10 necessities you can't buy with food stamps.

[pnwmom]

Last edited Thu Jan 7, 2016, 05:07 PM - Edit history (2)

ON EDIT: People have been commenting that these items are available in food banks. Earth to DUers: food banks are few and far between, and transportation is often an issue for homeless people. There are many more grocery and drug stores for people with money or food stamps than there are food banks. And people on the streets often don't have cars.

Also, part of my reason for posting this is to remind people that food banks can use donations of these items, because they can't be purchased with SNAP. I would have thought that was obvious, but apparently not.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sue-kerr/10-things-you-cant-buy-with-food-stamps_b_5079780.html

Instead of discussing the horror of someone buying soda pop or a steak with SNAP (food stamps), it would be great to turn the conversation to the things that can't be purchased and think for a minute how we could find a workaround. Even with a great home-ec teacher, it would be a challenge.

10 Things You Can't Buy With Food Stamps

Toilet paper. Nope. In fact, no paper products at all. They aren't food, after all. No paper towels, no tissues, no napkins, no nothing. Though you can possibly use rags in lieu of paper towels, you have to wash them. Same with handkerchiefs and cloth napkins. What about toilet paper? Could you use rags and wash them? What if you don't have a washer or dryer in your home? That brings us to the next item...

Laundry detergent. Again, this is not food. But buying decent detergent isn't cheap. It is definitely something that is more cost-efficient if you buy the largest sizes, but then you have to lug it, not just home from the store but back and forth between home and the laundromat. And when it does go on sale, it is often a buy-one-get-one-free deal, which is terrific but means more lugging, or a special trip, which means more bus fare or gas in the car. But how do you live without laundry detergent?

Toothpaste, toothbrush, dental floss. Don't tell your dentist that dental floss is a luxury item, but the fact is that people without dental insurance are often the ones least likely to be able to afford these items. I know people who won't replace a toothbrush until they can find a freebie, because money is that tight. Yes, each time I visit my dentist, they offer me a new toothbrush, because they want them changed often. But if you don't have dental insurance, you don't get that offer. Toothpaste is another challenge. How fast does a family of four go through a tube, especially when kids don't remember to squeeze from the bottom and use only a pea-sized amount? But you need clean teeth to be successful in school and work and society, not just because of bad breath but because dental health is critical to our well-being.

Soap. How do you survive without soap? If pushed, you could forego shampoo and just wash yourself entirely with soap. You could wash clothes with soap (not a good idea), and you could wash dishes with soap (also not a good idea). But how do you function, must less flourish, without access to soap? The least-pricey soap is often the worst -- filled with chemicals, scents and sudsing agents, and not-so-filled with cleaning agents.

AND MENSTRUAL PADS AND TAMPONS, AND MORE . . . .

[WillowTree]

1. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

I fail to understand that anyone would be surprised by any of this. None of those items has any nutritional value.

[Stargazer99]

3. As if they are not needed? What a nasty country

[B2G]

5. They are readily available to the needy

I volunteer at our local food bank.

The non-food warehouse is 10 times larger than the other one.

Nasty indeed.

[pnwmom]

15. Oh really. How many homeless people live within walking distance to a food bank?

How many homeless people don't own cars? There are many more grocery stores and drug stores, so it is much easier for homeless people to access supplies at regular stores than at food banks.

[B2G]

18. How many food banks have you volunteered at?

My guess is none.

Read my post to you downthread.

[pnwmom]

20. Only the one in my city. And that isn't enough. n/t

[B2G]

22. Well I suggest you ask them how things work

the next time you are there, because people don't walk in off the street given items.

[pnwmom]

24. They do in my city. There are certain hours when people can and do come in.

Why do you assume that every food bank in the country works like yours does?

And for those food banks that only distribute to other agencies. why do you assume that homeless and needy people will have no trouble getting transportation to them?

[B2G]

28. Most don't

Especially in large urban areas.

Maybe you are referring to Food Pantries, which are usually run by charitable organizations. People walk into these. They are generally supported by Food Banks and direct donations.

[Gormy Cuss]

35. "...readily available" is an overstatement.

