If you read the article further, they talk about some unfortunate 21-yr old single mom who steals food from the supermarket. Further in the article we get this gem: “…gave up on local food banks because of the lines.” Here’s the part that gets me…she has no job, so it’s not like standing on line cuts into her busy schedule. What it does mean is that this person would rather steal than stand in line for free guilt-free food. Has no way to feed herself but can’t be bothered to stand in line when the food is offered free. :::SMH:::
Out of curiosity, I checked what a single person would get on food stamps (although they don’t call them that anymore). Assuming minimum wage, and if I did the math right, I’d get about $134 a month. Wanna hear the interesting thing? My current budget for groceries is less than that. I can, authoritatively, tell you that one person can exist quite satisfactorily on $134 in groceries per month. And not be a scarecrow. Heck, man…this is a country where you can go into most supermarkets and buy a completely cooked ready-to-eat chicken for $5-8 that will last you two days. And that doesn’t include whatever you scrounge with a little $20 lawnmowing gig, a $15 snow shoveling job, or just helping someone carry a sofa up three flights of stairs.
Heck, minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Discounting taxes (because, really, if all you earn is minimum wage you aren’t paying any federal taxes), all you have to do is work one hour a day to eat better than pretty much anywhere outside the developed world. Get together with another down-on-their-luck buddy, pool your $14.50, and you can both eat fairly well that day. But even on $7.25 a day, you’re not going to starve. At all. (Although it does require a bit of discipline and intelligence in that you need to know how to do basic cooking.)
I used to have a buddy who lived on a VA disability. He was always running out of money at the end of the month. His choice of food? He’d head to the supermarket and buy a meatloaf-and-mashed-potatoes dinner that was basically heat-and-eat. And for the price he paid for it he could have bought a sack of potatoes and enough ground beef to last him 3x longer than that one meal would. But, he didn’t think that way, and he claimed he didnt know how to cook. And as a result he was always behind the curve, borrowing money at the end of the month. When resources are scarce, and your back is at the wall, you have to think and make careful decisions…not do whats easy.
This isn’t to say that hand-to-mouth living on food stamps is going to be a walk in the park. Nope, nope, nope…my point here is that the goal is to not be dependent on .gov to feed you in the first place. This is why, when you have an extra $20 in your pocket, you pick up a 25# bag of rice, a flat of canned vegetables, a box of oatmeal, an assortment of spices, or whatever else will store nicely in your kitchen cabinets for a couple years.
And this isn’t some class-warfare you-hate-the-poor attitude I’m evidencing. I don’t hate the poor, and I don’t resent the rich. I could very easily be either one, all depending on my actions. I have food socked away so that if, tomorrow, I had absolutely zero income I could still eat. I could probably go for a month or two with literally no change in my current diet. After that, it’s into the stored food and that would carry me for about a year or more.
I can totally see people hitting a hard stretch and, through no fault of their own, having to lean on some form of public welfare….but stealing food from a supermarket because you’d rather not be inconvenienced by standing in line at a food bank is not the same as ‘stealing to keep from going hungry’.
Yep, now and then I find a youngster that is willing to learn. I put them to work doing some grunt work for me. Then I take them to the grocery store shopping, we cook up a whole chicken, some starch (rice, pasta, potatoes their choice) and some carrots (roasted carrots, YUM, my choice). Then I slice off what they *think* of as ALL the Meat off it. We pack it up for them to eat tomorrow. I boil up the carcass with a dab of vinegar and present them the next day or so a jar of the best chicken stock they’ve ever tasted. Add some starch (rice, pasta, potatoes) to it and a Third Day of good eating is at hand for two people.
All this to SHOW them for the price of a couple of hamburgers and fries THEY can Eat GOOD for THREE Days.
Basic cooking and money management are skills NOT taught by MOST Parents certainly not schools.
Now if I could get them interested in learning about dried beans…. Even show them how to plant and care for them to get MOAR beans. Try that with a frozen pizza.
Dang it.
I wondered why that slice of Supreme never sprouted.
Now you tell me.
LOL 🙂 I am honored you replied Aesop 🙂
Learning to cook from scratch is a skill which should be taught in junior high and high school. Home economics courses taught back in the day taught you self reliance where you could make your food yourself. Instead, we get Door Dash instructions. Silly shit.
