Food for thought on the SNAP debate. The cost to eat.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

For those that can not seem to understand. Eating healthy cost a lot!
Do have any real idea how much you spend, I mean really spend on eating?

Those on SNAP, EBT, Food Stamps, have to watch every cent. We have to eat via cost, not health.

For you to understand you must add up all the money you spend on ALL food. Even the stuff you spend eating out, even the little snacks you pick up when you are out and about. Why? Those that have SNAP can NOT eat out on it. that have to watch every penny that spend for EVERYTHING they eat. And I want you to see your true cost and see what the poor don’t get.

Now, this is for 1 month, add all that up for 1 month. Then divide it by 30. Now take that answer and divide it by 3. That is what you spend on 1 meal on what we will call your food allowance.

Now let us take out what you spend eating out. Use the same 30/3 formula.
Now think of people that make at the most, if lucky, $200 a month. That is all they have for food. They can roughly spend $6.40-$6.50 a day, $2.20 roughly a meal.

Any money goes to such things as Laundry, soap, bills, toilet paper, cleaning supplies of all sorts, and transportation. So spending money for many on food is a no go.

Those on Stamps also have to look at bang for buck. Say a pond of peaches is $2.99 a pound. But a box of microwave popcorn is 22 bags for $5. Now that pound of peaches may be four or five pieces of fruit, but that box of popcorn is 22 meals! That is a huge deal!
And remember I said at the most a person may, might, make $200, other make even less. So that box of popcorn with all the bad stuff in it is way better deal!

Then add to it that to eat healthy means way to fix it. Sadly, many who get Stamps may not have a way to prepare or store the healthier stuff. You need to remember that travel expense come in as well as what bills may not have got paid. Many a poor person has known the pain of having their refrigerator repossessed.

Then many are in places with faulty electric or really bad appliances. But you can’t beat the rent.
There is a lot more in this argument than just how much and health. There is what is really going on as a whole.

[Newest Reality]

1. That's right!

It has been my food allotment, (the same amount for a few years) and it can be very tricky. You don't want to run out before the end of the month and that is very easy to do.

Food pantries are overwrought with people in need and that is your only recourse if you don't make it to the end of the month. I'm not complaining, but it is not a choice thing when you go there. You get what they give you whether you think its healthy or not and even if it is something you don't really like, you eat it!

King crab? Steak? Yeah, right. Having been a neo-Serf, (working without pay for a place to stay) I have to rely on EBT for sustenance because food is not a part of the deal these days.

[flvegan]

2. I've got an idea! How about teaching folks how to feed themselves properly?

FYI, it's NOT horribly expensive to eat healthy (depending on where you live...okay, I get it).

That said, I think that we do a terrible disservice to our people that don't have the money to eat properly. Every single rule invoked by our government is going to be abused one way or another by people, it's just a part of the way we are, I guess.

Maybe we as a people should just stop fucking judging others. Nobody knows everyone else's story. What's the latest issue/stigma...someone with EBT buying some luxury seafood, I believe? So f'ing what? Maybe it's something that they've gone to the highest level to scrimp to have some "extra" money set aside for a special meal for a birthday...or an underpaid relative in the service, coming back from Afghanistan, who is there protecting your candy ass.

I went off-topic, sorry. Just don't see why folks can't just be good to each other, and understand that others go through some shit. We're all in this together. Or at least we should be.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

3. It is if you don't have storage and/or transportation.

There is way more involved when your poor. And those extra problems adds to the problem and cost.

[flvegan]

4. I agree with you completely on those points.

I should have expanded on the "depending on where you live" aspect to a "depending on your overall situation" to be more inclusive.

[loli phabay]

5. six bucks a day can go a long way, there are some excellent websites that show you how to do it

Some pretty good food as well, asian markets are good places to get cheap staples if you live in the city, i prefer more rural though as you can supplement with foraging, shrooming, hunting and fishing. I highly recommend some of the websites though as they basically walk you through what and where to buy.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

6. Not many people on Food Stamps have internet.

Many have sold them if they ever had them.

[loli phabay]

7. well as you are online i was talking to you, but even without the internet if you use common

Sense then you can eat well for not a lot, rice and lentils and beans are all pretty cheap. The problem might be more that people want convenience rather than sustenance.

[Rowdyboy]

8. Fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as meat for those who want it are out of reach for many people

Especially people with children. Rice, potatoes, lentils and pasta are all fine as PART of a diet. By themselves, not so much.

I'm one of the lucky ones. We can eat pretty much what we choose and I love fresh fruits, vegetables and seafood. But my heart hurts for those who don't enjoy that luxury.