Trump Administration Wants To Decide What Food SNAP Recipients Will Get

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
[Inaugural Address, January 20 1961]”

― John F. Kennedy


“The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all ... The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands - the ownership and control of their livelihoods - are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease.”
― Helen Keller, Rebel Lives: Helen Keller


“Fear of the mob is a superstitious fear. It is based on the idea that there is some mysterious, fundamental difference between rich and poor, as though they were two different races, like Negroes and white men. But in reality there is no such difference. The mass of the rich and the poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit. Change places, and handy dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? Everyone who has mixed on equal terms with the poor knows this quite well. But the trouble is that intelligent, cultivated people, the very people who might be expected to have liberal opinions, never do mix with the poor. For what do the majority of educated people know about poverty?”
― George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London


“Conservatives say if you don't give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. As for the poor, they tell us they've lost all incentive because we've given them too much money.”
― George Carlin


“The world is a goddamned evil place, the strong prey on the weak, the rich on the poor; I’ve given up hope that there is a God that will save us all. How am I supposed to believe that there’s a heaven and a hell when all I see now is hell.”
― Aaron B. Powell, Doomsday Diaries III: Luke the Protector


“Capitalism is a social system owned by the capitalistic class, a small network of very wealthy and powerful businessmen, who compromise the health and security of the general population for corporate gain.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem


And what do these quotes have to do with the government elite deciding what food you should eat if you are poor enough to qualify for
the food stamp program?

In a word everything - Because that willful discrimination against the poor, saying they are not qualified to choose what to eat,
establishes and declares poor people as lesser and unequl citizens of the United States - Does it really mean that one incentive
of getting rich is to make other people poor and inferior? I thought we settled that in 1776

- AlienView

originally posted by: dantanna
i had a friend try to borrow money from me. i offered to buy him groceries, then all of a sudden that was not good enough.

if someone asks me for money, thats the new trick. offer them groceries.
i told my friend, 'send me a list of what you need, and i will find a grocery store that delivers.'

if they are really strapped for cash, of course i need to buy them food.
if they want more money for drinking and cokaine tho?

Maybe try gift cards for stores? That removes the whole authorization process where you have to approve every food item they buy, but it still ensures it's spent in one place.

originally posted by: burgerbuddy
God Damn elitists.

Think you deserve wagyu tenderloins and sushi.

I eat tenderloin (not wagyu though, can't get it here) about 2-3 times a week, sushi once a week.

The way I see it, you're the elitist trying to keep that stuff for yourself.

a reply to: Aazadan

Sushi isn't even hard to find, or expensive. I live in the middle of central texas and walk by decent sushi every day. a full roll sliced down for anywhere from 5-12 bucks, depending on how much crap they pile onto it.

There are 3 sides to this arguement, and I get all of them:

- its more expensive to produce the end result if we do the old school box program
- "the good things" shouldn't only be for the wealthy
- SNAP isn't something people should enjoy, so why provide the good things? Motivate them to get off by making it acceptable, and nothing more.

All 3 points are valid. Only 1 really conflicts with the others.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

My town has two sushi restaurants but neither are good, they go so far as to deep fry their sushi. Our grocery store has a sushi stand in the deli section though. It varies by type but is about $6 for a cut of 9 rolls. The price is reasonable enough, and I'm sure they can't go much lower, but having lived the SNAP budget not all that long ago I always keep in mind that $6 for one meal is way above what was the normal budget of $4 per day.

I think the real issue here is that when you get right down to it, as long as healthy food remains desirable it's going to be priced higher than the cheap stuff. Junk food is priced so cheap because no one would pay $10 for a bag of chips.

That means that whatever the undesirable food in society is at any given point, is what people on SNAP (or anyone with a tight food budget) are going to eat.

Ohio has a box food program already, it's been a few years since I used it but you could pay something like $50 and get a box full of food you could cook that would last a single person 2.5-3 weeks which would then stretch the rest of your food budget much further. I bought the food boxes a few times, but ultimately stopped because there was too much waste. Everyone has dietary preferences and eating things you dislike leads to a lot of resentment of the system. Not to mention, I didn't find the food to be worth my time. Sure, the boxes were saving me $50 a month, but they also required me to spend an additional 15 hours a month cooking. That's a savings of $3.33 an hour which is well below any earnings potential. Put simply, I would be better off working for $5.00 an hour (which was below minimum wage at the time) those 15 hours a week, than using the food box and saving some money.



I think that SNAP is already motivating enough, because no one wants to live on a really tight food budget.

