Food stamp recipients pinched by food costs

Food stamp recipients pinched by food costs
Amount not enough to cover rising costs of staples; more relaying on aid
The Associated Press
updated 3:00 p.m. CT, Fri., May. 16, 2008

CHICAGO - Danielle Brown stands outside a South Side market at midnight, braving the spring chill for her first chance to buy groceries since her food stamps ran out nearly two weeks ago.

For days, Brown said, she has been turning cans of "whatever we got in the cabinet" into breakfast, lunch and dinner for her children, ages 1 and 3.

"Ain't got no food left, the kids are probably hungry," said Brown, a 23-year-old single mother who relies heavily on her $312 monthly allotment of food stamps — a ration adjusted just once a year, in October.

This is what the skyrocketing cost of food looks like at street level: Poor people whose food stamps don't buy as much as they once did rushing into a store in the dead of night, filling shopping carts with cereal, eggs and milk so their kids can wake up on the first day of the month to a decent meal.

"People with incomes below the poverty threshold are in dire straits because not only are food prices increasing but the food stamps they are receiving have not increased," said Dr. John Cook, an associate professor at Boston University's medical school who has studied the food stamp program, particularly how it affects children.

Midnight watch
On the South Side of Chicago, people like Brown wait for the stroke of midnight, when one month gives way to another and brings a new allotment of food stamps.

Dennis Kladis began opening his family owned One Stop Food & Liquors once a month at midnight nine months ago to give desperate families a chance to buy food as soon as possible.

"I'm telling you, by the end of the month they're just dying to get back to the first," said Kladis, who has watched other area stores follow his lead. "Obviously, they are struggling to get through the month."

Jean Daniel, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department, which runs the food stamp program, said there is only so much the aid can do.

"Food stamps were designed to be a supplement to the food budget," she said. They "were never intended to be the entire budget."

Turning to churches, food pantries
As prices rise, the number of Americans relying on food stamps has also climbed by 6.1 percent in the past year, increasing from 26.1 million in February 2007 to 27.7 million in February this year. The sputtering economy, persistent unemployment and the mortgage crisis have all contributed to the increase. The Agriculture Department expects the overall number of participants to reach 28 million next year.

For Lynda Wheeler, who receives $281 in food stamps each month, the rhythm of life has been one of shopping for food, running out of food and then turning to churches, food pantries and friends for help. And all the while, she is doing things like cutting milk with water to make it last a bit longer.

"You get it on the first and it runs out by the 14th and 15th," said Wheeler, a single mom who brought her 14-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter shopping at midnight with the Link card, the Illinois version of food stamps.

Because food stamp allotments are adjusted every fall based on the federal food inflation rate, recipients are months away from getting any relief. But even when that relief comes, advocates said, it won't come close to keeping pace with rising costs.

The consumer price index for food rose 5 percent last year, the highest gain in nearly two decades. It is especially grim news for the poor.

Start with milk. Between March 2007 and this year, a gallon of milk jumped from just over $3 a gallon to nearly $3.80, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During the same period, eggs climbed from about $1.60 a dozen to $2.20. Bread, chicken and tomatoes are all more expensive than last year.

Just last summer, the maximum food stamp payment — $542 a month for a family of four with a gross annual income of no more than $26,856 — was enough to cover the USDA's "thrifty food plan," a bare-bones diet that meets minimal nutritional needs. Studies show that allotment now falls about $25 short, Cook said.

And just getting to the store is a lot more expensive. Since October, the cost of gas has shot up nationally from $2.70 a gallon to $3.62, according to the Lundberg Survey, a petroleum market research firm.

'Desperation is just frightening'
If the USDA pulls $1.7 billion from a contingency fund of $6 billion this year to support the food stamp program, as it expects to do, that would be the largest withdrawal since $2 billion was pulled out after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

On Thursday, the Senate passed a five-year, $300 billion farm bill that includes $200 billion for nutrition programs such as food stamps and emergency food aid for the needy. Daniel said it was too early to say how that will affect benefits to food stamp recipients, and she knew of no provision in the bill to make the annual adjustment before the fall.

