One solution would be to get rid of the Food Stamp program and go back to giving out commoditites.
When I was a kid, we had a family down the street that would be called "dysfunctional" today. The dad was in prison, the mother was an alcoholic, the older brother did heroin and the older sister was a streetwalker. The kid my age was my best friend and you couldn't ask for a nicer or more polite kid.
Every month this family received government commodities - flour, powdered milk and eggs, peanut butter, honey, cocoa, canned Spam product, margarine, oatmeal, dried beans, potatos, onions and others. As a kid I was fixated on the large tin of peanut butter - I couldn't understand why I couldn't get one.
Back then poor people had no choice but to prepare food from scratch.
The grocery industry helped get the Food Stamp program started. A grocery store makes just as much profit on a cart full of groceries whether you pay cash for it or use Food Stamps. In the days of commoditites - the grocery industry got nothing from the poor - since they were given food directly.
Maybe we should think about returning to the days of direct food distribution.
I know the ACLU would have a hissy fit since the poor have the "right" to purchase whatever food they desire (as long as us working stiffs are paying the bills).
I get very tired (as many others do) of standing in line at the grocery cashier and seeing the person in front of me pay for pop, chips, ice cream, cookies, frozen pizzas and T-bone steaks with Food Stamps (or now with the Electronic Benefits Card), while I'm buying whatever's on sale that week.
you forgot some of the other crap they can get.. which is anything at the store. my two favourites are still the girl who would buy lobster, and the guy who would buy the cheapest sodas he could find, dump them out and reurn them for deposit, then buy his beer.
I'm one of those others, too, that have gotten tired of seeing that. I buy my fair share of the "junk food" but I buy it on sale and not every time I go to the store.
I do agree wit you in regard to food stamps vs commodoties. The WIC program seems to be almost a happy medium between them. WIC approved purchases are very limited.