Consider who has been running/ruining our schools for the last few decades. The lack of such classes fits right in with the overall program. Make them stupid, fearful and dependent.
Shoplifting is notably up- and a lot more brazen – at the Big Box Store I work for. I don’t think they are eating power tools, their favorite target.
The ability to wear a mask without sticking out like a sore thumb probably has more to do with it than economic hardship, as a lot of these guys are repeat offenders who we know by name (!) in some cases…Just opportunists.
I dont mind a bit helping folks out when they need it but that gal can starve for all i care.
These kind of people are what you get when Evolution isnt allowed to take its course.
I totally agree and wouldn’t dream of not cooking down a chicken carcass, but the younger generations have been taught to go to fast food places and to generally feel entitled. Cooking is just one of the skills that isn’t being passed down.
As you, I sometimes calculate the cost of a meal made from little more than what some would throw away. Fried rice is one of my favorites.
In the nanny states minimum wage is $11.40 – $15.00 per hour. Admittedly, cost of living, such as rent is higher….
My daughter had a traumatic brain injury. She is severely disabled. Working with the state MHMR we finally got her benefits. She lives in special assisted housing and gets 800.00 in SSDI. Her housing cost 400, her medical cost her 298. Her medications cost her 39.00. So food stamps started out at 154.00. For some reason they dropped it to 15.00 a month. We appealed and they said sorry we messed up. She now gets 42.00/month. Meanwhile, I stand at the grocery store in line as non English speaking obese mother with 6 in tow spends 600.00, including TEN gallons of milk. I ask the cashier whats up and she said they sell it to neighbors. Free food going to a tiendia for other illegals. I was going to my car and noted she finished loading up. She was driving a new 4 door 4WD Ford truck. Big tires and rims, chrome grill guards and other bling. Thanks fed and state gov.
I work in the grocery industry (have a store in your town on Reserve) and I just have
some insight on this whole thing.
On Food Stamps (EBT) they cannot purchase any items that are ‘prepared’. That basically means hot so one couldn’t buy the hot chicken in the deli display case (They could buy the cold one in the cooler that was probably cooked yesterday.)
Food Stamps also allows the individual to buy product who’s label reads “nutritional” but not allow “supplemental”. So you can buy some energy drinks, crab legs, T-Bones, soda, chips, candy etc.
We work with a local food bank and give them tons of of stuff monthly. Their program director told me flat out that the people getting stuff don’t want bags of flour, sugar, etc because most people don’t know “how to cook” and are to lazy.
I also see the blatant abuse of the system daily and we have no way system to report fraud/abuse and have not been encouraged to do so by the state.
I’ve seen food stamp balances as high at $10,000 and have a receipt if you’d like to see it currently with a balance of $3056.18 after their purchase.
The system is broken and “they” (local government) has no intention to stop it because they get more federal dollars for every one on the program.
UPS is hiring right now. $21/hour starting – no experience required. They also pay mileage & cell phone service.
*crickets*
On $7/day, even in Califrutopia, I could buy enough canned food at the 99¢ Store that I’d gain 50 pounds in a year, eating nothing but.
Ask me how I know.
When I was young and unemployed, my ex and I would buy a can of Chunky soup make a pot of rice. We have a large helping of the rice, flavored with the soup.and have enough for a snack.
When the kids came along, we’d buy a bushel of apples. She would several pies at the same time, then do the same with apple crisps and freeze them.
Kids aren’t willing to eat the same meal more than once a week. I taught the kids to eat what was put in front of them, well, most of the time.
Back in the 90’s I was a “financial assistance social worker”, i.e., a food stamp worker. Back then it was 129.00/month for a qualifying 1 person household, I think it was 234.00 for a two-person household. If the person worked at all though, there was a pretty decent cut in the amount received.
That was largely the effect of the Omnibus Reconcilliation Act of 1986 (anyone else remember that piece of Ronald Reagan legislation?) which put some decent restraints on the wholesale give-aways. All the better if there happened to be a SW like me around(I was know as the anti-social worker at my dept). I actually checked eligibilty (notice, eligibilty, not entitlement. Entitlement was a different program: TANF) rather than just handing the stamps out to all comers. I also did fraud investigations- not that it EVER did any good. DA’s refused to prosecute, even when the rare judge wanted them to. All trying to enforce the regs ever got me was stabbed and bitten by an “client” during a fraud investigation. To make matter worse, the State (not GA, but it would probably happen here too) refused to prosecute because of the possibility of bad press, and sealed the records to prevent me from doing so effectively.
