Posted on 11/10/2013 4:30:29 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
McAllen, Tex. — They were already running late for a doctor’s appointment, but first the Salas family hurried into their kitchen for another breakfast paid for by the federal government. The 4-year-old grabbed a bag of cheddar-flavored potato chips and a granola bar. The 9-year-old filled a bowl with sugary cereal and then gulped down chocolate milk. Their mother, Blanca, arrived at the refrigerator and reached into the drawer where she stored the insulin needed to treat her diabetes. She filled a needle with fluid and injected it into her stomach with a practiced jab.
“Let’s go,” she told the children, rushing them out of the kitchen and into the car. “We can stop for snacks on our way home.”
The family checkup had been scheduled at the insistence of a school nurse, who wanted the Salas family to address two concerns: They were suffering from both a shortage of nutritious food and a diet of excess — paradoxical problems that have become increasingly interconnected in the United States, and especially in South Texas.
For almost a decade, Blanca had supported her five children by stretching $430 in monthly food stamp benefits, adding lard to thicken her refried beans and buying instant soup by the case at a nearby dollar store. She shopped for “quantity over quality,” she said, aiming to fill a grocery cart for $100 or less.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
One of the reasons the FIRST thing the feds did when they got hold of the education system back in the late 70’s was eliminate all those ‘sexist, oppressive, patriarchal’ home economics programs.
My daughter lived in Nicaragua for 3 months with a POOR family. Real poverty, not like the [voluntary] ersatz poverty the NYT is so enamored with.
She ate rice, beans and plantains 3 times a day the entire time. She worked every day and came back to the US looking just fine. No Captain Crunch cavities in her teeth.
In 1975 I was single, in my last year of college, working full time. My weekly food budget, which I followed was $20. That $20 included all my non food consumables such as TP, foil, plastic wrap for my lunches, bath soap, laundry soap. I ate 3 meals a day, not junk food. A LOT of milk, tuna, eggs, pasta, beans and hamburger. I did not drink sodas, I made weeks worth of tea for the cost of a few sodas.
I don’t know what I could do it on now, but certainly I could do a lot better than these morons. Food stamps entitle one to *supplemental nutrition*, nothing more.
The big selling point of the cash assistance idea which came from the Great Society, was that poor people would learn to handle money responsibly if we just gave them some; it would enhance their self esteem. Can we finally acknowledge that notion was completely erroneous?
The case workers are multigenerational as well. For every $1 in taxpayer money a moocher gets, another $1 goes to a government clock puncher somewhere. While the moochers take all the resentment, half the beneficiaries of the welfare state get a pass.
The most awful part of this is that this woman probably genuinely feels entitled to these benefits and has no gratitude to those paying for them or any sense of using them responsibly.
Fair enough. If they must experiment, run the experiments on the takers, not the makers.
In addition, if recipients are on the dole for a certain time period let's suspend the right to vote and drug test them.
There should be a cost to consume the wealth of others. Best if that cost teaches responsibility.
As I’m reading this I’m getting ready to make chicken tortilla soup. We will eat it tonight for dinner and tomorrow for lunch. I picked up organic boneless, skinless chicken thighs on manager’s special. I purchase organic carrots and celery when they go on sale, then chop and freeze them. The tortillas are homemade 100% whole wheat (my kids love tortilla making day!) and the broth is homemade from veggie scraps from other food prep that I store in a freezer bag until needed. All the other ingredients (except chili powder and cumin) are from my garden. I figure two meals for each of the four of us will cost about six dollars total. Even if all the ingredients had to be purchased, this could be made for the same price using generic and store brand items.
It's not rocket science. It's a complete lack of desire to learn. Narcissism plays a big role also. Women (or men, I suppose) who clearly get no sense of satisfaction of doing for others. Sheer laziness.
I know some women who hold down full time jobs and still manage, together with their husbands, to cook real food. it just takes a little forethought and planning.
Being poor has nothing to do with it.
If the socialists in both parties restricted EBT benefits to FOOD ONLY, the health issues would cease to exist.
These are all rather pricy items that are not available in my home normally yet somehow I am suppose to feel sorry for this lady?
You might notice that the 4 year old grabbed a "bag of cheddar-flavored potato chips" indicating that she does not even buy this stuff in the big bags but in the more expensive snack size.
Whole grain, beans, fish, milk (not chocolate) fruits and veggies. It is actually one of the few govenment programs where the money is spent in a more or less sensible manner.
Food stamp money on the other hand is "buy almost anything you want food wise".
More like two go to the government. Around 25-30 cents of every dollar in welfare money actually goes to the people they are suppose to be "helping".
As i’m sure you know, welfare runs in families. One welfare mother will teach her daughter how many children she needs to have to stay on the pubic payroll.
It’s going to take a huge undertaking to break the cycle go generations of welfare users. I don’t think it will happen in my lifetime.
Bottom line: Having kids is not about sex or keeping legs crossed, it’s about breaking the cycle of one welfare mom teaching the system to her daughters.
Well, political resistance aside, it's easy, lets call it "Immigration/Welfare Reform".
Close the borders, ruthlessly deport all illegal foreigners, and let the capable parasites "do the jobs that other Americans won't do"...like pick lettuce.
No work; no eat, Section 8, car, etc.
Or close the DHHS/DHA and let it revert to the local governments. They can live at the "Town Farm" and grow their own food....just the way it used to be.
Agreed. That is something we'll have to do eventually. I don't welcome it, but I don't much like doing vehicle repairs, either. Some jobs just have to be done.
Agree if Chewbacca and Bloomberg care about weight then start with those on handouts like Food stamps.
They should only be allowed to get fruit and veggies, no more chips, soda’s,junk food etc .
What no, , yea silly me , they would lose their voting bloc.
There's some former military barracks in my town that were converted into Section 8 housing many decades ago. Cruise through there and you'll see a satellite dish on almost every roof.
Poor indeed.
We need to do something, there are few physicians in this country who understand as much about proper nutrition as my parents did and they never saw a college. My mother did graduate from high school back when it ended with the eleventh year, my father only finished the eighth grade.
“Why aren’t the evil productive not produces more the unproductive?”
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