Why Food Stamps Are NOT A Scam

[iLander]

I'm getting a bit tired of some "news" shows acting like Food Stamps are a quick trip to luxury.

Here's the reality:

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average family of four with tweens spent $1,258 at the grocery store in December 2013.

Food stamp benefit for family of four: $668

source: http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligibility

So, yeah. Actual facts. I guess those "news" programs depend on you never using Google and doing your own research.

 

[movie zombie]

the Food Stamp program is a USDA program and always was. it was meant to get ag products off the shelf so that more products could be put up on those shelves. now it is used by big business/corporations to move their products as well with pizza and catsup being lumped in with veggies.

I'm so tired of the users being blamed for abuses when the real abuse is at the corporate level.

 

[amc80]

As with any benefit, it's not a scam if it is being used correctly by the people who actually need it.

Also, $668 for a family of 4 comes out to $501 for a family of 3, which is what we are. B is a toddler but DH eats enough for two normal people. No way we spend $500 on groceries a month, more like $300.

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,

I think MZ is right in saying that the program was used for mainly dairy products and excess inventory that the Govt' accumulated from the farmers programs, subsidies. As usual, the program was never initiated to give 100 % food coverage. It was and is supposed to be supplemental.

I am really horrified when I look at what grocery prices are today. And I can afford to buy food. There have been times in my life when cash was short and I have used food pantries, where cheese and butter, bread etc. were given out, spagetti, tomato sauce
and pizza, chicken wings, donated by corporations that dont 'want there excess food thrown in the garbage. I can't tell you how much it helped.

Now, I give back by buying a case of tuna every month and some tomato sauce.

However Food Stamps are supplemental. not meant to cover all costs. There are always going to be people who need help. And we want to be able to help. I Lander, neither extreme postion is correct to me. They can go to food pantries. These have been in existence for many yrs and provide good services. Churches should do more. They don't.


Annette

 

[Karl_K]

I support the food stamp program, I do not support abuse of the food stamp program.
There needs to be more over site.
If one is truly relying on food stamps for food you have to shop very carefully to make it last a whole month.
That is even more so today as it has not kept up with rising food prices.
It buys 1/2 the food it did just a few years ago.

The move to cards instead of coupons has cut back on some of the abuse a lot.

 

[ericad]

As with any benefit, it's not a scam if it is being used correctly by the people who actually need it.

Also, $668 for a family of 4 comes out to $501 for a family of 3, which is what we are. B is a toddler but DH eats enough for two normal people. No way we spend $500 on groceries a month, more like $300.

Really? Wow, we easily spend $1000/month for our family of 3, which includes non-food items (toiletries, etc.) and pet food, so deducting that, I imagine we're still at $800+. But we don't buy any processed foods whatsoever, and rarely eat out - we buy lots of fresh produce and we mostly eat organic. But this doesn't include meat, eggs OR milk, since our meat and raw milk comes from local farms and our eggs come from our own chickens, which isn't included in what we spend at the store.

So I would think that a family of 3 would easily spend $600+ per month on basic food (assuming non-organic). $300/month for 3 people comes to $3.33/day per person. How can anyone eat for $3/day?

 

[amc80]

As with any benefit, it's not a scam if it is being used correctly by the people who actually need it.

Also, $668 for a family of 4 comes out to $501 for a family of 3, which is what we are. B is a toddler but DH eats enough for two normal people. No way we spend $500 on groceries a month, more like $300.

Really? Wow, we easily spend $1000/month for our family of 3, which includes non-food items (toiletries, etc.) and pet food, so deducting that, I imagine we're still at $800+. But we don't buy any processed foods whatsoever - fresh produce, and we mostly eat organic. But this doesn't include meat, eggs OR milk, since our meat and raw milk comes from local farms and our eggs come from our own chickens, which isn't included in what we spend at the store.

So I would think that a family of 3 would easily spend $600+ per month on basic food. $300/month for 3 people comes to $3.33/day per person. How can anyone eat for $3/day?

