Posted on 07/14/2018 10:18:44 AM PDT by spintreebob
Most SNAP recipients spend ... early it increases food insecurity.
39% spend 2/3 of monthly benefit in the first 4 days. 14% of GA households are food insecure. Over 1.6 million (16%) utilized $2.54b in SNAP in GA.
Few statistically significant differences explain why spending patterns are so different.
We hoped we would be able to find something that said the ‘patient’ people do this and ‘impatient’ people do that, but we did not, Dorfman said. I guess it comes down to personality.
Many households are connected to SNAP through local food banks and caseworkers at state agencies, DFCS, Camardelle said. “These organizations play a huge role in advising and guiding SNAP participants on when and how to use their SNAP dollars so they can stretch them over the full month, said Camardelle, noting the need for more of these resources.
In 2017, SNAP-Ed, the nutrition education arm of DFCS, operated at 820 locations in 77 of Georgia’s 159 counties through partnerships with four organizations. (This includes most of the metro Atlanta area.) That year, 137,336 participants, or about 8% of total SNAP recipients in the state, were reached. According to data from DFCS, program participants were 19% more likely to not run out of food before month’s end after the intervention.
In Georgia, SNAP recipients receive on average, $1.40 per meal per person, Camardelle said. Research from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in 2016 found that raising the monthly SNAP benefit by $30 per person per month improves the likelihood of stretching groceries throughout the full month and purchasing more nutritious foods.
SNAP-Ed is the nutrition arm of the Food Stamp Program.
policymakers should be less concerned about when people spend and more concerned about how little they have to spend.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
Same ol story. Watched person pay for steaks with SNAP card and drive away in a Land Rover
Makes me wonder who’s doing the right thing, me or them?
“While some items are a good buy, the big packages are often not the best value per ounce/serving size.”
Your use of ‘often is incorrect.
“The nearest big box store is two hours away but even if it were closer, I wouldn’t buy a membership. Excuse me, but I’m not going to pay some store to accept me as a paying customer. I’ve gone a time or two when they’ve had a free day or someone gave me their card and twice I’ve come home with a busted bottle that was hidden in a multi-pack or there was something else wrong.”
Totally NOT my experience at Costco or Sams club.
Never understood those who make milk runs every other day. ****************************************************
Note to self: never ask for a glass of milk from bgill in week 4 of the month
As an intake interviewer at a local non-profit food bank, I speak with countless folks that are receiving food stamps. In fact, a large majority (70-80%) are. And a bunch of the 20-30% that aren’t cannot receive food stamps due to some problem (felony for example) in their past.
Many of them are very open about how they cheat on their food stamps. Most of the cheating involves changing the food stamps into cash which they can use to buy cigarettes and alcohol.
One popular cheat is to buy the choicest, most expensive cuts of meat using their food stamps and then selling the meat to their neighbors for $.50 on the dollar and up. Profitable scam. Happens every day.
I could write a book :)
I know nothing about food stamps or EBT cards or welfare...
I did see a couple of obese women in front of me at a grocery store ring up $236 in groceries, give the cashier an EBT card and their bill after the card was used came to $6.54...How the hell does this work???
I have two refrigerators and a chest freezer. Also, I drive past five grocery stores on my way home from work each day.
Really, to each his own, I suppose. It's no effort for me to pick up fewer things three times a week than to go on a massive shopping outing once a month. The fruit, veggies, bread, and milk we consume, I'd rather have fresh.
We don’t have boat loads of money to waste on eating out, however, 3-4 years ago I stopped by a bbq place to pick some up for hubby’s birthday. Saw a sign in the window that they accept EBT cards and that was the end of that. Never went back.
Back in the day, people would take the time to look at unit pricing. Today, they throw $14/lb steaks in their baskets without so much as a glance at the price. I’m the one who’s digging through the reduced shelf, checking the weekly circular against my list, reading nutrition labels, cooking from scratch and budgeting $5 per person per day for food. If it takes 2+ hours in the store, then that’s what it takes but my bill is considerably less than theirs.
Don’t forget the “free” afternoon juice and snack for bus riders. Well, it used to be for bus riders but now it’s for all students. I saw a sign earlier this week just down the road from here where the school drops off hot lunches during the summer. Outrageous school taxes are why we’re on such a strict budget. Freebies for illegals and the EBT crowd!
I like my veggies fresh, especially in season
Plus there are different sales each week, and you can buy accordingly. Fresh produce is typically tastier the 1st week you have it.
