My post will be ignored while people continue to demonize low-income families
without citing any sources (or, if they do, only sources from neoliberal hellholes like the US Chamber of Commerce and the Heritage Foundation) and instead relying on personal anecdotes and unfounded "beliefs."
This is not a new practice (see, et al., Reagan, Ronald W.). I at least hope that citizens concerned with SNAP and other welfare programs will begin to look at the real, underlying causes of poverty and homelessness and attempt to fix those as a way of decreasing welfare usage. It would solve both problems.
Anyway, I'll leave with
this account of someone who actually knows what it's like to live on food stamps:
Quote:
I am a Mississippi resident who receives food stamps, roughly $367 per month (less than $100 per week) for myself and my 4 year old daughter. I can live off food stamps for a week easily enough — it’s making them last through the rest of the month that’s difficult. It’s almost impossible to buy healthy foods — fresh vegetables and fresh fruit — on a food stamps budget. I try to do it, but eventually I end up getting canned vegetables that aren’t as good for us anyway. Canned peas aren’t as healthy as fresh spinach or kale. Meats like beef and chicken are hard to come by. If I buy a lot of meats or fresh foods, I usually run out of stamps about 2.5 - 3 weeks in. It’s why Mississippi, one of the poorest states in the nation, is also one of the most obese. People here cannot afford to buy and eat healthy food, especially people dependent on food stamps. Ending obesity needs to start with ending hunger and poverty. It sounds ironic, but it’s true.
The stigma attached to receiving food stamps in the ultra-conservative south is awful. People think the only people who get food stamps are lazy welfare queens, but that’s simply not true. I have a bachelor’s degree and a law degree, and yet I need food stamps to survive. I’m working a part-time job because I can’t find a good legal job in this economy and cannot afford to relocate right now. The University of Mississippi recently started a Food Bank for students who are going hungry but are ineligible for food stamps. These are college students working hard to better themselves. I am grateful for the food stamps I receive each month — were it not for them, I wouldn’t have enough money for myself or my daughter to eat after paying the rest of the bills. But it is not easy to stretch my food stamps from month to month and meet all the requirements for continued eligibility. No one stays on food stamps because they like it. They stay on food stamps because they need them to survive. End of story.
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