Diane Doherty, executive director of the Illinois Hunger Coalition, said she's seeing people more frantic for food than ever.

"The level of desperation is just frightening," she said. "People are calling, saying they have no idea what they are going to do."

But even as demand is rising, many food pantries nationwide have been forced to cut back on the amount of food given to individual families because higher fuel costs and commodity prices have sliced into private donations to the pantries.

For now, many of the needy, including many in Kladis' store pushing carts laden with soda pop, bags of cookies and chips — much of it cheaper than healthier food — are doing what they can to stretch their shrinking buying power.

"The bottom line is, a mother trying to feed her kids is not really picky about what she puts in their bellies," said Dan Gibbons, executive director of the Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation. "She just wants them full."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24670991/

I guess that I'm not very Christian-like tonight......

But I really don't care that they're hungry. Been there, done that, got stunted in my growth as a result of it.

Maybe they'll get MOTIVATED to work and better themselves?!

Naw, what am I thinking.

You know the sign that so-called homeless people hold up :"Will work for food"?

NEWSFLASH! I work for FOOD as well!

It's a great system! (they should try it)

BFC

Let's look at this Danielle Brown. She gets $312 a month in food stamps. She used it up in 2 weeks - that's $156 a week for her and a 1 year old and a 3 year old. Come on! I feed 2 grown men and myself on that amount!!

If they want my sympathy, they better crunch some numbers before they write these articles. Now a story about a pensioner who has $78 left for groceries for the month after paying for their housing, medical and utilities gets my attention.

BigFootsCousin said:

I guess that I'm not very Christian-like tonight......

But I really don't care that they're hungry. Been there, done that, got stunted in my growth as a result of it.

Maybe they'll get MOTIVATED to work and better themselves?!

Naw, what am I thinking.

You know the sign that so-called homeless people hold up :"Will work for food"?

NEWSFLASH! I work for FOOD as well!

It's a great system! (they should try it)

BFC

Click to expand...

That's funny BFC, I heard on the radio of a guy with a sign
"Will work for food" standing in front of a BugerKing
with a sign that said " Help Wanted"

Geez, I wish we had that much for food a week! You have to remember tho, most of these younger moms have no idea on how to make bread or cook from scratch. They weren't taught by their parents. So they buy boxed, easy to fix meals. They would probably stand there and scratch their heads over flour/yeast/sugar/salt/oil and say, now what do I do with that?

We live way below the poverty level......but you have to know how to cut corners and make the food stretch.

I worry because we have just about gone thru all our preps at this point. Not much left to work with anymore. A long hard winter dug a huge hole into that.

I know foodstamps are not meant to be the whole food budget, but if these people are not working and can't find a job, how do they do it? Because their stupid does not make their plight or the lack of food for two infants any better.
The children are still hungry. It's not their fault what their mother has or has not done to help them.

And that makes me sad. I pray for the children of this world, every night.

Thyme said:

That's funny BFC, I heard on the radio of a guy with a sign
"Will work for food" standing in front of a BugerKing
with a sign that said " Help Wanted"

Click to expand...

Some people, due to mental illness or other physical disabilities, aren't employable in mainstream society. How do i know this? i was once one of them. i was lucky to be able to do the dishes, much less hold down gainful employment, at that time of my life.

So, you don't care about those who CANNOT care for themselves. Better hope and pray (not sure to what such selfish people may pray) you don't find yourself in their shoes.

Well said, Waranda.

Thank you, Wise Owl. Have a fantastic weekend.

I have actually offered these people work when I was an active contractor.. Guess what, their signs are total BS.. They will not work... They just want a hand out and there are plenty of bleeding hearts out there to support em... Why do you think there are so many of them?? it works!!!!


ELK.........................................
.
.
.

Wow imagine how pinched I am.

I'm a single mom. I work all day to make our food dollar and then I have to go stretch it. I feed myself and two teen boys on approximately the same amount this woman gets from food stamps.

With food stamps and WIC for children under 5, there is no way to go hungry unless you refuse to eat the food provided. My two kids got WIC many moons ago and there was enough cereal, milk, cheese, juice and peanut butter to feed them and my husband and myself all month long. As I recall, I often GAVE juice cans away, I had so much. When they were babies, WIC provided all the formula anyone would need, and so much baby cereal, again I had to give it away.

