The amount of stamps someone receives should be divided by the food groups and no more than a certain percentage can be spent on any one of them. Any and all junk food should be eliminated from the program. Personally I feel the program of issuing EBT cards should be replaced with food pantries where only bare essentials are distributed. Don’t like your choices? Purchase your own food with your own money like everyone else.
If we want to promote healthier choices, the food stamps can be color coded. Green for veggies, red for meat, etc. The receipt could easily show how much in each kind of scrip was required. No scrip for snack food, and none for soda.
If I were running the program there would be a separate register and a separate line for food stamps at every participating store above a certain size. Hopefully the line would be longer and move more slowly than others. Maximum inconvenience and embarrassment for food stamp shoppers, speed up the lines for everyone else.
And, just to be sure we taxpayers get out money's worth, demand a discount from grocery stores on redeeming scrip.
Non-SNAP households not much better
“The report compared SNAP households and non-SNAP households. While those who used food stamps bought slightly more junk food and fewer vegetables, both SNAP and non-SNAP households bought ample amounts of sweetened drinks, candy, ice cream and potato chips. Among non-SNAP households, for example, soft drinks ranked second on the list of food purchases, behind milk.”
Oh, really? The government used to limit food stamps to real food such as fruit juice was ok to buy but not flavored drinks. Why is it now days they can use EBT cards at restaurants? I can't afford to go to restaurants but I'm footing the bill for the freeloaders to go. There is no reason the government can't grow up and place responsible rules on the gimmedats.
The amount of stamps someone receives should be divided by the food groups and no more than a certain percentage can be spent on any one of them. Any and all junk food should be eliminated from the program. Personally I feel the program of issuing EBT cards should be replaced with food pantries where only bare essentials are distributed. Don’t like your choices? Purchase your own food with your own money like everyone else.
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I have been saying this for years. No cash. Just EBT pantries with staple items. No change back. Don’t like rice and beans? Get a job.
Just like they did in WWII. Ration stamps for certain items. No stamp — no buy!
Excellent idea. Food pantries already exist now for the most part but they are typically run by volunteers. Simply direct the food stamp recipients to the already existing pantries and streamline the choices to the nutritional essentials.