Food stamps poll!

Something interesting about food stamps is that you can buy as much candy as you like with them, but not vitamins...

I have food stamps they are such a big help every month

The only issue I have with the system is that some folks are selling their food stamps(lol).

There has to be a better system to control this. They did away with the old way of issuing paper and now do the debit card. The change was suppose to decrease this illegal activity. But folks now go shopping as a group and pass around the debit card (with the code)...

And there are folks out there that NEED the help and do not qualify for it????

Great subject Jilly and I am so glad you are getting this help Rosie - you and Asia deserve all the help you can get

Angela, that is terrible about people selling food stamps. Arg, why do ppl have to try to ruin the system for everyone?

Rosie that is great you can get the food stamps. I have used them before and am applying for them again. It should go through and then I will have $200 a month to spend on food products and food plants. I can't wait. i am already making lists of some fresh food i can buy.

What kinds of things do you get with the stamps? Also, do you combine coupons with them?

This friday I am bringing in my food stamp application in to DDS. Hopefully i can get the emergency food stamps right away, without having to wait a month. I will report on how that goes!

I got the food stamps! I even got the emergency food stamps, which means right away and not having to wait a month!

I had to wait in line at the DES office for an hour and a half, but the interview only took ten minutes, and I walked right out with a food card. they did take my fingerprints and a photo to verify it's me.

This morning my food card has $200 on it for me to spend on food products! I am so excited to go buy something. Like cheese! You never get cheese from the food banks.

I tried once to get them and I was turned down. I am not working (but looking for work), and because when I applied I lived with my boyfriend, I had to include his income. He was disabled and did not get much from social security every month, and I felt badly that he was paying for my food. His income was very low and meant for one person to survive, but I was denied the stamps. I really think it is not fair. I made NO money and he was on a very small fixed income. Maybe it is just due to the rules and regulations of my state, but it seems that the criteria to qualify is much too tough. I really could have used the help, then and now. I just don't feel like going through that lengthy questionnaire process again now that my boyfriend has died. As of today I am still out of work too.

Cassie: I think you should do it again. It took me a year to get them, mainly because I have trouble rounding up paperwork and connecting with them for the phone interview. This was my third attempt - it worked this time because i actually went in person to the interview with all the papers. The other two attempts were by mail, and i guess they are more inclined to decline you that way. I don't know why. I was so pleasantly surprised at how well the actual in person thing went. I am so happy to now have the ability to buy myself some food instead of relying solely on the food pantries!

What's nice about food stamps these days is that the money is all accessed from a 'credit card'. It just looks like you are swiping your plastic when you pay at the register. No actual stamps to deal with. It's not obvious in anyway that you are on food stamps, unless someone knows exactly what the food stamp card looks like.

I think it is a great blessing, however you slice it.

And yes, the anonymity of a card does help the self esteem.

To Jilly,

I am not from the States . I heard the words before, but how does the system work.

Thank You

Loong ,not so rich either.

To Burt B.

In your post ##754929,you mention that anonimity is good for the
self-esteem.
When my ex wife screwed me blind of everything,my co,the money she owed me and ran with another man.I was left with zilch,nada,
nothing.Imagine someone known in a small village of 4500,people,
as a guy with a business and all.

The first time I went to the food bank,where most of the stuff was rotten ,I was not ashamed. Because there is no shame in being
poor.In Canada 45 % of the families live under the line of poverty.I told everyone that I went to the food bank, oh and we were allowed to go once a month.
So I ate spaghetti sauce for about a year lots of times with stale bread.

What would you do if you were a buddhist monk and leave every morning for alms.Alms is what the people give you,and you are not allowed to eat until the next morning again begging for your daily
meal. Man that would be good for your self esteem.

The other day ,I am at the gym,where they have a healt food
restaurant.Since I just gotten my old age check,I took a cafe au lait $5.00, told one the guys next to me that being poor ,I could that morning afford such an expence.The guy left,and the waitress told ne that the guy had paid my cafe au lait.

I am in no way ashamed of whom I am.

I wish you wealth if this is what your heart desires,mine
desires Bliss.
From a friend to a friend.
A simple buddhit named
loong

Well, I've been stripped of every material possession several times over.

I have 3 dollars in my wallet and it has been there a week.

