Posted on 01/13/2010 6:26:24 AM PST by cbkaty
AUSTIN — Texas has the worst performing food stamp program in the nation, the federal director for food assistance told state officials here Tuesday.
It ranks last among the 50 states and U.S. territories in processing food stamp applications and also does a poor job getting eligible low-income people to apply, said Kevin Concannon, a U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary, in an earlier meeting with reporters.
And because Texas does not even come close to the national average in enrolling those eligible, grocery retailers like H-E-B and Randalls are missing out on nearly $1 billion a year in food sales, he said.
“If I were a native son sitting down here, I would be very upset that my state was not the leader that it is capable of being,” Concannon said.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
The cost of an item is the same for food stamp or pay-your-own shoppers, it's true, but I was told by a retailer several years ago that the government only reimbursed a percentage of every food stamp 'dollar' spent.
Was I told wrongly?
They look like they are starving! /s
When you buy with a food card (no state uses the ‘food stamp’ any more) you cannot be charged local or state tax on the groceries.
IMHO, foodstamps should not be able to be used on “luxury food”, like steaks, shrimp, pre-prepared packaged food, etc,
and should only be valid for hamburger, whole uncooked chickens, vegetables, eggs, dairy, and fruit.
No one pays a state tax for groceries in Texas. In fact, only 15 states tax groceries.
And they can put it on a 'card' if they like, but it'll always be food stamps to me. :-)
I’m a native son and I consider this GOOD NEWS! KEEP IT UP TEXAS! WE CAN DO WORSE IF WE TRY!
CHANGE THE TITLE TO READ: “TEXAS SAVES GOVERNMENT $1B WITH EFFECTIVE FRAUD PREVENTION MEASURES”
this sucks, but you know what, we are ok.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
God bless you for taking care of your family in the face of misfortune. And for your resourceful self-sufficiency.
The States are missing out by not taking more charge of their food stamp programs.
To start out, food stamps are a real “Twilight Zone” support program, and nothing is as it appears. It should never be compared with any other form of public support.
In the US, since before the Great Depression, we have had the problem that our farmers are over productive. Even when the Dust Bowl wiped out much of the agriculture on the Great Plains, those farmers outside of the Dust Bowl region produced so much food that it was almost worthless.
And today things are such that every year we have thousands of tons of food that rots in warehouses. And it is very expensive to keep in warehouses. As such, giving it away actually *saves* money.
But, as the reasonable argument goes, if you give it away, won’t it depress prices? Ironically, no. This is because the overproduction food is in its basic form. Most people who buy their own food, buy only small quantities of “basic” food items, like raw vegetables or flour, at a time. The bulk of purchased food has been processed in many ways.
Yet people on food stamps are, and should be encouraged to buy food in bulk. 20 pounds of potatoes, 20 pounds of dry beans, 20 pounds of rice, and importantly, food that is on seasonal sale.
And this is critical. Crops all come in at once, of a particular crop. This causes a glut in the market, with much of the crop put in storage, either to be sold during the off season, or just as excess that will probably spoil.
So retailers have huge sales, trying to unload the excess, the sooner, the better.
And this is where food stamps can come in handy. Food stamps are issued in fixed amounts every month. But the States should intervene, to help their farmers at low cost, by buying a lot of their excess crop that would otherwise rot. At very low prices. Then they could turn around and give “bonuses” of one particular food item that month, to their food stamp recipients.
In one fell swoop, by doing this the States would help their local farmers, retailers, and food stamp recipients, while normalizing the cost of seasonal foods. And with low costs to taxpayers, which they would probably get back with more stable food prices.
Food stamps are a strange thing. As a final note, cutting food stamps does not work as a motivator to find employment, and it certainly doesn’t help poor children to do better in school.
LOL, yeah, me, too. Our state has a tax on food but it's half of the state sales tax. I get charged .18 for each FS card transaction we do here at the store. (I could use the states "swiper" gizmo and not be charged, but I use my c/c processors machine because it's one less contraption cluttering up the counterspace.)
Maybe reimbursed from the Fed to the State Govt. but the individual grocery retailer gets full price from the State. There is no downside for the retailer.
“Yet people on food stamps are, and should be encouraged to buy food in bulk. 20 pounds of potatoes, 20 pounds of dry beans, 20 pounds of rice, and importantly, food that is on seasonal sale.”
60 lbs of potatoes, beans, and rice takes up the entire back seat of the average car. You are thereby displacing no less than 2 people from their living quarters!!
While the above was in jest, these people do have storage problems, especially refrigerated storage. There are often multiple families living in one small dwelling. Most of my career food stamp queens don’t think that far ahead anyway.
“If I were a native son sitting down here, I would be very upset...” Concannon said.”
Did he say NATIVE?
RACIST!
You missed the best idea out of it, that means we’re NATIVE AMERICANS (or in this case, I’m a NATIVE TEXAN) - so, that’s what I check if they ask me my ‘race’.
I saw an article on Fox the other day that says all of those “universal service fees” on phone and mobile service are being used to provide cell phones to the “poor”. Thus far it has burned thru $1B. Terrific. On a related note, my brother had apartments that had subsidized housing tenants in one of them. They had two big screen plasma TVs and all kinds of new appliances. Moral is: there are many fewer truly “poor” in this country. Mostly we have lazy minorities and white trash who are conditioned to perpetual reparations for nothing we did or living off the dole.
Clearly the two young ladies in the photo are starving. They’ve started eating their own fingers. It’s a travesty.
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