Posted on 05/20/2024 12:12:27 PM PDT by chickenlips
An alarming study has spotlighted how 42 million food stamp recipients spend their welfare handouts on ultra-processed junk food.
Coca-Cola, Sprite and other soft drinks are the most commonly-bought items via the $135 billion-a-year Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a new study says.
Candy, potato chips, frozen pizza, ice cream, cookies, and other ultra-processed food dominates the top 20 items, says a report from the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC).
Report author Matthew Dickerson says recipients spend 'spend significant portions of their allotments on junk food.'
These 'non-nutritious foods' include 'sugary beverages and ultra-processed foods, which can lead to poor health,' says the 35-page study.
The prevalence of junk food is another reason to trim SNAP, which has ballooned this century and gets recipients hooked on handouts, says Dickerson.
The research comes as Washington lawmakers debate the text of an updated farm bill, with Republicans gunning to cut some $27 billion worth of nutrition program funding over 10 years
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Really what else did anyone expect as most of the recipients are not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Ever visit an inner city, hole-in-the-wall grocery store?
You will see rows of items with dust covering them.
You go in and “buy” items and get cash instead. The owner rings up the sale as groceries with a markup for himself.
No goods change hands.
The gov’t rarely audits these stores to verify.
“. One thing I’ve seen is people using food stamps to buy bottled water, and then empty the bottles onto the street and turn them in for the 10 cent deposit refund. Quite a waste of taxpayer money. “
And people laugh at the economic anomalies created by price controls in the old Soviet Union.
Government hates the Junk-food industry but it’s the government that’s giving them more profits ,LOL
There should be a list of things you can’t buy with food stamps.
Maddening.
Fresh food only should be the standard operating procedure with SNAP.
Democrats are buying votes with junk food addicts.
Provide cooking lessons and safety procedures, but no junk food.
If you give people an easy way out, they’ll take it, every time.
By banning junk food from SNAP benefits, we would be boosting the health of lower income folks, and almost certainly cutting back on costs, including health costs. People could still have burgers and fries, pizza and whatever else they want, they just have to make it themselves.
This would translate into less costs for health care, dentists, etc.
Congress would get rolled by the junk food lobby, though.
They buy bottled water dump the water and sell the bottles for cash ,LOL
*Boxes of beans
Boxes of cheese
Boxes of powdered milk
Every month. Come on down and get your food handed to you.*
Can’t the EBT cards be programed for just these items?
I was reading about the attention span of kiddies in school.
I think the sugar pipeline (soda, candy, cookies) of SNAP needs to be snapped off.
SNAP should probably cover WIC foods and chicken and beef too.
“ Candy, potato chips, frozen pizza, ice cream, cookies, and other ultra-processed food dominates the top 20 items”
It’s the quickest way to colon cancer
If they did, the George Floyd riots would look like nothing.
What was wrong with commodities? What is wrong with limiting allowed foods to essentials for a balanced diet? Why are we being obligated to pay for luxuries and non-essentials?
LOL!!!!
I don’t care if they don’t eat healthy! that’s their problem not mine.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s when my mother and I went shopping; I would see people on food stamps buying things like steaks, crab legs and other expensive items. That used to burn me up. Here my mother was having to spend good money just buying the basics.
I really think they need to go back to commodities. Beans, rice, powdered and canned milk etc.
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