Your local food bank may have a large inventory to distribute but that doesn't mean a) that it's evenly available across all food banks, b) that even within the distribution network of your local food bank all pantries or receiving CBOs distribute these items, or c) that the volume is anywhere near the need.

The food bank I know best distributes county-wide and reports that only two thirds of the receiving pantries distribute ANY non-food items.

[The2ndWheel]

8. Change the N from nutrition to necessity

If it's nutrition, it's about food, not not food.

[WillowTree]

10. No one said that they're not needed.

Just that this program is for nutrition assistance. That's why they gave it that name. If they're getting SNAP and still don't have enough income to pay for other necessities, there are other programs that they should be able to apply for.

[pnwmom]

16. "That they should be able to apply for." But often there are no benefits for people

who are homeless for extended periods of time.

And food banks, though they may offer some of these supplies, are often located in places where homeless people can't access them.

[pnwmom]

4. Without toothpaste you eventually won't be getting much nutrition either.

Medical items are paid for with Medicaid. Dental and menstrual items should also be covered.

A lot of people have never bothered to think about the necessities that homeless people have no access to. If they're offensively dirty and smelly, it's not like they have a choice.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Well said. K&R

[Nye Bevan]

6. I think people on food stamps should be allowed to buy anything in a grocery store

with the exception of booze and cigarettes.

[B2G]

7. Not through SNAP but by other means.

Look into local food banks.

They distribute far more of these products than they do food. All brand new and still in their packaging. Most of the products we process come from Walmart (heads explode). They are distributed free. Which is better than people having to buy them out of their food budget.

I don't know why people here don't know this. Maybe they should get out and volunteer and see what's really happening.

[pnwmom]

14. Come on. You must realize that transportation is an issue for many homeless people.

Food banks are often not located close enough to where people need them.

Why minimize the problem by making it sound easily solvable? There are many more small grocery and food and drug stores accessible than there are food banks, and homeless people can't buy in bulk.

[B2G]

17. Food banks do not distribute to individuals

They provide these items to shelters and aid agencies/charities.

I can assure you that homeless shelters receive a large portion of our personal hygiene items to distribute to those who go there. As well as other places they frequent.

What do you suggest? Parachuting them in?

And I thought this thread was about getting these items to those who can't afford them and how that relates to SNAP, but I guess it's strictly about the homeless. My bad.

[pnwmom]

23. Are you saying that none of this is a problem because agencies are so well funded

that everyone is taken care of?

[B2G]

26. I am saying that just because they can't be purchased

with SNAP funds, doesn't mean they aren't available.

[pnwmom]

29. And I'm saying that doesn't mean they're available to all the people who need them.

Here's another example:

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/09/08/when-youre-homeless-and-menstruating/

When you think of survival items a homeless person may need, menstrual- hygiene products probably don’t immediately come to mind. The reality is that pads, tampons and liners often aren’t readily available to women living in shelters or on the streets. So a period, which might be an inconvenience for the average woman, can become a source of shame and helplessness if you’re homeless.

“The inability to hygienically care for oneself has innumerable negative psychological and physical ramifications,” says Shea Post, executive director of the Athens Area Homeless Shelter in Georgia, which is working with college students to distribute feminine-care kits.

“This is particularly true of teenage girls experiencing homelessness. Puberty and one’s first menstruation are traumatic even for girls in stable, comfortable situations,” Post adds.

According to the National Institutes of Health, women and families are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population. When forced to go without tampons and pads, some women and girls resort to rolling up toilet paper from public restrooms or using wadded rags. To make matters worse, homeless women often lack access to facilities where they can change menstrual products regularly, meaning each period comes with a risk of infection.

[B2G]

32. Well of course they aren't

A bigger issue is actually the number of homeless who don't even have SNAP benefits in the first place.

[LanternWaste]

25. I'd reduce my fallacious premise to merely two options too...

"And I thought this thread was about getting these items to those who can't afford them and how that relates to SNAP, but I guess it's strictly about the homeless. My bad."

I'd reduce my fallacious premise to merely two options too... we look more clever that way, regardless of whether we actually are.

