It’s not “wrong”, anymore than it’s “wrong” to by paper products (t-paper, etc.) which are also not covered by food stamps. Presumably, people on food stamps manage to buy t-paper, somehow.
It bothers me when other people decide that having money gives a person the right to buy unhealthy food, while those who depend on government assistance are wrong to do so. These choices aren’t good for anyone, but having more money doesn’t make people more moral when they make bad choices.
Wasn’t it back during the Reagan administration when there was a big flap about the FDA wanting to count ketchup as a veggie for the purposes of school lunches? Our government doesn’t have a good track record of providing good nutritional guidance and prioritizing healthy eating to our most at risk populations. The budget and expectations for school lunches is pretty dismal and lets not even get into what prisoners are forced to eat.
I didn’t grow up poor although we had a rough patch here and there when my father furloughed for awhile early on in his career. However, I do remember eating some foods that were pretty junky but probably my own mother, who is actually a great cook, was exposed to being born during the Great Depression. Things like white bread with butter and sugar and fried bologna sandwiches. Also, the popularity of certain foods like SPAM in places like Hawaii was born out of a cheap meal and necessity and is now elevated to sushi and a core component of many diets with things like spam sushi. It’s also hugely popular in South Korea where you can buy it in fancy gift boxes. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-24140705
I’ve never been on food stamps/SNAP but do remember a very tight food budget right out of college. I ate my fair share of cheap mac and cheese and especially ramen.
If anything, I’d expand the budget for SNAP and provide better quality food and better nutritional education and guidance.
I think the government would like to twist everyone’s arms to get them to avoid unhealthy food.
They have the opportunity to do this with food stamp recipients, so they do it. If they could do the same thing with everyone else, they would, but it’s harder to find a workable mechanism for doing it.
I ate alot of fried potatoes when I was in elementary and I was the one who fried them.
“Also, a quick look at wikipedia suggests the original purpose of food stamps was to sell surplus food production.”
This is true. We now just pay huge corporations not to grow them at all
The self delusion is when people can sneer down their noses at food stamp users but would literally blow up the place if the USG ended the homeowner’s interest deduction. Yeah, you can say that program encourages people to save and build equity – and that’s good for people. Not being hungry is good for people too.
People gripe about what the poor purchase but you should see the crap many of those same people donate to food banks. Bizarre and useless stuff. We have to remind donors to give practical and healthy foods. And things like hamburger helper doesn’t help if they can’t afford the meat.
Many poor people lack access to stoves and to ingredients so junk food becomes preferable when using food stamps.
We walked home from school at lunch time and ate lettuce sandwiches.
Great article. I grew up eating welfare food. That’s what we called it. Giant tubs of peanut butter, huge blocks of orange cheese, lots of rice. We ate rice with milk and sugar for dessert. We liked it. We were poor, but we were never as poor as the people in this article. I didn’t know how lucky we were.
My snow boots had holes, I had to wear boys’ clothes to school (I’m female), and I wasn’t allowed to go on some school field trips because of cost (and they weren’t expensive ones). We ate spam and these weird meatless cutlets, not to mention PB. The school would give my mom their excess powdered milk, so I grew up drinking lumpy milk, which wasn’t bad. I think it bears remembering that it takes a few generations of striving for life to improve for people, especially immigrant families. It sounds like many of us grew up struggling, but life is better for us and much better for our children. If a first generation individual compares himself to us or our children, he will feel deprived. But the true comparison is actually to our grandparents or our parents, ie, the immigrants, and then the lifestyle will be similar. My mom used to clean toilets. I don’t, except for in my own house.
If donors are reminded to give practical and healthy foods to foodbanks, then there should be no problem if the government sets limits on what can be purchased with food stamps.
I make it a point to give “desirable” food to food drives. I decided this after reading of a mother whose wish was to have enough money to buy JUST ONCE the chocolate candy her kids really wanted - but doing so would have meant three dinners of bread dipped in watered milk (the mother was explaining she didn’t want to get rich, just her hours no longer get cut - and her sense of what “luxury” was really got to me because that was like $3). And also seeing huge cans of low-quality green beans donated when the donor wouldn’t buy that for themselves. So, I buy nice chocolates which will be a treat, and good-quality vegetables, and stuff I’d buy for myself, while making sure it doesn’t require expensive add ons and fifteen steps to a meal :p.
Our local food pantry likes stuff like cake mixes so families can bake and celebrate birthdays and other occasions or just because.
However, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the things @KKmama sees donated are “clean out the pantry”, more esoteric products like the pickled cocktail onions someone gave you in a gift basket 2 years ago and you never used. That stuff isn’t of much use.
I can’t stand articles like this. I will donate whatever I want to donate. If that is an old coat, then so be it. People should be grateful they receive anything from others, and avoid making snarky comments like “Donating a coat doesn’t make you a good person but I bet it makes you feel like one.”
This author sounds like an entitled jack***.
I remember my mom seeing a jar of pimentos in the donation bin at the private high school where she taught.
I’ve seen ramen donated at my office. Really people?
We do a monthly cash donation to our local food bank but I’ll occasionally donate food as well if it’s being collected at an event or something. My go to items are red beans, rice, and peanut butter.
Boxed cake mixes make sense. Chocolate would melt most of the time here. Sure the food bank building has AC but since I’m typically donating items at some event, who knows what the transportation setup is…
I give money to our food bank. The food bank can then buy what they most need at the time, in bulk, saving money.
I see people giving canned potatoes. Really? Our grocery stores also offer prepackaged boxes at certain times of the year that you can simply pay for and they transport to the food bank. Most of the time it’s only $5 or $10. I certainly spend that on enough stuff I don’t need. Hunger in our area is year round - when I head to work in the summers I pass by a school where the Salvation Army has a trailer dispensing lunches to little kids. They usually get their lunch at school - but when there’s no school, there’s no food. I’d like to see the government fix that problem.
Being poor leads to having very few options in life and it stinks. Maybe that soda and bag of chips is the highlight of the day. You don’t need one more person telling you what you can’t have. Good grief.
To me, the author sounds like someone who kept her perspective even after achieving success.
The questions shouldn’t be why people on food stamps buy soda and chips. It should be why are soda and chips cheaper than water, fruit, and veggies? I know why they buy soda it’s the cheapest thing to buy, that and Koolaid.
Unfortunately, some people who share the same mentality would use it to justify things like donating items so heavily worn and broken that they’re effectively useless or worse, actually use donation boxes/bags at charities/pantries to dispose of their garbage as a CC poster recounted from her experience volunteering at a non-profit charity.
Similarly, I’ve observed the same mentality regarding tips to waiters/waitresses used by some fundamentalist Christians to justify leaving a prothletyzing pamphlets disguised as a monetary tip without any actual cash tip.
like @MYOS1634, I buy “desirable” food to donate to food drives, and I am often horrified to see what many people donate.(really - canned beets and cocktail onions? Not that there’s anything wrong with beets and onions, but yes, that DOES look like you just cleaned out your pantry.) Even if it’s just peanut butter and canned soup, I try to get the “good” stuff…because it is nice to have the “good” stuff, even if it’s practical.
I dropped off some stuff at a food bank the other day, and the woman who took my donation oohed and aahed over the name-brand macaroni and cheese and complimented me that none of the cans were dented.