Slammed for Using Food Stamps: Ga. Woman Seeks Apology

Yahoo ABC ^ | 26-Sep-2012 | Alice Gomstyn

[ExxonPatrolUs]

Is a $15 gift card enough to compensate for public humiliation at your local grocery store? According to one Georgia woman, the answer is absolutely not. Cindy Nerger, 28, who relies on food stamps to feed her family, said she was brought to tears after being embarrassed by a manager at a Kroger store in Warner Robbins, Ga. "He said, 'Excuse me for working for a living and not relying on food stamps like you,'" Nerger said the manager told her. The man's comment came after Nerger and two other store employees disagreed over whether her total purchase was eligible for food stamps - the employees had insisted that roughly $10 of her bill was not covered. She said the manager ultimately told the employees to "just give it to her."

[GeronL]

dialysis is 12 hours a week normally, not a day

3 days a week, 4 hours per sessio

[GeronL]

She definitely looks undernourished

[ExxonPatrolUs]

Georgia Food Stamps
General Program Requirements In order to qualify for this benefit program, you must be a resident of the State of Georgia and fall into one of two groups: (1) those with a current bank balance (savings and checking combined) under $2,001, or (2) those with a current bank balance (savings and checking combined) under $3,001 who share their household with a person or persons age 60 and over, or with a person with a disability (a child, your spouse, a parent, or yourself). For either group, you must also have an annual household income of less than $14,079 if one person lives in the household; $18,941 if two people live in the household; $23,803 if three people live in the household; $28,665 if four people live in the household; $33,527 if five people live in the household; $38,389 if six people live in the household; $43,251 if seven people live in the household; or $48,113 if eight people live in the household. For larger households, add $4,862 for each additional person in the home.

[LadyDoc]

dialysis is 12 hours a week normally, not a day 3 days a week, 4 hours per sessioyou beat me to it...

unless, of course, she is on peritoneal dialysis, which is 12 hours a day...but most of my peritoneal dialysis chose that method so they can go to work and not be stuck to a machine.

I have no problem with folks in need using food banks or food stamps, but the missing clue is what she tried to buy that wasn't on the allowed list.

[boop]

She could be on peritoneal dialysis which does take overnight. You're hooked up to huge bags that need to be drained.

You're correct about hemodialysis, though.

[boop]

Wow, Ladydoc, I missed it by 7 seconds!

[ExxonPatrolUs]

WHAT IS PURCHASED WITH FOOD STAMP BENEFITS?
Benefits may only be used to buy food and plants or seeds that grow food, for your household to eat. Certain food supplements such as Ensure may be purchased with food stamp benefits. Ice, water and cold or room temperature foods, which are not designed to be consumed in the store(Deli Meats?), may be purchased with food stamp benefits.
WHAT IS NOT PURCHASED WITH FOOD STAMP BENEFITS?
Food stamp benefits cannot be used to buy alcoholic beverages, cigarettes or tobacco, household supplies such as soap and paper products, medicines, vitamins, pet foods, or any non-food items.
WHERE CAN YOU SPEND FOOD STAMP BENEFITS?
Food stores which are authorized by the Food and Nutrition Service of the United States Department of Agriculture may accept EBT transactions to purchase food. Most stores provide signs to indicate that food stamp benefits may be used to purchase food products.

[Borax Queen]

Spare me.

[Borax Queen]

You have no idea what I see in my town which has plenty of jobs but plenty more freeloaders. You have zero idea what I have done in my life, during the worst of times. Spare me the fake prayers and fake sympathy as well.

For all those whiners on this thread — you sound just as bad as at the Yahoo board. Since when did it become acceptable to encourage stealing taxpayer money? Or did all the Obama entitlement commercials get to your heads?

[Borax Queen]

By the way, you missed insulting a few other posters on this thread who weren’t as glowing about the freeloaders. I guess it was just my post that personally affected you so badly.

[ExxonPatrolUs]

LIST OF ALLOWABLE FOOD STAMP ITEMS

Grocery Food Items
The EBT card, which is similar to a bank debit card and holds the user's monthly benefits, can be used to purchase regular food items, including breads, cereals, fresh or packaged fruits and vegetables, meats, fish, poultry, juices, soda pop, snack items, nuts and dairy products. Purchases of sugared drinks are discouraged.

Sweets and Bakery Items
Cookies, cakes, pies, donuts, breads and other bakery items are also allowable food purchases. Items such as birthday and other special occasion cakes are eligible for purchase with food stamp benefits as long as the cost of non-edible decorations is not more than 50 percent of the cake's purchase price, according to the USDA.

Energy Drinks
Originally, no energy drink could be purchased with food stamp benefits. Currently, only energy drinks sporting a nutrition facts label are eligible purchases. Energy drinks with a supplement facts label are classified as supplements by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and are therefore not eligible food stamp purchases, according to the USDA.

Packaged Sandwiches and Deli Foods
Only packaged sandwiches and deli foods that are cold, and that will be eaten at home, can be purchased with food stamps at a deli, grocery or convenience store. This can include chicken, salads, sliced deli meat and regular sandwiches. (Some convenience stores do not accept food EBT cards.Those that do usually post a graphic or picture of the card on the store front or at the cash register).