So this is my, completely jaded, opinion from 16 years in the trenches. ALL social welfare is a blight on society- charity should be in the hands of churches and common folk and should not be the purview of government. (The general welfare clause of the Constitution has been perverted beyond belief.) Welfare simply doesn’t work well enough to solve any problems. It just creates more of them.
I’ve often said that the most important course any college student can take is the one called “moving off campus”. That’s when the real world can smack them upside the head like a cast iron skillet. It’s not the first trip to Safeway that does it; there’s too much novelty and wonder about “being a grown up now”. It’s the second or third trip, when there’s $32.75 left in the jeans pocket, and that has to last till the end of the month. And “my G-d, even toilet paper costs money!”
Yeah, we ate a lot of TopRamen (with an egg in it for protein), Pnut butter, and some exceedingly cheap cuts of meat. But the education is invaluable. I’ve slept under bridges before, and I can do it again if necessary, but I don’t have to live on cat food.
When my third — and final — wife and I started dating 17 years ago, she couldn’t cook work a lick. She was a single mom, worked full time and had a 7-year-old ADHD son who could be a handful. Her mom hadn’t taught her to cook, and when she got home and had to deal with her son, all she had energy for was prepared “box” meals. As soon as they started eating more often at my place, I started teaching. That was 17 years now and we’ve now been married for 7. She has become a good cook and now actually enjoys opening the refrigerator and being creative with leftovers. One of her favorites, fried rice, costs almost nothing.
Speaking of leftovers, we don’t throw food away, we turn it into “TV dinners,” label them, and stick them in the freezer. Before COVID, when I drove to an office to work, I took those frozen dinners, ate better than my co-workers, and saved at least $10-$12 bucks a day doing that. My wife does the same and is constantly having co-workers ask, “What are you heating up, it smells wonderful!”
I’m part of a group at work who are allowed to use paid time to help at a Dare to Care food distribution once a month in downtown Louisville. There are usually 12-15 of us working the project. I do see a few folks drive up in fine vehicles to get their free food, which is totally separate from the food stamp program. But I also see plenty of folks well over 60 years old who arrive pushing a shopping cart of some kind and clearly in need. Those folks don’t turn their noses up at basic food like bags of potatoes, onions, cabbage, canned veggies, rice, and some frozen meat. They often look me in the eye and say, “God bless you.” Yes, there is abuse, but there are also people very much in need, very appreciative, and who know how to actually cook. I try not to judge, I just do what I can to help.
Really, $134.00 a month, that’s insane. I go to the supermarket and p/u basics for more than a hundred a week. Milk is $11.00 a gallon, local bread is $8.00 a loaf. Sandwich meat is $7.00 for ten slices….. really $134.00 a month. I’m living in hell.
Where in the world do you live? Milk here is less than $3 per gallon for whole milk, bread starts a buck or so a loaf etc.
We’re in the $600-800 per month for 3 people and 2 big dogs. This doesn’t include when we’re significantly adding to the stocks.
Steelheart
Hawaii
Yep, socialist state of Aloha!
Socialism has less to do with it than simple logistics. When EVERYTHING has to be shipped in from 3000+ miles away, the shipping costs get passed along rather harshly. Hawaii’s a great place to live, other than the fact that in any serious crisis, 80% of the population would starve to death in a matter of months, because the carrying capacity of the islands wouldn’t feed that many people until they plowed all the pineapple and macadamia nut trees under, and starting growing truck crops, chickens, and pigs, and fishing like madmen.
That’s why Spam is a trading commodity in most of the Pacific.
But seeing a lot of haole retirees scrambling and working in the fields for their supper would warm the hearts of quite a few bruddahs there.
Find a military retiree/service person who will let you shop at the base commissary,mainland prices,good selection.
Oh let me add, ready to eat, 10 small chicken wings are now, $13.00 a pack.
Any chance we could see a menu plan for what a week out of food storage and the freezer would look like?