Thread on Food Stamps Now Most Popular
With the flood of back-and-forth between the two of us and Dean Calbreath, another journalist that doesn't like John Dougall, the debate about the Week on Food Stamps Challenge has reached 18 comments and climbing. He's asserting that it's near impossible to live on food stamps while Shauna and I not-so-gently correct him. I'd invite you all to go chime in and add more of your own thoughts.
Jesse
Shauna
I'm sure that if I were forced to eat any one food (except maybe pizza) without any variety for even an entire week, I'd get sick of it. But is it better than starving? Absolutely. Dean's talking about eating PB&J sandwiches for a year or even two. Are we using the food stamp system as a tool to keep families fed when they have no other options? It is a safety net for people who find themselves down on their luck? Or do we plan to subsidize their food costs for years on end?
I just think it's a shame you can no longer buy liquor and smokes with food stamps. Really, it just completes the picture, doesn't it?
I think what amuses me most about this is that a professional journalist is spending an inordinate amount of time trying to prove me wrong. (He's been posting comments for over a week now.) In the process, I'm shooting down his arguments one by one and he can't seem to recover or rebut what I've said.
I'm going to preemptively declare myself the winner.
Due to recent medical issues, my husband and I both found ourselves off work for an extended period. Since a doctor messed up paperwork we found ourselves without income for 2 months. No income, 3 children to feed, whatever will we do? I applied for and received food stamps for these months. I was AMAZED at almost $700 a month. I NEVER spend that much on groceries and have been able to stock my cabinets and my freezer that will hold my family and I for a couple more months until my husband can return to work after his surgery. I don’t understand what the problem is with living on food stamps. IF you buy real food and not too much processed crap. Fruit roll ups ARE more expensive than the fresh or frozen fruit that is on sale
Can’t believe I’ve never seen this site before. Very interesting reading.
So let me tell you about my two experiences with food stamps. The first was when I was forced to accept them for about 6 months(ex-wife handed me our two small children and I was forced to move far from where I was and had no job after the move)After the 6 months was up I had 2 unopened envelops of stamps(this was obviously back before they used the debit card system) and almost half of another envelop.Upon rearranging my bedroom I found ANOTHER envelop behind my bedside table. And let me tell you my pantry, fridge and freezer were PACKED!!! I buy almost zero “junk food” just because it’s bad for my children and I love them too much to feed them the horrible additives they put in processed foods. I fed them breakfast and supper 5 days a week and they ate lunch at daycare those 5 days. The other 2 days we usually ate all 3 meals. Of course twice a month we ate at a fast food restaurant(this was back in the mid 90’s when kids meals were $1.99). SOOO, I saved 3.5 months worth of food stamps in 6 months and we ate WELL(my mother owned 3 different restaurants when I was younger and I have worked in 2 of them starting when I was 13YO, Not to mention Working in others. Real CHEAP eating is easy.
My other experience was at wally world watched a woman unload a buggy with about 5 inches of steaks lining the bottom. 20 2litre sodas, over a dozen bags of chips, a few boxes of mac and cheese and a couple cans of vegs. Not to mention the bags and boxes of snacks. I’ve never heard a woman complain about not having enough money. It totally blew my mind.
If we want to “help” the people who need it short term, we need to ban the buying of all the junk and high ticket items.A person down on their luck needs help, I really believe that. BUT, They don’t need rib eye steaks and sodas.
Americans are an extremely wasteful bunch of people compared to most countries. If I spend $180.00 a month on food for myself I consider it a bad month.It would be much less but I despise water and drink sweet tea by the gallons.