I'm not sure, but we definitely don't spend that much. We used to when we ate out a lot, but that's almost impossible with the kiddo. I know when I do a major shopping trip it comes to around $150, but I only do that every 3-4 weeks. My "weekly" (not weekly, more like every 1.5-2 weeks) trip to the store is under $100. We do supplement that with trips to Costco (for things like milk and produce) but the food portion of those trips isn't that much. So maybe it is more like $400 a month/$100 a week.

I usually cook large portions for dinner and we will be able to eat the leftovers for lunch and dinner for a few days. So really I'm only making 2-3 meals per week. DH eats a PB&J every day for lunch. We also eat breakfast for dinner once a week, which ends up being a really inexpensive meal. We just bought a deep freezer so I'm excited to be able to buy in bulk when there's a good deal.

 

[msop04]

As with any benefit, it's not a scam if it is being used correctly by the people who actually need it.

Also, $668 for a family of 4 comes out to $501 for a family of 3, which is what we are. B is a toddler but DH eats enough for two normal people. No way we spend $500 on groceries a month, more like $300.

I'm with amc... that $1200+ figure has to be grossly inflated. DH and I cook all the time and buy lots of more expensive proteins each month, and we spend less than $400 (and that's including household cleaning items and toiletries).
I wouldn't be so pissy about food stamps/cards if the welfare participant was not allowed to get cash money with them. Now that's a scam all day long, and terribly abused.

Nothing disgusts me more than when I see a woman in front of me at the check-out with 2-3 carts overflowing with ribeyes, countless racks of ribs, tub after tub of potato salad, chips, and enough beer to kill several grown people, talking about how she is "throwing a block-party-BBQ" -- as she swipes her welfare card for a whopping $700+... to feed the d*mn neighborhood with money taxpayers actually earned.

Oh, the beer won't go on the card, but no problem... she just gets cash back and pays for it. Nice.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

Another person here for it's not the food stamps it's the abuse. Why can you use food stamp money to buy loads of absolute crap food like Capri sun "juice" and lunchables? It should be for "ingredient" foods only, not crap. Not to mention the people who trade it for cash/drugs.

 

[ForteKitty]

Our family of 2 spend about $200 a week on groceries. That doesn't including eating out on weekends, and lunch during the week.

 

[amc80]

Another person here for it's not the food stamps it's the abuse. Why can you use food stamp money to buy loads of absolute crap food like Capri sun "juice" and lunchables? It should be for "ingredient" foods only, not crap. Not to mention the people who trade it for cash/drugs.

Right. People selling them on craigslist at a discount. Here in NV there have been withdrawals made at casino ATMs.

 

[ringbling17]

Here's an interesting article in the Times that shows weekly food expenditure for different families in 28 different parts of the world.
It's interesting to see that the many of those families with the lowest spending seem to be eating the healthiest, with lots of vegetables and grains in their diet.

Edited bc the link didn't work- I hope this one does-

http://www.boredpanda.com/hungry-planet-what-the-world-eats/

 

[tyty333]

I have to agree with Karl...I support the program but not the abuse.
I have seen several cases of abuse in the last couple of years. Really
makes me sick for the people who do need it.

Plus in our community kids get free/reduced price lunches and
free breakfast on school days. That means on school days the
household only has to provide a dinner. How does that affect how
Much they get for food stamps? Our Jr. League also sends home
backpacks of snacks on the weekends (from school) so that the
kids should have healthy in- between meal snacks. That's a lot of
food that the family does not have to buy out of their stamps.

And, I'm not sure if comparing a food budget in December is
apples to apples with the food stamp comparison? My food
budget always goes up in December due to the holidays.

I remember a few years back another mother with 3 elementary
schoolage children got around $770 a month in food benefits.
I had a family of 5 that included a teenager and I think I probably
spent maybe a $100 more...plus my kids didn't get the free/reduced
Lunches so that seemed like more than enough to feed a young
Family of 5 in my area.

I really wish they could cut down on the abuse. I feel like its
rampant.

 

[Dancing Fire]

As with any benefit, it's not a scam if it is being used correctly by the people who actually need it.

Also, $668 for a family of 4 comes out to $501 for a family of 3, which is what we are. B is a toddler but DH eats enough for two normal people. No way we spend $500 on groceries a month, more like $300.

