Posted on 11/02/2013 6:10:41 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Can you feed yourself on $4.50 a day?
That’s the typical daily benefit for someone who gets food stamps. Millions of low-income Americans are dependent on the program, which is called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, for some if not all of their food money. SNAP benefits have just been reduced slightly, with the sunset of an economic-stimulus addition, and will likely be cut more by Congress before the year is through.
Here in Clark County, Share and the Clark County Food Bank are inviting the community to get a sense of life on that kind of budget by accepting the SNAP Challenge. Participants will commit to eating all meals from that tight SNAP budget of just $4.50 per day.
Visit clarkcountysnapchallenge.org to register for one day, three days or seven days in November. You’ll be provided with guidelines as well as suggested shopping lists and recipes. All participants are encouraged to share their experience on facebook.com/clarkcountysnapchallenge, and to connect with other participants at #CCSNAPchallenge.
At 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 19, SNAP Challenge participants will share their stories at the Vancouver Community Library, 901 C Street. That’s part of a series of activities planned for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, Nov. 17-23.
why not an article asking why not get a job so you can afford to eat?
The issues are, in order:
1) What have I done, or what has the SNAP/EBT recipient done, to create a debt between us? Have I done her an injury? Is she providing me with a service?
2) Is the SNAP/EBT recipient grateful to me and to my family that we are sacrificing valuable things to provide this supplemental benefit?
3) Or, rather, is the SNAP/EBT recipient under the mistaken impression (see #1) that I OWE her this benefit, and is she aggrieved that I don't owe more?
4) What lessons is she teaching her children about my children in light of the above?
These are the issues. Whether it is $4.50, or $0.10, or $1,000, the issues are unchanged.
Got it in one. ;)
/johnny
What a horrible world we live in where the POOR are FORCED to live on only 4.50 a day while the FAT CAT RICH IDLE WEALTHY EVIL CAPITALISTS (do I need /sarc) seem to be able to have more money to buy more of the things that they want?
If only there were SOMETHING that the poor could do in order to somehow have more spending power than 4.50 a day to eat on!
Let’s all put our heads together, and maybe we can think of some way that we can get the POOR fed, because clearly it’s our obligiation to make sure that the status quo persists....
....actually, as a somewhat serious side note - before Obama, the Status Quo seemed to favor the Democrats. But this healthcare.gov fiasco seems to be the nail in the coffin that is really swinging popular support for “the status quo” the other way. Nothing pisses off the working class more then a good redistribution of wealth. It stops being charity when it’s forced on us.
I did shop the sales but that is what I do any way.
Prices are accurate.
This week I would pick up some Smoked Sausage at $1.00 a package and lunch meat is down to $1.00 a package as well.
We don't get food stamps. We know others that do and their food choices are a lot more lascivious then ours.
I specifically noted somewhere on the thread, that this meal is not one that I would eat often.
While not at the top of my list for “health” it beats chowing down on a package of pork rinds, corn chips etc, and is a favorite comfort food. Add a serving of pork and beans and/or salad, some milk and fruit, and it’s more balanced than eating a Mcdonald’s burger for a buck.
In a long term emergency situation, or when the grid is down, or when you are broke, and you don’t have fresh or frozen foods available, it is preferable to no food.
See post 198 someone likes ridicule and sarcasm for our favorite comfort food.
See post 198 - a put down over our favorite comfort food.
Likely she didn’t grow up poor and has never been poor. Probably doesn’t know any poor people on a personal level either. And not related to any.
If the power goes out she’ll be ready to sell her kids for that evil canned food.
That is per-person. So a family of 4 gets a minimum of $550 a month.
Well, like I said, it’s probably healthier than a bunch of pork rinds, corn chips, and a Mcdonald’s burger.LOL
I’ve seen exactly one buggy of healthy food purchased by a snap participant. Most of them contain 3 or 4 2L bottles of ‘Big Red’ drink, cheeze puffs and other assorted crap food. I started paying attention about a decade ago when I realized they were all fat as hogs.
There’s a difference between being overweight on YOUR OWN dime and being overweight on MINE.
2000 calories 4.50 a day... Okay here we go:
Breakfast: Cold Cereal, 1/2 cup of milk and 2 slices of bread with margarine ~ 350 Calories ~ .12 for the milk at $4 a gallon, .10 for the bread and margarine, and .25 for the cereal .42 cents total cost
Lunch: Cold Cut Sandwhich 2 slices of meat, 2 slices of bread, slice of cheese ~
350 Calories .50 - .75 cents
1300 calories for dinner and $3.25 left for the day, lets see:
2 chicken thighs, (.99 -1.50 a lb) 828 calories (approx 4 oz, so 1/4 of a lb) cost .75 - $1
a entire can of green beans 70 calories .50 to $1 depending on where you shop
an entire box of macaroni and cheese 1200 calories, $1 cost if that, plus cost of 1/4 cup of milk .06 and 2 tbs of butter .07
So total calories 2770 calories for well under $4.50 in fact dinner could skip the chicken all together and still get to the 2000 calorie goal.
The very idea you can’t live on 4.50 a day for food is NONSENSE... Even if you do prepared foods, I can easily get to 2000 calories a day without going over the limit.
Banquet meals 400-700 calories each sell for $1 -$1.50 each
Yes, you wont live like a king, but you can live on 4.50 a day.
Its ludicrous, I feed 4 people on far less than $18 a day.. I’ve never spent $800 a month on groceries in my life.. the idea you can’t do it on 4.50 a day is nonsense. You can definitely feed yourself more than enough.
If food stamps pay too little how come so many damned folks on it are obese?
We are the only country in the history of the world, where being poor makes you more likely to be fat.
I know exactly what you mean. Times when I couldn’t even afford hamburger, or those cheap leg quarters of chicken, people on assistance had steaks, seafood, and all kinds of convenience foods along with all the unhealthy treats they could pile in the basket.
Yeh, I have seen that. I’d rather eat beans that I paid for with my own money, but I guess I’m just crazy.
I lived without airconditioning in the deep south for several years. Trust me, I can relate.
And, I worked my way through college as a cashier at a grocery store. I've seen firsthand what people spend their EBT money on. A canned vegetable would have been an improvement!!!
Only once in 3 years there did I see an EBT user buying healthy food. Once. Her kids were well-behaved, she was so skinny she looked starved, and she seemed humiliated at having to use the card. I still pray for her sometimes, I hope she made it out of that program somehow.
PS: I find it interesting how evenly this thread seems divided between “I’d half-starve on that amount” and “That’s more than I spend now.”
LOL. In the good ole days when I was first married we lived in a trailer, and we had no air conditioning nor did we have a fan. Spent a lot of time in the back yard under a shade tree, with a wet towel around my neck.
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