Back in the day, when they were still actual food stamps and not EBT cards, I worked in food stamps as an account clerk. I worked in the department that gave out and accounted for the atp’s (authorization to purchase).
On the 1st of the month the atp’s were delivered to everyone including what we called General Delivery. Those were sent to a certain post office in town so the transients could pick them up there. If they weren’t picked up by a certain date they were sent back to us and logged in as not delivered. If the transients wanted them they then had to come to the food stamp office and pick them up and could then cash them in for the stamps.
I couldn’t tell you how many times I gave the atp’s to them, then cashed it right there, and then when we got off work at 5 o’clock the transients were waiting by the back door as we went out trying to sell the stamps to us. Lol. Used to irritate the heck out of me. There were also markets and liquor stores in the are that would buy them for 50% of their value. The food stamps were paying for their liquor one way or the other.
Pretty discouraging, huh? And the beat goes on....