Nothing disgusts me more than when I see a woman in front of me at the check-out with 2-3 carts overflowing with ribeyes, countless racks of ribs, tub after tub of potato salad, chips, and enough beer to kill several grown people, talking about how she is "throwing a block-party-BBQ" -- as she swipes her welfare card for a whopping $700+... to feed the d*mn neighborhood with money taxpayers actually earned.

Oh, the beer won't go on the card, but no problem... she just gets cash back and pays for it. Nice.

Yep,...

 

[AGBF]

Brava, iLander!!!

A link and a blurb from "The New York Times"...http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/opinion/the-plot-to-cut-food-stamps-foiled.html?action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry468%23%2Ffood+stamps&_r=0

Excerpt from the editorial:

"This provoked an outburst from the House speaker, John Boehner. 'Since the passage of the farm bill, states have found ways to cheat once again on signing up people for food stamps,' he said last week. 'And so I would hope that the House would act to try to stop this cheating and this fraud from continuing.'

Cheating? The states are doing exactly what the farm bill — which Mr. Boehner supported — encouraged them to do: pay more to some of the poorest families in America so they neither freeze nor starve during a brutal winter. Mr. Boehner seems unaware of it, but millions of families have never recovered from the recession, and his chamber has not only refused to help them by stimulating the economy but is trying to push them through the safety net.

In a letter to Mr. Boehner, Gov. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut said it was 'shameful' to describe the states’ efforts as cheating. 'Your demonization of states that have elected to provide this benefit impugns the children, the elderly, the disabled, the low-wage workers and veterans who receive such aid by implying that they are a party to something criminal,' he wrote. 'To the contrary, I think most would argue that denying residents of my state $112 a month in nutrition assistance is morally wrong.'

If Mr. Boehner really wants to crack down on cheating, he might look to the carried-interest tax loophole, which allows hedge fund managers to mischaracterize their income as capital gains and costs the Treasury $11 billion a year — far more than extra dollars for food stamps. In his world, fraud occurs only when the government helps those who need it the most."

Deb/AGBF

 

[momhappy]

Agreed - it is the abuse of the system that aggravates most people and not the actual system itself. The system is flawed and unfortunately, that reflects poorly on all of the program participants (and not just the ones taking advantage of it).

 

[TooPatient]

As with any benefit, it's not a scam if it is being used correctly by the people who actually need it.

Also, $668 for a family of 4 comes out to $501 for a family of 3, which is what we are. B is a toddler but DH eats enough for two normal people. No way we spend $500 on groceries a month, more like $300.

This.

One of my cousins gets food stamps and all sorts of other "assistance" -- I put that in quotes because she had to quit her job because she got a raise and lost the "assistance" so actually had less to live on each month than she did when not working.

I've watched her get free food from family and the church then turn around and use her food stamps to buy junk food for her and her friends.... oh... and sell them to buy alcohol/cigarettes/etc.

My (former) boss has a daughter getting food stamps. She lived with him so he bought all the groceries. She sold her food stamps for cash to buy drugs.... except those that she just did a straight across trade


The examples of misuse go on and on. I don't know how to make it all better, but there needs to be changes put in place so people get the help they need at the same time as others can't hurt themselves (like buying drugs).

 

[Dancing Fire]

I posted this story on PS a few years ago...

I was in line at an Asian market waiting to pay for my stuff. This guy walks up to the cashier and asked "do you take food stamp for live lobsters .. " LOBSTERS??? Wednesday, Thurs, Friday... you are on food stamps and having lobsters for dinner on taxpayer's money?... This kind of BS happens all the time at Asian grocery stores. I saw this lady buy (5) $100 can of abalone like it was Campbell soup.. I even heard her saying ...I will receive more food stamps in the mail tomorrow.

 

[iLander]

Food stamp abuse is an issue, just like it is an issue in all systems where money exists. There is abuse in the Pentagon, the banking industry, corporate subsidies, etc. But the good people that actually need the assistance will suffer the most if their help is taken away; veterans, elderly, families with children, single parents, etc. I don't think we can throw the baby out with the bath water.

But I think this is the most alarming fact about food stamps: is points out a systemic weakness in our economy. Read this carefully:

Let's start with Adam Hudson, age 21. Last summer he got a job at a Walmart Supercenter in Dayton, Ohio, as a hardware associate—stocking shelves, organizing displays, and helping customers—making $8.25 an hour.

