_pinched/

Been a while since I worked down at the ol' Stab n Grab, but IIRC as long as it rings up as grocery, it's good to go.

 

[Bruno@MT]

Do food stamps still carry a social stigma in the US?

We have them over here in Belgium as well, but they are part of virtually every salary package. If a company has them as part of the pay, every employee gets it from the janitor to the CEO.

They are a way for the company to pay you a small amount (typically about 6 euros per day) free from normal income tax. The only caveat is that you can only use them for food / beverage. There s no limitation to what you spend them on though. It is perfectly normal to go to a decent restaurant and pay with these things.

Perhaps this is one of the cases where a concept translates well in wording and superficial similarity, but not the underlying concept? Over here these things are an alternative form of salary.

 

[Carol]

Do food stamps still carry a social stigma in the US?

We have them over here in Belgium as well, but they are part of virtually every salary package. If a company has them as part of the pay, every employee gets it from the janitor to the CEO.

They are a way for the company to pay you a small amount (typically about 6 euros per day) free from normal income tax. The only caveat is that you can only use them for food / beverage. There s no limitation to what you spend them on though. It is perfectly normal to go to a decent restaurant and pay with these things.

Perhaps this is one of the cases where a concept translates well in wording and superficial similarity, but not the underlying concept? Over here these things are an alternative form of salary.

I like how Belgium does that!

Over here they are not salary. They are a form of welfare (government aid). There are some people that genuine need food stamps, literally, to survive, and I do not disparage them at all for needing them...and I suspect most Americans don't

However, the food stamp program is rife with abuse, and potential for abuse. I think it is the angle that caught DancingAlone's eye.

 

[dancingalone]

Over here they are not salary. They are a form of welfare (government aid). There are some people that genuine need food stamps, literally, to survive, and I do not disparage them at all for needing them...and I suspect most Americans don't

However, the food stamp program is rife with abuse, and potential for abuse. I think it is the angle that caught DancingAlone's eye.

Indeed. I do not mind people who genuinely need the food. I do question buying things like ice cream or saffron using food stamps. It seems to me that those are luxury items rather than necessities. If the people in the article are buying things like that, perhaps they didn't really need the aid to begin with.

 

[terryl965]

We have no one blame but the society we live in, welfare has become the biggest joke in America. The ones that truely need it cannot get it and the ones driving a Escalade and wearing all the jewerly and having there hair and nails done can.

 

[Cryozombie]

Yeah, nothing pisses me off more when I'm standing in line with my 10 packages of 15 cent ramen that I am living off of for the week than to see the guy in line in front of me using his food card for high end, name brand groceries, and then take them out to his luxury SUV with the $2000.00 low profile tires with the chrome spinners.

Of course I'm living of 15 cent ramen because I'm spending everything to keep my own house instead of living in the section 8 apartment complex down the block... If I gave that up, I could buy spinners and cheetos too. But hey, Priorities.
​

 

[CoryKS]

Do food stamps still carry a social stigma in the US?

I'm not sure anything carries a social stigma in the US anymore.

 

[Marginal]

Do food stamps still carry a social stigma in the US?

Nope. They're not even considered a government hand out.

 

[Cryozombie]

Nope. They're not even considered a government hand out.

Neat, another Hollywood type probably talking out his *** upheld as some kind of answer. Of course, that clip was so short who knows what the context was too.

 

[Flea]

In my state, you can also use food stamps to buy food plants. So you can go into a nursery and purchase tomato plants, herbs, eggplant, and so forth. I think that's very enlightened. Teach a person to cultivate, and feed them for a season ... or if they're smart and save seeds, indefinitely.

ETA ... Also, consider the alternative. Sweet potatoes and fresh herbs are healthy. Would you rather people stuff themselves on Ring Dings, Cheesy Poofs, and Ale 8 and get sick? Especially considering that if they're on food stamps they probably don't have health insurance. With food stamps people get a set dollar amount; it's not going to go as far at some place like Whole Foods, but it's really none of our business as outsiders as to what people eat.

