There are no such thing as food stamps anymore. When welfare was reformed during the Clinton administration one of the things changed was the food stamp program.
You see, it is degrading for a poor person to be forced to present food stamps in front of other cash-paying customers! So what did the government do? It replaced food stamps with an ATM card. This ATM card can be used in certain locations to withdraw real, green, American cash.
So what do these people do? They withdraw cash and spend the money on drugs, booze, whatever and hit up the food banks for staples. I knew a young woman who regularly spent her "food-stamp" cash on crack and expected her parents to feed her two children (which they gladly did).
I imagine many of these undernourished kids in Baltimore are seeing their food stamp money spent elsewhere.
Guess who was a prime mover of the elimination of the "degrading" food stamps in favor of the ATM card?
John McCain!
This is incorrect. The Access Card for food stamps cannot be used as cash. You simply use it like a credit card adn buy food. You balance is shown on the receipt.
You can, however, get cash assistance, which is on the same Access card. THAT you could ostensibly take out and use for anything, drugs, etc. But the food stamp portion is programmed only for food.