Posted on 09/22/2011 7:36:30 AM PDT by Abathar
(CNN) -- That is the reality for the more than 40 million Americans who rely on food stamps. According to the Food Research and Action Center the average food stamp allotment is just $30 per week.
I began thinking about taking a food stamp challenge earlier this month when I met several women who we profiled on hunger for two CNN stories airing this week. These women had to make tough choices between paying bills and buying food. Often they skipped meals so their children could eat. Often the amount of food stamps they received was not enough.
Living on a food stamp budget for just one week won't begin to put me in these women's shoes or come close to the struggles that millions of low-income families face every day; week in and week out, month after month. But I do expect to gain a new perspective and a better understanding.
(Excerpt) Read more at theindychannel.com ...
On sale at our Pricecutter supermarket this week in Springfield MO.
http://www.pricecutteronline.com/promotions/promotion.php?p=2011-09-21-42824057&l=20
Let’s go shopping!
Using only items found in the sale bill:
Page 1
Family Pack Pork Steaks (3 lb pack): $5.37
6 apples (2lbs): $1.98
1 dozen eggs: $.99
Page 2
Home Pride Wheat Bread: $1.99
Eckrich Lunch Meats (2 pkg): $4.00
Page 3
Corn King bacon: $3.69
Page 4
Best Choice Golden Potatoes (5lb bag): $2.99
3 Pears (1 lb): $1.39
Total cost: $22.40
Leaves $7.60
Not eating like a king, but bacon and eggs for breakfast, cold cut sandwich for lunch, and pork steaks and potatoes for dinner.
And that is from a single grocery stores online sale bill.
False question. A fool’s game to answer it.
Food stamps were always intended to be SUPPLEMENTAL, not the whole budget one has for food. Folks are supposed to (1) Provide for themselves (2) Rely on family and friends (3) Rely on charity and then with all those being done — food stamps provide a supplement, a minor addition of aid specifically for food. This is so fools wasting what little money they have elsewhere would still have some food, but still be encouraged to save some of that other money for food.
As EBT and food stamps exist now, there are no real restrictions of what the funds are used for. It is just another form “fungible” money thrown at wastrels more than the truly needy by the government, and the government is no slacker at forcibly taking that money from the innocent, the productive, the honest, and the humble truly needy.
Yes, such programs make thongs harder for the meek truly needy, in so many different ways. They make neighborhood merchants less likely to give away, they create a emboldenment of the aggressive slacker which creates moral hazard and social dangers in the neighborhoods where the truly needy also are found.
Food stamps were never meant to support a family. It was intended to supplement their income in order to prevent a child from starving. It would help if folks would use a helping hand to get a job. It seems to me that working for a living improves ones attitude not to mention fills the belly.
I could probably live off of my lawn clippings if I had enough Tabasco to go with it.
I have the big 12 oz. bottle in my desk as a matter of fact.
really?
How so?
You want people to eat pink slime and pig tendons on a regular basis?
Pea soup, rice and soon to expire vegetables here. I try to limit my food spending on 10$ a week.
It helps also to have a food dehydrator so you can dehydrate soon to expire vegetables and eat it at any time.
Sure...but I’ll have to slice the two $16 muffins pretty thin.
Here’s an odd notion: If you want to have children, enter into a legal binding contract with another person prior to having them that has the will and the means to feed those children. My mother mangaged it, and so did hers, and so did hers,...
While your point is valid for most, there is a possibility the lady you saw has no stove.
You can get a cheap microwave for $50; used, far less. A stove is a little harder to come by.
Then too, some old folks don’t cook because they don’t remember to turn things off when they’re done. Microwaves aren’t that big a fire hazard (except when they’re GE microwaves, but that’s another story).
Old people don’t like to stand in the kitchen, poor old people don’t like to stand in the cold kitchen, preparing meals for one. They don’t see well; they drop stuff; they forget the leftovers in the fridge until said leftovers are furry.
And some never learned to cook.
A gallon of milk.
A pound of rice.
A bag of beans.
A head of spinach.
7 potatoes.
7 onions.
7 bananas.
doz eggs.
Is that $30? I doubt it. But you could survive on that.
What’s the average weight of a Food Stamp recipient? How many cell phones do they have? How many TV’s? How new is their car? Lots of other things to consider. There are SOME people who really need Food Stamps...although I believe Churches used to help these people....but there are others abusing the system.
Can,have, and will be again.
Sardines are the perfect protein source and CHEAP.
none of that stuff is really good for you except maybe the potatoes. ramen is full of excess salt. bologna is full of saturated fat.
“Often they skipped meals so their children could eat”
Dishonest - implies that the $30 per week feeds both mom and child. If mom has a kid, she gets more $$ every week.
If mom has a kid under 5 years old, she gets WIC in many states.
It also presumes that the majority of people on food stamps have no other income, with which to pay the ‘other bills’. Many people on food stamps have jobs and income, to pay the rent and power bill.
I am sympathetic to the truly helpless in our society. But, I am tired of seeing things like the EBT youtube video, or the people in front of me at the grocery store who use the card to buy expensive food I would never pony up for myself, and wheel the cart out to a car much nicer than my own. If the cheaters and moochers were weeded out, the program cost could be cut in half, and there would still be enough money to double the payments to the truly helpless.
Yes, but I might not enjoy it. You can get a LOT of beans and rice for $30 and that will keep you going, even get you fat.
But its pretty dull.
The menu I posted is better nutrition, will keep you feeling full longer and CLEANER. I mean by your definition fried insects would be on the menu.
Kale for vitamins, milk for high-quality protein, spaghetti/ramen/rice for calories, potatos and eggs for more high-quality protein.
And in Ohio it’s $200/month/person. Take the example of a 20-something woman, with 18-month child and boyfriend, getting $600/month in food stamps. They have more food than they can store in the cupboards, and could also get monthly food at the food pantry. Both adults work, but bring home only enough for rent and utilities.
Oh: there’s another baby on the way. Maybe that’s why food prices are so high.
If I could only harness all the methane by-product. I could light a small city.
lol - my thoughts exactly.
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