 

[dancingalone]

In my state, you can also use food stamps to buy food plants. So you can go into a nursery and purchase tomato plants, herbs, eggplant, and so forth. I think that's very enlightened. Teach a person to cultivate, and feed them for a season ... or if they're smart and save seeds, indefinitely.

That would be a good use of food stamps in my book. The WIC (women, infants, and children) program also gives out a monthly allowance in food aid, but the usage is limited to goods like baby formula, milk, juice, eggs, bread, beans/rice, etc. Basically staples.

 

[theletch1]

We used to live off of pinto beans for a week at a time when I was a kid and the only "real" meal you got was the school lunch...which we paid full price for. That was back during several years of the 1970s. My folks were both far too proud to ask for assistance. We were lucky enough to live in the country and could plant a small garden and hunt to an extent. Personally, I could give a crap if someone WHO NEEDS the assistance has filet mignon every night. They only get (as I understand it) as certain dollar amount per month. If they want to blow that the first week and live on ramen for the next 3 so be it.

 

[CoryKS]

We used to live off of pinto beans for a week at a time when I was a kid and the only "real" meal you got was the school lunch...which we paid full price for. That was back during several years of the 1970s. My folks were both far too proud to ask for assistance. We were lucky enough to live in the country and could plant a small garden and hunt to an extent. Personally, I could give a crap if someone WHO NEEDS the assistance has filet mignon every night. They only get (as I understand it) as certain dollar amount per month. If they want to blow that the first week and live on ramen for the next 3 so be it.

This. If someone has figured out how to live a filet mignon lifestyle on a welfare budget, I say we hire them as head of the US Treasury.

 

[dancingalone]

Personally, I could give a crap if someone WHO NEEDS the assistance has filet mignon every night. They only get (as I understand it) as certain dollar amount per month. If they want to blow that the first week and live on ramen for the next 3 so be it.

Economically the impact is indeed the same whether they buy steaks or beans with the stamp funds. However, I'm not indifferent about the purchase choice. I saw a news story about a food pantry that was doing more than just handing out items. They were taking the time to teach their clients how to use low cost food items like beans or rice or flour. As astonishing it may be to some (I was one!), a lot of people simply don't know how to cook with non-convenience goods. Perhaps their parents only fed them boxed food and McDonalds or perhaps they didn't have a responsible parent around the home.

Ideally, everyone using a resource like food stamps will eventually prosper and be off the program. I'd prefer that the program be structured in a fashion that they learn valuable life skills too while feeding themselves. Budgeting properly and learning how to prepare healthy unprocessed & inexpensive foods would seem to be at the top of the life skill list...

 

[Marginal]

Neat, another Hollywood type probably talking out his *** upheld as some kind of answer. Of course, that clip was so short who knows what the context was too.

If you can bear it, longer much more rambling extended version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NvuRGTS3H8&NR=1

But really though, a single person or two people pooling their resources are probably going to have more latitude when it comes to being able to buy something other than a 5lb block of Velveeta and 5 loaves of white bread that someone with 6 kids would be more likely to be looking at in the same situation.

 

[theletch1]

Economically the impact is indeed the same whether they buy steaks or beans with the stamp funds. However, I'm not indifferent about the purchase choice. I saw a news story about a food pantry that was doing more than just handing out items. They were taking the time to teach their clients how to use low cost food items like beans or rice or flour. As astonishing it may be to some (I was one!), a lot of people simply don't know how to cook with non-convenience goods. Perhaps their parents only fed them boxed food and McDonalds or perhaps they didn't have a responsible parent around the home.

Ideally, everyone using a resource like food stamps will eventually prosper and be off the program. I'd prefer that the program be structured in a fashion that they learn valuable life skills too while feeding themselves. Budgeting properly and learning how to prepare healthy unprocessed & inexpensive foods would seem to be at the top of the life skill list...

You'll get no argument out of me on this. I couldn't agree more. Ideally, this would be, well, ideal. Having several friends that work in the social services arena, however, has opened my eyes a good bit to just how un-ideal matters are. One of them actually had the audacity to suggest to a "client" that they be allowed to help this lady create a food budget within the guidelines she'd been given as she seemed unable to make it on the amount she was getting. The response? I quote "Who the **** do you think you are? This is my money and I'll buy what I want with it!"