Blastoff, and all others.
What you are not taking into account is that some of these people ARE working and still can't make it because of circumstances that have happened to them.
Not everyone is a deadbeat.

Some are, that is no doubt but you can't lump them all in together.

My heart goes out to the one's who hardship has gotten the better of, but it's natures way of trying to thin the herd and re-establish balance.

Creating growing, unsustainable, artificial systems to help these people just results in a bigger disaster later.

When the numerous artificial systems created and perpetuated by the dems/repubs by extorting and redistributing capital collapse, it's going to be ugly.

There but by the grace of God, and planning on my part, go I.

Warandra said:

Some people, due to mental illness or other physical disabilities, aren't employable in mainstream society. How do i know this? i was once one of them. i was lucky to be able to do the dishes, much less hold down gainful employment, at that time of my life.

So, you don't care about those who CANNOT care for themselves. Better hope and pray (not sure to what such selfish people may pray) you don't find yourself in their shoes.

Click to expand...

I would like to second this. I personally know of several physically disabled people who cannot work. Period. One receives a whole $1,000 a month, and depends on Sec. 8 housing vouchers (which took 2 years in a waiting line to get) to make ends meet. Her rent is $800 a month (well within guidelines here), and gets about $600 a month Sec. 8 aid. She also qualifies for a whopping $6 a month food stamp aid in Illinois.

By the way, the evangelical church group active in my northern Illinois county (one of the 10 most affluent in the USA) recently found out that there were over 10,000 people waiting for Sec. 8 vouchers. The current wait time is estimated to be 5 years.

I shudder to think what the rest of the county must be like.

Could some of these people potentially work? Sure. Are some welfare bums? Undoubtedly.

But I suspect that many are indeed people in desperate straits.

I think the only practical thing to do is completely remove the penalty for working while receiving aid, until their work income reaches a realistic level. I know of several disabled people, who are afraid that any work will jeoparize their meager disability benefits.

It would probably cost the taxpayer less in the long run, and anyway is a better use then the obscene wastage of $$$ fighting Our Beloved Dear Decider's War Of Terror.

Pray you are never at the mercy of an insurance company for settling an injury claim, for they have none. A friend just told me a story of someone who won his case before the Worker's Comp commission but died in absolute proverty while fighting the insurance company's endless appeals. They knew they had no case, but also knew that his time was running out. Don't forget, Worker Comp rules require that all pertinent medical records be copied to them. So they just stalled for more time. Strictly business.

Flavius Aetius

They could go out and beat up some Mexican and take their job or their job back from them.

For now, many of the needy, including many in Kladis' store pushing carts laden with soda pop, bags of cookies and chips — much of it cheaper than healthier food — are doing what they can to stretch their shrinking buying power.

Click to expand...

Pop cheaper than kool-aid?
Rice more expensive than chips?
Beans, tomatoes and other fresh and canned veggies more than cookies.

Hogwash, they are lazy, lazy, lazy, They dont want to work and they dont want to cook properly for their children. Ophanages, were bad choice, but a better option than alot of dead beat parents.

The last time I went to Casper I saw a man standing at the exit from Walmart. He was about 70 pounds overweight, very clean, in clean non-stained clothes, had a border collie mix with him, and with a sign that looked almost professionally lettered. Here is what it said:

I am not lazy, crazy, or stupid.
US Vet hiking the country
Need 2-3 days work
Then I move on

Then he would flip the sign over and it said:
P.S.
I'm not fat
just harder to kidnap


while I was waiting at the light I saw 4 cars stop and give him something. At least he was creative.

Lazy?

No - I'M lazy. I hate working. I spend a good portion of every day goofing off at work. Then I go home and whine every time I actually have to do something, like the dishes or laundry. Facing a day of chores on the weekend is enough to make me head for the bed or the bottle. (Only being slightly facetious here.)

With very few exceptions, people raising kids don't have that luxury.