[willyd]

There is a difference between welfare and unemployment. Unemployment was taken out of your paycheck over the years through an unemployment insurance.

They are actually giving you your money back (subsidized now by the great pretender).

Welfare is for people who have made a career out of being unemployed for various legitimate and a few fraudulent reasons.

[Secret Agent Man]

Manager was not professional. She may also be working and still be on food stamps if she has kids so the comment may not be on-target.

I can relate to the overall sentiment though.

[Secret Agent Man]

I know on the occasions my mom got snacks, she got them from the Hostess day old thrift store. Or sent me to get them.

[publana]

I was in your shoes in 2009. It is a year that I will never forget as long as I live and pray to God I never have to repeat. It was the most humiliating year of my life. My entire family, including a disabled son, lived in a car and traveled the country looking for work that could not be had. There is nothing worse than paying in a checkout line with a food card and showering in truck stops. Both my husband and I discussed suicide more than once because the humiliation was more than we could bear. As an aside, coming to FR and reading the hateful anti-unemployment screeds is unwise. Stay off those types of threads. They will break your mind and do you in. If you stumble upon the ignorant, don’t bother arguing. You are wasting your breath and energy on the clueless. Best to put your energy elsewhere.

After failing to find work after a year, we started a business. We are much better off now than we had ever been in our lives. My only regret at this stage in my life is that we didn’t do it earlier. It took the Marxist wrecking the economy to get us motivated. We were always afraid of failure and of regretting giving up our cushy jobs and bennies. Now that your job is gone and you have nothing else to lose, give it a try. Just be sure that you choose something necessary to the economy even in bad times. THAT is the key. It will not be easy and there are times you will have to tell yourself that failure is NOT an option. Stick with it and you will succeed. Then come back to FR and slap an ignorant bitch that you probably have paid more taxes in a year than she in a lifetime.

[fr_freak]

There is nothing worse than paying in a checkout line with a food card and showering in truck stops.

If you truly believe this, then you've had an easy life. Congratulations.

So you were broke, looked around for a year, then started your own business and are making it. That is HOW IT IS SUPPOSED TO WORK. You know DAMN WELL that people like you aren't the ones that Freepers are complaining about. It is the lifelong, "I could work but why bother when government money is free" types that we're referring to. In fact, it is the very system that rewards laziness and entitlement and increases government dependency that is the CAUSE of our economic woes right now, yet you would say that the depths of those woes are justification for the system that caused it? WTF

I can't believe that I'm on FreeRepublic right now. I really can't. If this kind of whining, muddled thinking is what passes for conservative thinking, we're beyond done. To get on a FreeRepublic thread and see members being chastised for objecting to our ridiculous welfare system is beyond belief. Either you guys are trolls, or we are truly and utterly screwed. Guess what, IT IS NOT a Constitutional right to live a life free from pain. Accepting the pain and dealing with it in a proper manner is the true test in life. Throwing your principles out the window the moment those principles require the slightest bit of discomfort is pathetic.

[dixiedarlindownsouth]

“Throwing your principles out the window the moment those principles require the slightest bit of discomfort is pathetic”.

Loved the entire response, but especially that part. Well said.

[publana]

Being nasty to the unemployed by some around here instead of offering sound advice is pathetic in my opinion. You are entitled to yours of course.

[Hot Tabasco]

life is a bitch for some of us. Easy to through out insults..

Losing one's job IS a bitch and I have nothing but sympathy and prayers to offer you and your family.

While one can cut back on their discretionary spending, they still have the mortgage, the car insurance, the medical insurance, the gas, the electric, the water...etc. And until they can find a job that matches their prior income, the mandatory costs will likely be paid from their future retirement fund.

Moving isn't a very good option either. I had a friend here in S.E. Michigan who lost his job at the G.M. Tech Center back around 2006 when I lost mine. He ended up accepting a contract job with a firm in North Carolina so he took it and rented an apartment down there and would drive home every couple weeks to see his family. After about 6 months the company offered him a full time position. So he went home and talked it over with his wife and and discussed selling their home in order to move to NC. They finally decided against it which turned out for the best because a few months later the company went out of business.

He then found another contracting job that required him to work in Germany for a year. That was a real bitch for him and his wife. He finally had to call it quits and came home where they sold their house and bought a smaller one in a less desirable community. He's been able to find temporary jobs in his field but it's only paying the bills. He wants to retire but these past years have taken too great a toll on his retirement savings so he continues to look and continues to take the jobs he can find......

Times are indeed tough and I wish you and your family luck......

[opus86]

My 74-yr-old dad grew up in the rural south. According to him, none of the poor he knew would accept charity, including blacks. They would refuse help unless you had a job for them to do. Back then poor folks in that area considered it an insult to be given something, they wanted to earn it.

As for this lady, she may well be deserving of help; there are certainly people who are truly in need. I've known more than a few food stamp recipients, and they are able-bodied, they've simply been raised in a culture of dependence. It'll be the death of this country yet.