I Got Food Stamps and So Can You!

My recent excursion into the welfare system has left me scratching my head. Prior to writing and researching this project, my only impression of food stamps and similar welfare programs was that the credit only worked for certain items at certain stores and that an individual had to be in a particularly dire financial situation to receive such aid. I was wrong.

An EBT card works and looks like a debit card, but instead of the user withdrawing money from a checking account, the government prepays an amount of money it deems necessary for the user’s food expenditures. Several of my classmates have recently implemented the use of an EBT card for their groceries, and their involvement in the program immediately piqued my interest. To be honest, my natural first thought was: “I wonder if I qualify for free grocery money.” My immediate second thought was: “How do they qualify for free grocery money?” These students come from similar financial backgrounds as me, live in similar situations, and take the same amount of college credit hours that I do. Thus, my investigation began with a food stamp application, an interview request, and a trip to a place no one really wants to visit: the Department of Human Services.

I was informed by a very kind woman from the DHS that I would have to complete an interview to be considered for the program. The next morning, I was surprised to see the long line of people that trailed outside. When I reached the front of the line, I was informed that all of the interview spots were filled for the morning and that I’d have to call back later and complete my interview over the phone, which I did later that day. To be considered, I needed to submit my last four paychecks, one rent receipt, one utility bill from the previous month, and verification that I was a student worker on campus.

About a week later, I received a notice in the mail that the Department of Human Services had not received my employment verification and therefore could not review my case until I produced another pay receipt (which I could not produce, due to the fact that I’d only worked three weeks at my new job). I had essentially given up at this point. I didn’t need an EBT card; my investigation was merely an exercise in civic welfare accountability.

Approximately one month after I had received the first letter, another letter found its way to my mailbox from the Department of Human Services. I opened it up to find an EBT card with my name on it, instructions on how to activate and use the card, and the amount I could access on it per month — 200 dollars. Nothing followed-up my interview, other than the evidently pointless letter I received during the previous month. No one ever asked for a copy of my birth certificate or Social Security card, nor for my student identification card. I answered all of their questions truthfully, but how were they to know that I was who I said I was? Is it really this simple to obtain welfare benefits here in the United States?

It’s not hard to qualify for the program as a student and some universities even publicize food stamps to their students. For example, in Oregon, if you fall into any of the following categories, you automatically qualify for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) program: full-time student who works at least 20 hours per week, full-time single student who is caring for children younger than the age of 12, full-time married student who is caring for children younger than the age of 6, or at least a half-time student who is actively working any hours in a work-study program (institutional or federal) can receive a certain amount of money per month from the government. While some of these requirements are certainly understandable, the last one leaves the door open for massive amounts of unnecessary welfare spending and fraud. Every average lazy Joe College and his dog are eligible for the SNAP program.

Welfare in America was intended to provide a temporary means of survival for those at rock bottom. However, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people using food stamps over the past 40 years. Over that same time period, an estimated $753 million per year has been spent fraudulently by welfare recipients. Moreover, the government’s own accounting has cost taxpayers billions of dollars per year as food stamp programs routinely overpay their recipients; last year, that figure alone totaled $2.5 billion.

That being said, the students I know who use food stamps are hard-working, productive individuals whose parents won’t compensate them for the costs of college. Mine generally don’t either, so I get that. By using the program, students are able to save hundreds of dollars on food so they can pay for school instead of taking out an extra loan. I’m not discrediting that logic; I totally sympathize.

But when government starts to act as the hand that feeds its people and makes personal decisions for them, citizens lose their identities and freedoms. Not only is the innovative, hardworking, passionate American lost because the government promotes the idea that individuals can’t do it themselves, but the individuals come to expect the handouts and riot when they are revoked.

Yes, I apparently qualify for and possess an EBT card in the state of Tennessee, but I will not activate it. Participating in a government welfare program simply because I can would amount to an endorsement of the growing entitlement society in America. We should always advocate smaller government. The decision to use food stamps for my food supply would directly contradict that principle, and our government’s purpose as it was described in the Federalist Papers and U.S. Constitution would be further distorted.

Given my own personal experience, it is clear that food stamps are too easy to obtain, student or not. I realize that the food stamp program is different in all states, and some are more thorough with background checks than others, but much greater reform is needed. It concerns me that 15% of the population, or 46 million people, rely on others’ tax dollars to pay for their food. And that doesn’t sound like freedom to me.

With UPC codes it would be very simple to set up the EBT cards to authorize ONLY “appropriate” food/goods for the users....rice, beans, fresh fruit, vegetables, chicken, tuna, diapers...etc.

But that still doesn't address the fact that money is fungible, so that the recipient could still always use the personal cash he saved (by using foodstamps) to purchase self-indulgent items.

Regards

Or they trade the food stamps for cash, to buy whatever they want. No accountability, no shame, no honor...they wear the EBT card like it’s a badge of honor.

And we’ve got generations of people raised to think this way. Why work when you can stay home and get it all for free? Makes me want to puke.

Most who don't go to college have a traditional labor job working for someone else, and earning less money.

Or they are traditional full time mothers, raising children rather than paying other people to raise them.

As John Kerry showed, the easiest path to a lot of money is to marry into it. And looks are obviously not necessary. If easy money is the goal, college is mainly one way to meet prospects.

College doesn't hand out brains, they just set up obstacle courses to see who has them. Of course there are many exceptions but most people say they use very little of what they learned in college.

Most self-made rich people and famous people did not have the time to spend 4 years of their youth in college. Smart people tend to make higher than average incomes no matter if they are college educated or not. College education does not necessarily mean more income, excluding government jobs. Correlation does not imply causation.

There's nothing wrong with having a college education, just that in the last 10 years it has become an overrated scam that takes advantage of people.

Nothing is stigmatized. Murdering your unborn baby is not stigmatized. Men sodomizing other men is not stigmatized. Being a lazy bum slacker is not stigmatized. Making other people support your lifestyle is not stigmatized. Taking welfare is not stigmatized. Living at home with your parents is not stigmatized. Having multiple bastard chidren with multiple partners is not stigmatized.

The communists won.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.