I'm getting really fed up with the judgmental attitude of some of the folks around here. You expect everyone to be just as highly-functioning as you are, to have encyclopedic knowledge of how to live on a budget, and to do what 99% of the parents in this country aren't able to - get their kids to be satisfied with a processed-food free life, devoid of all the cereals and cookies and chips and soda and candy that are constantly advertised on tv.

Seriously, sometimes it seems that there is no one on the planet is in desperate enough straits for you to actually have some sympathy for.

I would caution you: We never know what people

are challenged with until we walk in their shoes. And some are left totally alone to feed that baby and other children they are responsible for. Life happens and it is not always ideal. God Bless them all.

getting really fed up with the judgmental attitude of some of the folks around here. You expect everyone to be just as highly-functioning as you are, to have encyclopedic knowledge of how to live on a budget, and to do what 99% of the parents in this country aren't able to - get their kids to be satisfied with a processed-food free life, devoid of all the cereals and cookies and chips and soda and candy that are constantly advertised on tv.

Seriously, sometimes it seems that there is no one on the planet is in desperate enough straits for you to actually have some sympathy for.
__________________

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Chartruese, I don't often agree with you but you hit that one dead on!

Until you have walked in their shoes you don't have a clue what life is really like for the poor uneducated...and that is what most of these people are. Uneducated, no more sense than a pet puppy who the master has been feeding all it's life. WHich our gov has been doing. NOW, the cost of living has doubled but their allowance has not.
All the back to work programs in the world won't help if the jobs are gone. And those are happening to most places because the middle class is not eating out, or buying enough stuff at wally world or whatever.....

Face it. It's getting tougher and tougher to live and survive and the low income are the first on the list of useless eaters (which we all are according to the PTB) to face the hunger.

A little compassion goes a long ways. What may have been doable a year ago is not anymore....the jobs are fading into the sunset unless you are skilled in some needed profession like the medical field of the ever growing government type stuff.

Perhaps some of us that are better problem solvers should pass along some of our skills to those deemed less adept. I know that over the years, I have passed on many of my skills to those who just never thought they could do whatever it was I showed them. Many have never had the satisfaction of doing something for themselves because they are told at every turn to leave it to the professional. Ineptitude is ingrained in us from the time we are very small by the advertising we see on tv as if it is important to be a poor performer. When my kids were small, we used to talk them through the commercials and tv programs by picking them apart. It also helped them to see us doing things that the tv told them we couldn't do and should buy someone elses work.

I fed 6 people on $169/month in food stamps when my husband was injured and not only needed me to care for him so I couldn't work, but also make that money stretch. True, that was back in the 70's but I still had enough to buy 10# of ice every dat at $.49 each. We lived in Phoenix and that is a necessity. I grew a garden and we canned and ate from it to supplement. Our kids never noticed a difference in their diets while we were on food stamps and when DH worked as a carpenter. I made everything from scratch and taught them to do the same. I know it can be done. The problem being there are too few examples out there for people to follow. It is up to us to be one.

Mushroom

BigBadBossyDog said:

zero sympathy here!

She should have thought of how expensive kids are before she crawled in bed with the father of the kids. Or should I say father"s"!

I'm sick to death of paying for these cretins.

Click to expand...

So you have just put a price on human life?

QUOTE: Wise Owl

Face it. It's getting tougher and tougher to live and survive and the low income are the first on the list of useless eaters (which we all are according to the PTB) to face the hunger.

A little compassion goes a long ways. What may have been doable a year ago is not anymore....the jobs are fading into the sunset unless you are skilled in some needed profession like the medical field of the ever growing government type stuff.

UNQUOTE.

How true. And it's only going to get worse. And all too soon.

Flavius Aetius

...Dennis Kladis began opening his family owned One Stop Food & Liquors once a month at midnight nine months ago to give desperate families a chance to buy food as soon as possible...

Click to expand...

Somehow, I suspect that Mr. Kladis doesn't stock a whole lot of staples in his store, and what he does stock is in small size containers at extremely high prices. Ms. Brown in Chicago would do much better shopping at the nearest Jewel, Wal*Mart, or Dominic's chain store where she can buy store-brand staples in larger sizes on sale, and use coupons from the Sunday papers to help streach her food dollars.

