Y’all I’m just trying to feed my child.
WHAT. I couldn't believe when I heard this shit is happening. How the fuck don't we all go fucking crazy and just eat them all ? How are we letting this happen ? How the fuck can Jeff the lizard Bezos be the richest man on the planet and his workers get food stamps paid by THE PEOPLE ?? How ?? I just can't get over this. We really are cattle for slaughter.
We get food stamps in our family, so I was curious who else here got food stamps.
How many are in your family? Do you all get food stamps, or is it one or two people that do? How much do you usually get for food, and how much does a grocery list usually cost for you? Where do you usually go to buy groceries?
My wife and I are both on disability. I have a severe spine injury & diabetes and she has Lupus, POTS & Thyroid disease. After paying our rent (We lost our home and live in a motel) and medicines we have little left over for food. My mouth is also a mess and I need dentures but no way can afford them. 90% of my molars are gone. Its hard to chew food and they hurt most of the time. Life saving insulin is to damn expensive.
I've been looking at the groceries that Gwyneth Paltrow bought for her $29/week food stamp challenge:
https://twitter.com/GwynethPaltrow/status/586168041576116224/photo/1
I wondered what kind of meals you could make from this, and if you could indeed make it last one full week. The tweet mentions that "families" have to live on this, so I am guessing that would mean at least two people. I like the idea of buying all fresh and vegetarian but I'm not all that familiar with things to make from leafy vegetables, and am kinda thrown by the fact that there are eggs and beans, but no other meat, and no dairy. What do you guys think?
EDIT: There have been so many good ideas posted here that I actually think I might try making a menu out of them and see if I can live on the same ingredients in the picture for a week. I would make enough portions for two people as I would be inflicting this upon my spouse as well.
I guess she didn't make it after all:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/17/a-hungry-gwyneth-paltrow-fails-the-food-stamp-challenge-four-days-in/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_2_na
I'd still like to try this sometime, based on the recipes suggested by this community, and see if I could make it longer than Gwyneth with the power of Reddit :)
Normally food stamps is for your immediate household. But with these tough times with covid and such. Of you have a little extra, Share the holiday spirt. Instacart is a great way to order food for anyone in the United States. They always have 1-2 options for ebt. So if a family member or friend is in need and you only have ebt you can definitely help or receive food this way. Some fees may apply.
You can also share a cart with anyone by using group carts and send the link.
The challenge always confused me because it took the amount of benefits given as the literal amount needed in a household budget.
In reality, as it's only a supplemental nutrition program, federal guidelines only expect to cover 30% of the family's actual needs. In this Food Stamp Challenge scenario, a family is expected to budget for a total of $120 for their food needs.
I don't think many recipients really realize this, either, simply because they can't function at the expected level, already, but I spent some time feeling very guilty and like we were constantly overspending on food because I myself didn't have a good understanding of what my reality should be looking like.
It's worth exploring because it's definitely a fact that many households do depend on SNAP benefits as their primary budget for food, so meal plans and shopping ideas that focus on that are still a wonderful resource. I just like for it to be known because it can help shape people's financial goals as they try to improve their situation and it's often overlooked.
Links I looked at:
USDA FAQ about how benefits are calculated.
Wiki page for Food Stamp Challenge that explains the criticism for the numbers it uses.
Washington Post article discussing the challenge and criticism.
So first and foremost I have nothing against people on food stamps. Everybody needs help at times. But there's a reason for this title and I'm pretty sure it kind of fits in this subreddit.
To set the scene, we live in a very rural area so rule that Google misses the mark on our road and we live on a private road. So there is a total of three houses on this road and the only reason a car would drive down the road is if they lived here so we're always a little suspicious about strange cars.
Cast: us: husband and I, elderly neighbor: en, elderly neighbors girlfriend (engf- the start of this post), and cool neighbors: cn
En: asked us that whole he's recovering from surgery in a convalescent home. He asked us to just keep an eye out on his house.
Us and cn: we agreed that we would pay attention who is coming and going and just overall watch out.
Side note En is recovering well. Engf knocked on my door and she was complaining that she has to start cleaning the house. And about every other sentence included but you know I'm on food stamps. So we asked her what she needed
Engf: well they won't send en home unless I clean the house. But you know I am on food stamps.
Us: okay, what does food stamps have to do with you cleaning and have you done any of the cleaning? En has been gone for 2 weeks already.
Engf: well no I can't get the or well I don't want to clean. I just want en to come home
Us: you do understand the reason they are not sending En home is because they want to reduce the infection rate or chances of it.
Engf began hinting that she would want CN or us to do the cleaning. But neither one of us want to go to their house because you would literally need a hazmat suit to go into that house. For example their dogs and cats urinate and defecate on the floor they do not pick it up they pick it up once a week. There is mold and dirty things laying around even on the outside of the house. They have body odor and smell like stake ashtray. Now it has gotten to the point where nobody answers the door anymore because she stated the last time she knocked on our door that:
Engf: you told Ian that you would watch out for things.