[Heeeeers Johnny]

9. Sounds like your typical millennial/current crop of college students

I had little appreciation for how practical the skills would be some day. I regret not being able to sew; how much money would we all save if we could do even basic sewing? I also regret not learning more about cooking. I can cook the basics just fine, but I wish I could be creative so that I could stretch our dollars without spending three hours on the Internet looking at recipes I don't understand. I wish I had learned to shop more efficiently, to read food labels, and so forth, because when I had to enter the big, bad world on my own, it was harsh. And I'm not alone.

[pnwmom]

12. How would they know how to sew if they didn't learn it in school and

had no one sewing or a machine at home?

[Heeeeers Johnny]

30. Like a lot of things, by trial and error on your own.

The author mentioned "basic sewing".

To me, that means a simple thread and needle, and being able to sew on a button or stitch a hole, tear.

I think I've know maybe 3 people in my entire life that even owned sewing machines... a friend of mine
that was a seamstress/fashion designer, and my mother and my ex-wifes mother.

[pnwmom]

31. I own one. And I learned how to use it in school. nt

[Glassunion]

11. Correct me if I'm wrong. None of this would be under the scope of the Department of Agriculture.

[pnwmom]

13. So what? The point is to alert people to the necessities that homeless people

have trouble accessing.

[Glassunion]

33. Understood. I did not say anything to the contrary.

However the federal agency in charge of this particular benefit is not equipped to address the issue.

Some (all?) states have addressed this shortfall by adding a cash benefit to the SNAP program. Like through the social services departments in the state. Same card can be used for both food and other items. In the states that I deal with NY/NJ both EBT cards have both cash and food stamp funds and abilities at the point of sale with the use of a single card.

[B2G]

19. Earth to pnwmom

Food banks don't distribute to individuals.

Which I have already explained to you.

[ieoeja]

21. Current poll results: 5 votes for "Fuck the Poor" and 3 votes for "Help the Poor"

Actually, I guess this post adds me to the latter tally bringing "Help" to 4 votes.

[LanternWaste]

27. Make it five for and five against

Make it five for and five against.

Yay, America! We have a hung jury on efficient assistance for the least among us...

[Xithras]

34. There's a reason why you can't buy those things on SNAP.

Under federal rules, SNAP is not available to unemployed able-bodied adults without children or a disability. There was a TEMPORARY expansion of the rules during the Great Recession that allowed the unemployed and homeless to apply, but that expansion is expiring and there is no will or political capability to extend it. Millions of current SNAP recipients are about to be booted off.

SNAP's presumption, therefore, is this: If you are getting SNAP, you either have a job, or are enrolled in a federal or state job training/placement program (you have unemployment insurance income), or you have children that ALSO qualify you for other cash aid, or you have a disability that also qualifies you for other cash aid. By their rules, it should be fairly rare for someone to get SNAP an have no other sources of income.

SNAP is a food aid program, and not a general welfare program. The idea behind the program is that you can use SNAP to obtain your food, which frees up your other limited income to buy those neccessities.

Personally, I don't want to see it expanded into a general welfare program. It's already hard enough to defend it against Republican vultures, and one of its few defenses is the fact that it IS only a food program, and cutting it means taking food directly out of peoples mouths.

If you expand it, you'll just give the Republicans more room to attack it. We'll be hearing about poor people wasting taxpayer money buying three-ply quilted toilet paper, fancy soaps, electric toothbrushes and how SNAP recipients are using expensive tampons instead of cheap pads. By converting it into a general aid program, you make it a bigger target for the naysayers.

[Gormy Cuss]

36. IMHO the author of the linked essay isn't advocating adding these to SNAP.

Rather, she's pointing out that other basic needs have no mechanism as simple and direct as SNAP. General Assistance and TANF funds can be used to pay for toiletries and such but those who qualify for these cash benefit programs are a small subset of those who qualify for SNAP.

[smirkymonkey]

37. So wrong.

They should be able to get any basic necessities.

[question everything]

38. Interesting. Starting with Hurricane Andrew in 1992

when we lived in Florida, and were asked to donate - These items were what I gave. Similar with Sandy in the East Coast.

Because this is what one needs, really, and one does not have to worry about perishables.

[pnwmom]

39. You were smart to realize that.