Until then, he had a pretty low opinion of the food stamp program. “I'd always considered people who use food stamps as just taking advantage of the government,” Hudson says, because they “weren't working hard enough to be able to afford for themselves.”

One day after he returned home from work, he was talking with his fiancée, who was pregnant. “She had mentioned that she was hungry—hadn't been able to eat that day,” he told me. “I kept trying to suggest things we could do, like calling my mom or my dad for a little bit of help. … It dawned on us that we can't afford to feed ourselves and make sure all of our bills are paid and have a car with gas to get to work every day.” A few weeks after Walmart hired him, Hudson enrolled in the food stamp program.

Compare Hudson’s situation to that of his father, Jim Hudson, who has never been on food stamps in his life. Back when Hudson was a young man, his life was in many ways very similar to his son’s: He was starting a family and looking for a job he could get with no college degree. The plentiful work was not in retail, but manufacturing. Hudson got hired at what was, back then, the largest employer in Ohio and the country: not Walmart, but General Motors.

Hudson says his starting wage in 1991 at a GM factory near Dayton, building TrailBlazers, was $9.35 an hour, which in inflation-adjusted 2014 dollars comes out to $16.12 per hour—almost twice what his son makes now. Adam Hudson says he would love a job at the GM plant where his dad worked. It shut down in 2008.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/04/walmart_employees_on_food_stamps_their_wages_aren_t_enough_to_get_by.html

 

[iLander]

And if you want to get mad about food stamp abuse, how about Corporate Food Stamp Abuse?

Where your tax dollars are going right into a corporation's bag of profits?

On Walmart:
That means the same company that brings in the most food stamp dollars in revenue—an estimated $13 billion last year—also likely has the most employees using food stamps.

“I think it's troubling that any American has to turn to a program like that, but the fact is, they do,” says David Tovar, Walmart’s vice president of communications. I met him at the company headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., where the wall behind the front desk has giant painted letters that spell out the company motto: “Save money. Live better.”

Wal-Mart Stores 2013 PROFIT $17 billion dollar

$13 billion in your taxpayer food stamp dollars >>>>Walmart>>>>>$17 billion in Walmart profit

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/04/walmart_employees_on_food_stamps_their_wages_aren_t_enough_to_get_by.html

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/

 

[ksinger]

I posted this story on PS a few years ago...

I was in line at an Asian market waiting to pay for my stuff. This guy walks up to the cashier and asked "do you take food stamp for live lobsters .. " LOBSTERS??? Wednesday, Thurs, Friday... you are on food stamps and having lobsters for dinner on taxpayer's money?... This kind of BS happens all the time at Asian grocery stores. I saw this lady buy (5) $100 can of abalone like it was Campbell soup.. I even heard her saying ...I will receive more food stamps in the mail tomorrow.

OMG I'm seriously LMFAO!!

Dude, you walked smack into that one...

John Stewart on Fox News' obsession with poor people and SEAFOOD. Scathing and hilarious.

It's the first part of the "What Not To Buy" clip, the fun part starts at 2:00 minutes, more or less. If you keep watching the next part of the segment will automatically start with:

"So what's the right mixture of quality and class-based shame that poor people should aim for in their meal planning...."

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/elvsf4/what-not-to-buy

 

[Maisie]

We don't have food stamps here but I'm wondering why they aren't made non transferable? Surely it can't be that difficult to make sure only the person to who they were issued can use them?

 

[nkarma]

And if you want to get mad about food stamp abuse, how about Corporate Food Stamp Abuse?

Where your tax dollars are going right into a corporation's bag of profits?

On Walmart:
That means the same company that brings in the most food stamp dollars in revenue—an estimated $13 billion last year—also likely has the most employees using food stamps.

“I think it's troubling that any American has to turn to a program like that, but the fact is, they do,” says David Tovar, Walmart’s vice president of communications. I met him at the company headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., where the wall behind the front desk has giant painted letters that spell out the company motto: “Save money. Live better.”