Many of the problems Ms. Brown is having could be solved with "cooking from scratch" and "buying smart" lessons sponsored by a local church, if she'd go...

Amazed said:

Let's look at this Danielle Brown. She gets $312 a month in food stamps. She used it up in 2 weeks - that's $156 a week for her and a 1 year old and a 3 year old. Come on! I feed 2 grown men and myself on that amount!!

If they want my sympathy, they better crunch some numbers before they write these articles. Now a story about a pensioner who has $78 left for groceries for the month after paying for their housing, medical and utilities gets my attention.

Click to expand...

Apparently alot of you are country bumpkins and have never seen the inner city. You don't have an Ultra Foods, or Aldi, or Costco, or Wal-Mart to go to, to stretch your money. You have a something like a grocery store. If you are lucky, you can take the bus to a Jewel or Dominicks, but we all know how high priced they are. It's not a simple answer as some of you portend.

Warandra said:

Some people, due to mental illness or other physical disabilities, aren't employable in mainstream society. How do i know this? i was once one of them. i was lucky to be able to do the dishes, much less hold down gainful employment, at that time of my life.

So, you don't care about those who CANNOT care for themselves. Better hope and pray (not sure to what such selfish people may pray) you don't find yourself in their shoes.

Click to expand...

Glad you are doing better.

Ah but Jonas, then the local church would have to hold the classes for those folks.
The local churches up here do a small amount of charity work but most of them are lower income also so it's tough.
And you have large swaths of people who wouldn't even know what the inside of a church even looks like anymore.

I agree that bigger stores are the way to go, "if" you can get to them handily. How many Walmarts are there in the ghettos or slums? Most of the wally's I have seen are quite a ways outside of towns. Can be tough to get there if you don't have a car. And try taking a couple little babies on a bus shopping for groceries and manage to get there and then get back with two in your arms and bags of groceries also.

People who live outside the city tend to forget things like that. For some folks, the store down the street is the best choice and sometimes the only choice. Not everyone owns a car......

Kendo said:

Apparently alot of you are country bumpkins and have never seen the inner city. You don't have an Ultra Foods, or Aldi, or Costco, or Wal-Mart to go to, to stretch your money. You have a something like a grocery store. If you are lucky, you can take the bus to a Jewel or Dominicks, but we all know how high priced they are. It's not a simple answer as some of you portend.

Glad you are doing better.

Click to expand...

How true...forgot about the problems with transportation. My disabled friend didn't have a car until recently (a groups of friends gave her an old beater free as a gift). She had to depend on a city bus system to get to a local grocery store, which had very high retail prices. If she could have gone elsewhere, she would have and saved some real money.

Flavius Aetius

I am sorry for the folks that TRULY need the help. That is exactly what the system is for.

What I am NOT F(*#&(# Sorry for are those who choose to loaf and have me pay the bill. I can not tell you how many times I have been behind a person with prime rib, crab, fancy snack foods and desserts just to have them whip out thier food stamps. it really chaps my hide. We scrounged for years to buy a home and put food on our table. hmmpf.

Kendo said:

Apparently alot of you are country bumpkins and have never seen the inner city. You don't have an Ultra Foods, or Aldi, or Costco, or Wal-Mart to go to, to stretch your money. You have a something like a grocery store. If you are lucky, you can take the bus to a Jewel or Dominicks, but we all know how high priced they are. It's not a simple answer as some of you portend.



Glad you are doing better.

Click to expand...

I lived in Chicago for 15 years. The city is best viewed (in this country bumpkin's opinion) from an automobile rear-view mirror when leaving for the last time.

This is where the local churches (yes, even Rev. Wright's) should be active. Teach a "cook-from-scratch" class after church. Hand out Xerox recipes of simple dishes. Use the church buses to drive groups of church members to a large chain grocery store on a regular schedule. The church could provide nursery service for children (most do anyway). Institute a "coupon exchange" program at church. Maybe even put together suggested weekly menus based on sale items at the chain stores.

Better yet, the churches should enroll and participate in the Angel Food Ministries program.
http://www.angelfoodministries.com/default.asp

Maybe we should be pro-active rather than reactive in helping folks help themselves. Then if people don't participate and help themselves, it's their problem, not ours...

