Is being poor what causes obesity and health problems (which is the point of this article)?
Or is being unmotivated - nurtured by the welfare state what causes this?
I remember "home economics" (we learned good nutrition and how to cook at home too) - why not bring that back?
Fast food (on every corner and more in between) and grocery stores are meeting a demand - not causing the problem.
And of course the NYT focuses on Texas, minorities and government programs BUT this is a national problem.
For almost a decade, Blanca had supported her five children, where is the father or fathers? He is probably living with her and working a job if not dealing drugs. Rat policies in action, the encourage it and we support it so they can get the vote. These people are street smart they know how to survive and get over it’s generational.
I could healthfully feed these kids on that much, and that would include packed lunches to replace the “free” meal at school.
Running late - again - and again - and again.
Maybe she needs a little more structure in her life.
Food Stamps are not the cause - Food Stamps are just one of many enablers.
Just anyother whipping post story. Why aren’t the evil productive not produces more the unproductive?
To be very blunt, this welfare wench needs to learn to cross her legs.
I honestly tried...I did. I read pretty far into this piece. A bleeding heart litany of egregious excess in government entitlements supporting slothful habits. In the case of this article, words like emigrate and other cute euphemisms are used for the [ooga-booga] word, “illegal.”
The prime character, a 40 year old woman with diabetes and a $430/month grocery/junkfood card. NO mention is made of the other entitlements I’d bet my paycheck she has like Section 8 housing, TANF or SSDI, or WICs if any of her children are under 5, and of course, that whopping big several thousand dollar EITC check every year. I didn’t see to see where a husband, or a baby daddy was in all this either. You see, it makes a better case for the above if he’s not around.
The point is, these articles focus on children and what their parents are doing to them and trying to make out like it is our problem - that WE are the cause. The real problem is that the children were not taken away from her and her ass deported back to Mexico if she cannot prove she is a citizen.
So here’s a cue for articles like this. when they mention SNAP, just picture a big ole wagon wheel. That SNAP is only one spoke of that entitlement wheel the subjects get that rolls them effortlessly throughout their subsidized lives at our expense.
“Running late to go to a doctor’s appointment”.
Well, I will never have that problem, as i can’t afford to go to the doctor.
But I am PROBABLY paying for her to do so.
“cheddar-flavored potato chips and a granola bar”?
What happened to bread and eggs and real cheese? Those items are covered under food stamps. So are Cheerios and bran flakes, cereals w/o sugar. So is milk. Milk, cheese, and bread are free at a food bank.
One of the problems is WHAT they buy with their food stamps—this is what causes obesity and health problems. Better food can be obtained, such as dried beans and peas, for less money than the junk food. No one wants to go to the trouble of making their own stuff...easier to buy the junk food w/the chemicals, sugar, fructose, etc.
,y youngest boy aged 10 said the other day.
“Dad, why are most on food stamps and poor really fat?”
An African guy years ago summed it u0p best and he said” People who are poor are fat here but in my country the poor are thin because they don’t get enough food”
,
Being poor today in this country means A/C, mobile phone, rood over head, car, big screen TV and lots of junk food.
“stretching $430”
Stretching. Remember, that is just for food alone. No paper products or cleaning supplies.
I didn’t read anything here that is not the result of making poor choices. Including sugary cereal and chocolate milk. Same money could have purchased Cheerios, 2% milk and a banana. Jumping in the sack for 10 minutes of fun and spawning 5 kids when a condom costs $.50. Of course to a liberal, all this adds up to needing us to pay more taxes so this family can shop at Whole Foods.
Ohhhnoooo, she put LARD in her refried beans? What did they want her to put in it, gasp, Crisco, also known as trans fat? You’re supposed to put lard in refried beans, obviously the writer isn’t a Mexican, or even a Texican, to try to use this info to tug at the heartstrings.
I fed four people on $600 a month for food. (Another $200 bought cleaning supplies, etc)
And we ate well. Eggs, milk, real butter, cheese, meat, rice, fresh fruit, frozen veggies. We couldn’t afford lobster, salmon, and other expensive stuff, but we did have steak once a month.
Lots of hamburger and chicken. Spaghetti sauce, ‘burger, and rice. Some ice cream for a treat. Spices.
It was boring, but the kids had nutrition. Fresh veggies were harder because there was too much waste.
That was with a gluten-free diet. (Both my kids are diagnosed Celiacs and my son’s a T-1 diabetic, so carbs had to be kept reasonable.)
$450 is more than enough for three people, especially without special dietary needs.
The problem’s that the mom doesn’t want to actually cook. She’s not going for cheap. She’s going for instant, prepared foods. If she made her kids a big plate of scrambled eggs with a little cheese, a single slice of toast with real butter (or a small amount of pre-prepared rice), a glass of milk, and a 1/2 of a piece of fruit, it’d cost one hell of a lot less than the crap she’s feeding them now and she’d have enough to get them chewable vitamins.
Granola bars cost more than $1 each!
“For almost a decade, Blanca had supported her five children by stretching $430 in monthly food stamp ..
Would you call that support the mother’s or the people?
And what about the car? Poor people who have to work are usually fairly well in shape. Same for walking. We did both as children during WWII and never had health problems.
I’m all for helping people, but when you relieve them of responsibility you have harmed them.
Let Moosechele and Mikey head a commission to determine which specific food items are eligible for purchase with public assistance funds. This assistance is in the form of debit cards these days, and even the smallest convenience store has a scanner at the check out. The systems can be programmed to accept or reject purchases based on a master list of "approved" items.
Limiting what these debit cards can purchase may also reduce their value as drug or sex barter.
Then we can see how well their policies work (or don't) on that group.
Laziness causes poor diet. Poor people have poor ways.
I’m a big proponent of states taking a lead in this, to achieve a win-win. That is, the economics of farming is harsh, and having too good a year can wipe them out, by driving prices down.
But if states buy up some of the surplus, it helps its farmers tremendously. Storing it is very expensive, so it is cheaper to give it away to food stamp recipients as a seasonal “bonus”. This is also a big bonus nutritionally, because while it is not their first choice in food, which is often junk, they may eat it if it is free.
In practice, say there is a bumper crop of apples one year. Along with their food stamps they get a dozen apples that don’t count against their stamps. Though some refuse to eat apples and would throw them out or give them away, many would eat them, just because they have them and they’re free.
Farmers benefit, stores get rid of surplus inventory so have more stable prices, food stamp recipients get some better nutrition than just what they choose. And the total cost is probably offset by stabilizing farm prices, which produces larger tax revenues by minimizing losses.
It wouldn’t take much for the gov’t to require food stamps be used for fresh fruit, veggies, whole grains and no sodas, no sugary cereals, no cookies and chips- but they know there would be a revolt.
Seriously. Many of these people don’t work. They certainly have the time to use their welfare sponsored flour to make bread in their welfare sponsored apartment while their chirrens are at the gov’t sponsored schools eating welfare breakfast and welfare lunches.
Their job can be to be a good parent.
QUIT BREEDING! START WORKING!
or just go home....