Edit: SNAP is also already motivating in that it's a poverty trap. In order to qualify there are asset limitations on your home, on your car, and on your savings. Being on the program inherently creates financial insecurity. If you want savings so that you can make a car repair, or perhaps get a more reliable car, or buy a home and start building equity you cannot be on SNAP. Most people want these things, therefore they have a reason to improve their situation and get off of assistance. The real issue is that 26.2% of the US population works for $9/hour or less and most SNAP recipients have jobs already. They're stuck in a situation where they're working the jobs that are available and those jobs have no upward mobility, so while the motivation to do better is there, the opportunity is not.

a reply to: Aazadan

I like some of the "tight budget" foods myself. Pork especially. I make my own bacon, and save a couple of bucks. Make my own canadian bacon and I save a boatload. Make my own ham and I save a boatload.

Yesterday I was at the store and apparently HEB is overrun with pork. I spent about 88 cents/lb on various pork cuts (ribs, butt, belly).

The less desirable meats are fantastic, IMO. Until you want a good steak, anyway.

While we aren't broke or poor, i still shop like i am.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: Aazadan

I like some of the "tight budget" foods myself. Pork especially. I make my own bacon, and save a couple of bucks. Make my own canadian bacon and I save a boatload. Make my own ham and I save a boatload.

Yesterday I was at the store and apparently HEB is overrun with pork. I spent about 88 cents/lb on various pork cuts (ribs, butt, belly).

The less desirable meats are fantastic, IMO. Until you want a good steak, anyway.

While we aren't broke or poor, i still shop like i am.

I got a Sous Vide back in November. It's completely changed my diet. It makes good cuts better, but cheaper cuts are good too, it's the best way to cook meat that I've ever found. I've actually got some ribs cooking right now, that will have been slow cooked for a week when I eat them tonight. Chicken cooks really well in it. For Thanksgiving I cooked our meal and made a turkey in it. It's a great way to prepare food.

Lots of the foods I've been enjoying lately though, there just isn't a cheap alternative for. I've been trying to eat healthier and it's extremely expensive. For example, I've been getting yogurt and fresh fruit for breakfast. The mass produced yogurt canisters are loaded with sugar. Rice bowls are a favorite of mine, but frozen ones have practically 2 days worth of salt packed into a single meal. Fresh rice bowls run $8.50 each. Sure, I could build my own, but we're talking an hour of cooking to put it together, so I'm looking at $6 for an hour and I simply value my time higher than that.

I think that a lot of times, food preparation simply doesn't make sense anymore if you're single. Cooking scales well, so it's not much more effort to cook for 5 than for 1. If cooking saves you $30 for an hour of effort it makes much more sense than if it saves you $6. That's true for food quality too, I can buy myself 3/4 of a pound of tenderloin for dinner for $20 and it's a reasonable enough purchase to me (albeit a bit pricey). If I had to buy for 5 people though, we're talking $100 for dinner when I could instead buy a cheaper cut or some chicken for $10.

All of you want to complain about SNAP and few pitiful people whom abuse it, but totally ignore the 1000 lb gorilla of government waste.. posey.house.gov...

a reply to: Somethingsamiss

Again, he's not trying to decide what foods SNAP recipients receive. He is however trying to limit frivolous usage of SNAP benefits. I don't recall what the two most SNAP bought products were, except one was soda.

My family were on food stamps for a short while in the late 80's as we were transitioning from one state to another due to my stepfather getting a new job. Money was tight, and I remember my mother being very strict on what we bought. I could never imagine us using that help to go buy chips and soda.

originally posted by: Aegeus
My family were on food stamps for a short while in the late 80's as we were transitioning from one state to another due to my stepfather getting a new job. Money was tight, and I remember my mother being very strict on what we bought. I could never imagine us using that help to go buy chips and soda.

The economy, especially grocery prices has changed a lot since the late 80's. In 2005 I got $200/month in food stamp benefits, in 2015 with a decrease in income I got $75/month while the cost of food had doubled. That means shopping cheap, and junk food these days is cheap. Traditional low budget foods (which still aren't healthy) like hamburger helper is outside of that food budget, even things like crock pot stews/soups cost too much. Know what doesn't cost too much? 4 for $5 tv dinners or frozen pizza. That's $2.50 a day to eat 2. $75/month conveniently enough.

President’s FY 2019 Budget Will Make Hunger and Poverty Worse in America

. reduce SNAP spending by an astronomical $213.5 billion over 10 years, which can only be accomplished by cutting out of the program entirely, or reducing assistance sharply for, tens of millions of seniors, children, people with disabilities, working families, unemployed people, and veterans;

The proposal also undercuts its own purported rationales and strategies by eliminating the Commodity Supplemental Food Program that provides food boxes to seniors, and eliminating SNAP nutrition education funding.

Food Research & Action Center (FRAC).