Posted on 05/17/2012 8:14:29 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Melissa Booher is scared. For the last five years this mom has been able to put food on the table for her family because of food stamps.
"I honestly don't know what I'd do without them," said Booher.
But she may soon have to figure it out.
In an effort to reduce the deficit and replace what would have been a 10 percent cut to the military budget, the House of Representatives voted last week to cut the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $36 billion.
"That's just going to be catastrophic for working families across all of the 17 counties of North Florida that we serve," said Bruce Ganger.
Ganger is the head of the local food bank Second Harvest North Florida. This year, Congress has already forced him to cut two million pounds of food from their distribution. Now faced with this, he's unsure how he'll continue.
"It's the perfect storm if you will. There's going to be less food in the system to feed them and more demand from people who are going to need the food," he said.
"Without the SNAP benefits and without food pantries supplementing those programs, I know a lot of families would be without. It's not just myself," said Booher.
According to the Department of Children and Families, more than one in four households in Duval County rely on SNAP. Breaking that down further, that's 203,000 local children.
Ganger fears they will be put in jeopardy if these cuts aren't vetoed.
"If they really understood the issue and the impact of this solution, I believe they'd reverse the legislation," Ganger said.
According to Second Harvest, 76 percent of SNAP households include someone disabled, elderly, or a child.
The legislation is currently facing a veto threat from the White House.
Half the world lives on rice and beans. You can live on fifty cents worth of rice and beans a day, and be all the healthier for it.
Five years on food stamps? Did it ever occur to her that she needed to do more to feed her family rather than wait for Big daddy government to take care of her? Like don’t have kids if you can’t feed them....
Food stamps should be temporary, not permanent. And the parasites need to get used to it.
Another line of bullshit from the Rats and their followers to make a Republican House looking bad-—Obama’s minions are on the march until Election Day
More scare tactics by the left. Right out of their play books. Oh, the children will starve! We all know this is so much BS, if they truly need to cut(and they do) there are many places they could cut but won’t because some crony or relative might lose their job and they could use sympathy to try and get support to raise taxes.
“That’s just going to be catastrophic for working families across all of the 17 counties of North Florida that we serve,” said Bruce Ganger.”
Why are working families receiving food stamps in the first place?
Brown Rice and most beans can be purchased for under $1.00/#.
A pound of brown rice has 1600 calories and most beans are 700-900 calories/#. Add some salt and other seasonings along with a bit of meat and veggies, and vitamin tablets; and a person could eat pretty well on $2-3/day. Not saying it would be fun, but it would be healthy.
Bull****! And that's all I've got to say about that.
I've been a "working family" my whole life and never got a government handout.
I've been a "working family" my whole life and never got a government handout.
Gotta love those professional journalists and their advanced writing skills.
She wasn’t putting food on the table. Working people whose money was taken at fedgov gunpoint were being forced to put food on the leech’s table. For FIVE YEARS.
Cry me a river, LSM scum...
My aunt and uncle are elderly and disabled. They are eligible for the food bank twice a month and get about $180 in food stamps monthly. I recently found out that their oldest son, who had possession of their ATM card and food stamp card, was cleaning them out monthly. He was “in charge” of taking care of their financial affairs. Bills weren’t getting paid and they got shut off notices for their utilities. Their son was taking my uncle to the food bank, but he got into an argument with them about something and has abandoned them. I’ve been doing what I can to straighten out their affairs. Their food stamp card has been cancelled and reissued. I know their son is ticked off at me for cutting off his gravy train. He also incurred over $2400 in NSF and overdraft fees on their bank account. They had to open a different bank account and have their social security money directed into the new account.
It’s a shame how much fraud and corruption goes on. How much of it is from family members, and how much of it is identity theft or misrepresentation? There are a lot of government hand-outs available, and lots of people actually need them, especially the elderly. But there are still many people who milk the system.
So all the various state and federal unionised government social works agencies can justify their salaries and budgets, due to the ever increasing number of their needy “clients”.
A better question would be - Who is John Gault?
I dont understand this comment, how does congress effect food banks???
I hope things improve for your aunt and uncle, bless them. Here people can do to the food bank any time it’s open with no limit — you might check into that. Exploitation of the elderly by relatives and total strangers is very common, unfortunately.
Here in Hollywood CA there is a large banner about the Hollywood Market festival and in big letters ‘EBT ACCEPTED’..
Now how the heck am I going to feel sympathy when almost every burger joint accepts EBT? Most of the mexicans in front of me in line at the store were swiping their cards like they won the lottery and they dress in Abercrombie attire.
I believe by budgeting funds that end up being disbursed (or not) as grants.
Yeah, that's another California insanity.
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