Us: yes we said we would watch out we never said we were going to clean your house.
Engf: walked away mad mumbling and just flares at our house when she walks by
TLDR: Engf that saying watching out means cleaning her home
Yes I’m poor, yes I’m borderline homeless and I see posts on this sub 24/7 talking about depression & suiciii. Just do it, food stamps will help about $50-70 a week which is very very useful for poor people, so if this doesn’t seem much to you move on.
Today, I was eating my ramen in the break room. Eating Ramen because:
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hot noodle soup on a cold day makes me happy, especially when I'm having stomach issues.
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it's cheap, and I get paid 17.50 an hour for sales in a specialized field with technical equipment.
She walked in, commented positively on the smell (yeah lady, it's salt and peanut butter, it smells amazing) and then noticed it was Ramen. She then asked if I was "on the Dole again" and remarked that the last time she ate Ramen was in college.
Being "on the Dole" is a reference to being unemployed and on government assistance.
The tone deafness of this, to an employee, as she wears a 300 dollar jacket should be flabbergasting, but at this point I don't expect any semblance of class empathy in America from the upper class towards the proletariat.
I'm supposed to be meeting with my management team in the next few weeks (possibly post holiday) to discuss specializing my skillset and position and a raise. This won't be forgotten.
You know what else I won't forget? The job offers I'll be hunting down to use as leverage.
I like this business and the people I work with, but if they can't pay me a living wage to get me off the "Dole", and they can't see the insensitivity and foolishness of paying a skilled and knowledgeable professional below living wages for the COL in the area, than they can kindly kick rocks.
Had to vent. That's all.
Edit: I am not currently on SNAP, but could probably qualify. If I was, she wouldn't know. If she can put 2 and 2 together and realize that they aren't paying shit (at least to my position) that makes it worse. Even if it was just a tone deaf joke in poor taste, shit still grinds my gears.
So a little back story I used to work at a local convince store, this store was a nation wide chain with 1000+ stores, the owners were horrible. I was contracted for 8 hours a week as a 18 year old in my last year of college and they made me work 40-50 hours a week while I was studying A Levels, they threatened to fire me and not to pay me if I didn’t comply and losing my job was not an option. Anyway, I was working a late one day and it got to about 10:45pm, we close at 11, and in waltzed EM and her adorable toddler who wouldn’t have been more than 3. She walked around the shop and collected her things, bottle of wine, couple of beers and a frozen pizza. This child was complaining about how tired he was all the way round the store, it is a small shop I could hear almost everything, and she was telling him to “shut your silly mouth” “why are you moaning I should have left you at home” any ways she comes to the till, we store liquor bottles behind counter, and asks for a 1 Ltr of the cheapest vodka. No problem, her shopping comes to around £50 after she gets all her lottery tickets, she gave me this card which was used for child benefit in my country, I saddened by this put the money through, we as store clerks aren’t allowed to pass judgement on parents nor child, meaning we can’t say no to that. In hindsight I should have called my manager and said she was drunk so I couldn’t serve her or something. Anyway, cue the entitled part of the story. I hear adorable child say “mummy please please please can I have a lolly pop” EM: “Ask the man sweet pea” AC: “Can I get this” passes me the lolly I scan the lolly and say that will be £0.25 please EM: “How is he supposed to afford that he I just a child” I was taken aback by this Me: I am very sorry but I can’t give him this for free, I will get fired EM: But he is just a child the child looked like he was going to cry, I would have bought it for him but unfortunately I can’t do that my boss HATES it and would rip me a new one EM: You hear that **** YOU can’t have the lolly because that BOY doesn’t like you Me: I am very sorry buddy but if your mum can’t afford to pay for the lolly pop you can’t have it The kid just looks defeated and the EM grabbed his arm and walked out the shop, I made a note of the time and reported it because that little boy clearly wasn’t in a healthy place, I just wanted to take him home, I radioed my manager and asked him what we could do. The answer pretty much nothing except ban her f
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Has anyone heard about her food stamp challenge? She bought 29 dollars worth of groceries, and what did she get?
She got a dinner's worth of tacos. We have: A dozen eggs, a head of lettuce, dry black beans, frozen green peas, brown rice, corn tortillas, an ear of corn, some kale, a tomato, garlic, seven (seven!) limes, lots of cilantro, green onions, a hot pepper, a yellow onion, a sweet potato and an avocado.
This isn't a lot of calories to go on for a week. How would you stretch out 29 dollars of food to last all week?
Hello,
I'm in Colorado. I have a on again / off again girlfriend and we have a son together. They get food stamps and insurance through the state. Part of the problem is that she is still legally married, even if they ahve been separated for 10 years, so I was unsure how to get insurance and other stuff for them bc I'm not listed as the father until we got the divorce and custody figured out. It seems like department of human services are reaching out to check eligibility and I'm afraid we could be in trouble for not knowing what to do and having no guidance. I know that sounds like an easy out, but stupidity leads to stupid choices/thinking. I'm unsure what to do , so I'm trying to reach out all over for help. Thanks!
