[nomorelurker]

Back in the days before things like the Lone Star Card (essentially a food stamp debit card) when USDA physically gave out actual food I always knew someone receiving the stuff. So I got lots of 5lb bags of flour and cornbread. Sometimes I got the instant potatoes. They always seemed to use the canned ham and big block of cheese.

[wbill]

Mom used to work for the state program that handed out the Food. Occasionally, we'd get the 5lb blocks of cheese that had been turned down by the the folks on welfare - the box might be a little squished on one end or something, but otherwise the cheese was fine.

Mom used to say (and still does) "No one pickier than people on welfare." It was fine with us, we were getting by on Mom's $3.78/hr while Dad went back to school.

I miss the cheese occasionally; it was really good. Had the texture of Velveeta and flavor of cheddar.

PS and BTW...This was 20-odd years ago, but at the time Mom was pulling $3.78 an hour, she sat down and figured out that if she quit work and worked the system, she'd close to double her "salary". She didn't, but the lesson was not lost on me. Something's broke when the people picking up the welfare food are better off than the people distributing it.