Posted on 10/30/2025 10:38:36 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
“We would not eat.”
That is how disabled U.S. Navy veteran Juan Saro described a life without the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP…About 1.2 million veterans are enrolled now, according to the National Council on Aging. More than 20,000 military families, 213,000 National Guard and Reserve members, and more than 1 million veterans, rely on such benefits, according to Veteran.com.
Saro survived a brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his time in the Navy. He later worked as a sixth-grade teacher. But COVID-related health problems made it impossible to stay in the classroom.
The veteran now lives on fixed disability payments from the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA). By mid-month, the money runs out. Food runs out. SNAP becomes the difference between dinner and nothing at all.
“SNAP is everything,” Saro told Military.com. “Without SNAP, we would go hungry. We would not eat. We would not have food on the table. The boys would not have what they need.”
Saro said he once opened his refrigerator and saw one onion. He tried to stretch food for as long as possible.
Experts say that many veterans who qualify never apply, even though age, disability and fixed incomes put them at higher risks for hunger.
“I try not to let them see the struggle," Saro said. "They lost their mother. I want them to focus on school. I want their lives to feel normal.”
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
MREs cost a fortune, civilian food is cheaper.
I don’t know how much French Army rations cost but the ones from the 80s included pate, Cognac, and a full 20 pack of smokes.
I see MREs online for 5 bucks.
I wonder if those are civilian versions, also it is 3 MREs per day per GI, and I believe the military pays much more for the official MREs.
I wonder where that number came from? There are ~750K Guard and Reserve members. That is almost a third of those members having SNAP benefits which I find hard to believe. There are ~1.2M active duty members and only ~20K of them are on SNAP. There are numerous articles that suggest this is ballpark accurate. For the Guard and Reserve, the only place that I can find the 215K number is at military.com.
That first time was two years. That is not just a brush...
Interesting, 2 years living by the river with no vehicle or friend couches, or family, what happened in that area?
By the way, the food stamp situation is for married GIs and families which means a whole lot of MREs per day per household and expecting young wives and kids to eat them.
I have never been able to firmly pin down the cost to the military of an MRE except that they do cost more than the cooked food for feeding troops.
This is the pricing I see at the Defense Logistics Agency—a case of 12 for $189.30 which is for 4 GIs for one day.
https://www.dla.mil/Troop-Support/Subsistence/Operational-rations/
Small tourist town, Carter’s economy killed it. No tourists very few travelling. Our friends were almost in the same shape and had kids so we had the integrity to not burden them even more. It was literally depression era level economic disaster.
I would never have sat with a bunch of homeless people for 2 years down by the river waiting for something to happen, it sounds like you had some of the homeless mentality which is far different than being a drifter that goes long periods without a home.
Myself and two others, not a bunch idiot. And we LOOKED for work EVERYDAY. There was absolutely NONE until tourism increased after Reagan was in. little odd jobs here and there but not enough to feed us.
You are just playing childish games again... Go away...
Sounds like he needs to give up one of his trucks.
He should be getting around 4k/month tax-free from Gov. Then there’s housing and assistance. I know TBIs also qualify for Special Military Compensation pay which is another grand or two per month. Then 300 for the boys.
If his kids don’t have food it’s likely because he doesn’t want to buy it, cook it, they don’t want to eat it, and don’t want the school food. They probably only do Applebees delivery or similar for ‘food’.
He’s making over 4k a month with two kids and SMC for TBI -which can be up to $11K a month.
He probably can’t get any more from the Gov so he’s whoring himself out to the Leftist media.
Two years of living by the river as a homeless guy with other homeless, that is someone who adopted a lifestyle, and it had nothing to do with what I call adventuring like I used to do, it was someone with a homeless mentality.
Did you live in cars or tents, no one else showed up?
Go away...
12% of Americans are on Food Stamps.
Does that sound reasonable?
Wow. That’s quite a resume.
So many times have I heard SNAP recipients being called parasites.
Overton News: “59% of those collecting food stamps from the US Govt and Taxpayers
are not even Americans. We didn’t know this before the govt shutdown started.”
<><>“There are 42 million people in this country that use food stamps on a weekly basis.”
<><>“we say ‘people’ because most people on food stamps aren’t even from this country.”
<><>“45% of Afghanistan immigrants are on food stamps.”
<><>42% of Somali immigrants,
<><>34% of every immigrant from Iraq,
<><>23% of Haitians.”
Oh yeah, did I forget to say Go away? lol
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