Wal-Mart Stores 2013 PROFIT $17 billion dollar

$13 billion in your taxpayer food stamp dollars >>>>Walmart>>>>>$17 billion in Walmart profit

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/04/walmart_employees_on_food_stamps_their_wages_aren_t_enough_to_get_by.html

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/

Thank you for posting this. For those who are upset by abuse of government subsidies, you should be really be upset by the government subsidies to Walmart and hundreds of other retailers & food chains. The employees whom they do not pay a living wage rely on the government to provide their employees with food. All the while, these companies are extremely profitable.

Great video by UC Berkeley Center for Global Poverty about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0deJfPUj1f8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[partgypsy]

And this is what is happening in our state. Due to computer problems people who are eligible for the program, are not getting their assitance. The backlog is so bad that the USDA is threatening to cut North Carolina's funding for food stamps (because they have been given the money, but the state is not distributing it). I honestly don't think the governor cares if that happens, but who gets hurt? The poor.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/27/food-stamp-delays-north-carolina_n_4994822.html

 

[AGBF]

If Mr. Boehner really wants to crack down on cheating, he might look to the carried-interest tax loophole, which allows hedge fund managers to mischaracterize their income as capital gains and costs the Treasury $11 billion a year — far more than extra dollars for food stamps. In his world, fraud occurs only when the government helps those who need it the most.

I want to thank ksinger for the information on what John Stewart had posted about food stamps and seafood. I saw several versions of his videotape, each one funnier than the one before. Unfortunately, of course, the humor is a bit dark since it is based on the actual, atavistic notion that people in need of food stamps should be required to eat only meat with gristle and rotting potatoes (or, as Mr. Stewart so aptly put it, canned salmon from the outer burroughs).

I had an epiphany shortly after watching the videos, however. I am happy to say that I believe that I have now solved the problem of how to deal fairly with the issue of subsidies to corporations and open tax loopholes for hedge fund managers versus users of food stamps! It is such a simple idea that it is really amazing that no one thought of it before!

Food stamp users already have "transparency" (such a nice, new term). They have to show coupons that everyone can see and which alerts everyone to scrutinize their grocery carts. I am so glad to know that they buy a lot of potato salad, for example. If it were not for transparency, how would I know that?

I suggest that from now on corporations and hedge fund managers also get paid in grocery store coupons that they must, personally, use in stores. I would like to see how they use their money. After all, what's sauce for the goose, is sauce for gander.

We all believe that programs are fine if they are run fairly, correct? Right now I cannot see the hedge fund managers' money. Or Walmarts'. If they get paid in grocery store coupons, we can all look in their carts. That would make me feel a lot better.

AGBF

 

[Sky56]

From 1979 to the mid-Eighties I was indigent and unhealthy and collected government benefits in the form of monthly SSI payments and food stamps. Complete opposite of my very successful life today.

I am the last person to ever criticize the food stamp program.

I don't like seeing welfare programs being abused and scammed.

 

[AGBF]

I don't like seeing welfare programs being abused and scammed.

I don't like to see the 1% getting wealthier while the elderly poor and children are cold and hungry. I get mad as he** when advocates for the poor have to fall all over themselves apologizing and the wealthy ride high laughing as the peons starve to death. I'm not going to start apologizing for "welfare fraud". I think it as drop in the bucket compared to the billions skimmed off the top every day by the people who run the show. The wealthy should be ashamed at the tricks used on their behalf in Congress.

AGBF

 

[Sky56]

I totally agree with you, AGBF.

 

[Sky56]

Have you seen this documentary? I found it quite enlightening. I walked by that building hundreds of times, I used to live around the corner from it.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/park-avenue-money-power-american-dream/

 

[iLander]

From 1979 to the mid-Eighties I was indigent and unhealthy and collected government benefits in the form of monthly SSI payments and food stamps. Complete opposite of my very successful life today.

I am the last person to ever criticize the food stamp program.

I don't like seeing welfare programs being abused and scammed.

Of course not. No one does.

(Not directed at you, Sky, just the readers in general The point of this thread is that the government gives very little money to food stamp recipients, less than half of what the average family spends in groceries. The vast majority of recipients are honest and not living "high on the hog".

Good for you, Sky, that you attained a very successful life.