Replies

I understand your concept of ready-to-eat, and I get that restriction is so someone doesn’t go in a restaurant to order a luxury meal and pay by EBT.

I think what really got my goat about it was the concept that, if you get an EBT card, you can use it to buy lobster!

I mean, heck...when you or I have tight money situations, what do we do? We don’t go on vacation. We don’t buy the new TV. We stop subscriptions. We eat hamburger instead of sirloin steak..you know what I mean. We would progressively cut back to the point we can pay the mortgage or rent, pay the heating and water, buy enough food to get by, and pay taxes as needed so our house doesn’t get repossessed.

It is astonishing to me that you can use an EBT card to buy lobster, cooked or uncooked! Darn, I know I am old school on this, but I would think it would be able to cover basic things, not what I see as luxury things.

I agree with you. Years ago, when food stamps were cut, I tried a food stamp challenge and learned A LOT about saving money on food. Of course, buying lobster and steak means there is something very wrong with how those FS are being used, and why the person can afford things I can't. That's why I say any abuse means the person NEVER gets food stamps again.

I'm not a fan of food pantries. I'm with you....an inexpensive meal for the truly needy is a better option. If a person gets food stamps and can't feed themselves on that amount, what they need is education on budgeting for food.

What really irritates me is the free program in schools, for breakfast and lunch in many places. If the family needs food, they get food stamps. Why the heck do their children also get free meals? One can't help but hypothesize those families might have money to spend on things like steak and lobster we can't afford. Why the heck if a child can't afford school meals isn't the family given assistance in getting their stamps? It would eliminate the abuse, and probably improve school meals if people had to pay for them.