Money is god in this world, and I have committed myself to extreme minimalism which purchases for me large amounts of time to read and contemplate spiritual things.

I have a small pension also.

I have gone to food banks and soup kitchens.

I have been driven insane several times by ' voices '

You're a winner or a loser in this world -- second place is the first loser.

Well, let them have their day.

Human competition has caused all the wars.

I want a clear conscience.

I've had all the material trappings in a materialistic society.

It is materialistic because they have forgotten anything to do with spirit.

Yet, spiritual laws are higher than material laws.

The outer changes and rots.

The inner remains forever.

I work on the inner.

A lot of times, I get scared.

Yet this is a very small epoch and it is based upon greed, violence and non-spirituality therefore materialism.

It shall pass also.

Clash of iron and steel and power and money -- what happens after that is gone ?

Then what.

Well, spirit lives forever.

To Burt B.

Your last post was great.Hang on.

Friend to friend
_/\_
loong

To Jilly,

If possible can you explain to me how food stamps work.I asked
in my post 754931.

Thank you.
Loong

Here is a formal explanation:

http
://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supplemental_Nutrition_Assistance_Program

If you are economically disadvantaged they could keep you alive ...

loong, you take your food stamps card and check out food at your market. You run the card through the credit machine and hit the button that stands for food stamps. The amounts are automatically deducted from your food allowance. Only food items apply. Each month the card refills with your allowance. that is how it works in the US.

I have been loving getting food bearing trees, plant starts and plant seeds with my food stamps. I am having so much fun gardening with edibles!

It's wonderful that you can buy 'food plants' with food stamps. I can't wait to have a ton of fresh tomatoes! And the basil, cilantro and lettuce are edible right after planting the starts. All i have to do is take a sprig of these things right from the plant.

Frugal and fun!

Today at Walmart I used my food stamps to buy 'emergency food' - large containers of preserved food. In the 'rollback' food aisle of my superwalmart, they have the following:

Dried Milk
Dried Milk substitute
dried whole eggs (I bought barrel of this)
dried butter, dried margarine (i bought this as well)
dried cheese
dried honey
white sugar
rolled oats
wheat berries
dehydrated carrots
dehydrated bell peppers
" corn
" bananas
" mixed fruit
" mixed veggies
cornmeal
pancake mix
dried scrambled egg mix
taco mix meat alternative
dried bacon bits
vegetable protein meat alternative
garden seed mix - heirloom varieties
white rice
brown rice

There were others but i can't recall them. I thought these were pretty cool though. They are spendy - from ten to twenty dollars for a large container - but provide a lot of food uses per ounce and look like they will last very well in the pantry area of one's emergency supply kit.

I think i want the powdered cheese one next. I also want the wheat berries - those can be made into sprouts or ground into flour.

As for the rolled oats, sugar and rice, I think I can do better with these by buying bulk bags and putting them in buckets on my own.

Jilly,
Sounds fantastic. Let me know how the "dried" (then reconstitued?) stuff tastes. Buying in bulk is definitely cheaper if you can repackage and store it.

Good for you!

Thanks, diane. I won't be opening these containers unless there is a regional or national emergency, but i do know what they taste like - and about how you would expect. Great for camping or emergencies, but not textured or fresh like the real thing.

Food stamps have certainly made a lot of lives healthier, especially children. As long as there is a political party that refuses to stop oil subs. while refinery are closing down to drive up the cost even further. I rather see the money going to help GOOD people stay/become healthy. Grocery prices are outrageous. My doctor tells me to eat Vitamin K, among other things I am suppose to eat, right, like we can't afford basic things like groceries.

Qualifications differ too much from state to state. If all your income goes to house payment, insurance, taxes, utilities, prescriptions and doctor bills that should qualify anyone.

The state I live in has no state income tax but they tax food and EVERYTHING else. I can hear the chanting go red team!!!!

diana, i agree. is your state saying you make too much money to qualify? Even though all your income go3es towards bills and survival?

Tomorrow there is a sale where if i spend $50 at Alco, i get a $10 gift card to the store. This is perfect since my food stamps refill tomorrow. So i will get $50 of food with my SNAP card and then be able to get ten dollars in non-food of things I need as well.

Probably cat food!