Wal*Mart near me has 20lbs of rice for $8.92 or $8.94. Unlike Uncle Ben’s Instant Rice you have to use 2 cups of water for each cup of rice. Uncle Ben’s is 1:1.
I won’t say it’s great eating but I use the rice alongside hamburger, veggies (mostly), chicken in various forms, etc.
100 lbs of rice is $45 or so plus tax. Pretty much $50 with tax around here. It is the majority of my food prepper stock plus I buy canned vegetables when on sale. Big cans of Pork and Beans are NOT a good value - I DID however, get lucky at the local Wal*Mart. Got a dented can and then cleaned out the shelf at that price (only a few cans). It was cheaper than the small cans. Usually WM’s small cans of P&B are 58 cents for Van de Kamp’s. I haven’t priced the WM brand.
Once in a great while, the grocery stores around me had canned vegetables 3 and 4 for $1. I always try to stock up if I can that week. Last Thanksgiving one Wal*Mart, and only one near me (not the others) ran cans of vegetables for 25 cents. IOW 4 for $1. Corn, green beans (2 kinds) and peas. Don’t remember if carrots were on there or not. At the time I could only get about $5 but it helped restock the shelf.
I miss their Chef Boyardee for 68 cents a can. Now 88 cents on rollback. 2 year shelf life and I ate almost all of the cans about a year past “best buy” dates. Everything was just fine not one bad can in the lot.
No, I don’t eat like a king but compared to probably much of the world, I do eat like a king. I am grateful for what I have. I have seen the ugly side of the economy going back to 2007 and on. It totally changed my thinking.
I’m a little down in supplies right now but if all the grocery stores closed tomorrow (I pray not) I can survive for 6 months. Been building it for years and rotating the stock. I go after a good portion of loss-leaders at 2-3, sometimes 4-5 different places and stock up.
Last night I got the $5 Taco Bell Chalupa Cravings Box. That was my big night out at the drive-thru, LOL. Extra taco and big drink, $6.95 with tax. Usually my drive-thru night out is Jack in the Box tacos (now $1.19 for 2 - they were 99 cents for 2). Hey, gotta have my junk food!
Hey, somebody has to keep up the low end around here, LOL. Might as well be me I suppose.
Got a BOGO coupon for a buffet next week. So that will probably be $10 (think a neighbor is going to split it). Frankly I just can’t eat that much food in one sitting. Two small or less-than-medium plates and I’m already miserable.
(I hope this info is helpful to some who want to build a reasonably-cheap food prepper backup).
Ramen noodle 12 pack was $1.94 at Wal*Mart up north, a couple of nights ago. I go for beef or chicken. You can add frozen peas and carrots to them (cook them of course).
They’ll run good-sized bags of frozen veggies for 69 cents or so every few months.
Jars of strawberry preserves are $2.79 near me (cheapest). All have 2020 expiration dates. Grape Jelly, oddly enough, only good into 2019. But it’s super-cheap at the closest grocery store (little over a mile). $1.19. Now that’s cheap (medium-sized glass jar - not the small one).
Oh, I’m behind them a lot. Yes, as you say, usually large and filling out the gov’t benefit.
I don’t agree. I’ve looked at some of their prices. I didn’t find much I couldn’t beat elsewhere without a club price.
Doesn’t mean there aren’t some things. If they were closer, the cheaper gas prices would probably offset the membership price for me.
Guess you haven’t lived in the country far from a grocery store or as Moo likes to say, food deserts.
Kids get milk at school for breakfast and lunch. How much needed water are your kids getting? There are other sources for calcium such as yogurt/yogurt drinks which lasts all month. All green leafy veggies are high in calcium as well as squash, peas, beets, tomatoes, beans, broccoli, bell peppers, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Hope you’re not pouring milk on sugary cereal for their breakfasts.
Two words - pantry and freezer.
YMMV
It was Sam’s.
“39% spend 2/3 of monthly benefit in the first 4 days.”
Perhaps don’t put the whole monthly benefit on at one time.
Maybe put 25% on day 1 of the month, 20% on day 8 of the month, 20% on day 15 of the month and the last 25% on day 22 of the month.
It’s all computer added, so it wouldn’t be expensive to do.
Before the cards, they’d sell their stamps for .50 on the dollar. Same scam today, just updated.
This lifelong and generational freebie stuff needs to end. Six months of welfare twice in a lifetime should be the limit.
Was the $6.54 what they owed after maxing out their card?
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