How true...forgot about the problems with transportation. My disabled friend didn't have a car until recently (a groups of friends gave her an old beater free as a gift). She had to depend on a city bus system to get to a local grocery store, which had very high retail prices. If she could have gone elsewhere, she would have and saved some real money.

Flavius Aetius

Click to expand...

Too bad you didn't think to ask your disabled friend if she wanted to ride along with you to the grocery store when you went. That might have solved a problem for your friend at little cost to you...

Well, at least in my county there is a network of church's and ngo's trying to provide food and housing (usually that means sleeping overnight only in a church basement), but they are simply being overwhelmed. Catholic Charities is the largest, but recently had to pull back from some operations (foster care/placement) due to soaring insurance coverage costs.

What is going to happen when the troubles really begin in earnst?

Flavius Aetius

Jonas Parker said:

snip

Maybe we should be pro-active rather than reactive in helping folks help themselves. Then if people don't participate and help themselves, it's their problem, not ours...



Too bad you didn't think to ask your disabled friend if she wanted to ride along with you to the grocery store when you went. That might have solved a problem for your friend at little cost to you...

Click to expand...

I didn't know about her until after she got her beater gift car. She lives about a half hour away.

Flavius Aetius

*It* can smash anyone, anytime, any place. You never know if you're next, no matter how "rich" you are or how "secure" you think you are. *It* can come out of the blue. In this country NO ONE should be denied enough food. Period. I don't care if you think that they caused their own problems or not. Are we heartless monsters?

Just sayin'





And by NO ONE I mean actual citizens.

There are lots of reasons why people are using food stamps, and they don't all consist of sleeping around and having lots of kids.

There are the disabled (and every disabled person isn't on "disability", which is a pittance anyway---ask me how I know); there are the working poor, and surprise, surprise, there are single mothers (some of whom were married when they had their children but were later divorced or widowed---unless of course you think that never happens).

I went hungry as a teenager---my under-minimum-wage income went to pay my schooling because I didn't want to be hungry the rest of my life. Hunger is awful and I don't wish it on anyone. Do I think people need to work? Sure. Do I think they need to make better choices? Yes, but all my choices in my life haven't been perfect, and I'll bet there are darned few perfect people on this board, or anywhere else.

Warandra said:

Some people, due to mental illness or other physical disabilities, aren't employable in mainstream society. How do i know this? i was once one of them. i was lucky to be able to do the dishes, much less hold down gainful employment, at that time of my life.

So, you don't care about those who CANNOT care for themselves. Better hope and pray (not sure to what such selfish people may pray) you don't find yourself in their shoes.

Click to expand...

Oh get over yourself.

I have much more empathy than you give me credit for. Of course I am understanding of someones limits- Sheesh!

Take your bold attitude and stick where the sun don't shine.

Problem as I see it, is that all of these social programs were instituted as a "helping hand" when times got rough. Instead of the helping hand, as they were intended, these programs have become a way of life. These programs have taken away the recipient's dignity and left them helpless and dependant. Have we, as a society, really helped them? When TSHTF, what are they going to do? How will they then survive? Is this really a good thing?

And it has been about forty years that we have been fighting this "War on Poverty". Has anything changed for the better? Just what is our exit stratagy?

as stated in the policy for the program...

"Food stamps were designed to be a supplement to the food budget," she said. They "were never intended to be the entire budget."



But somehow, most of these people have the EXPECTATION that the entitlement should cover 100% of all food expenses.

Therein lies the PROBLEM -> the false expectations created by an entitlement.

The same holds true for the false expectations of Social Security -> the false belief that SS should provide 100% of the required income for a retirement.







.

mbo, you are correct....but like my Father and Mother (God rest her soul) their life savings were sucked up by the medical establishment.

He has remarried and is living a quiet life with his wife. I know that they are ok, they have what they need but no frills. At 84 and being a farmer for the first 40 years of his life then going to work in a factory for the last 22 years till his retirement because of bad knees, he should be able to live a decent life and not have to worry about bills.....or anything else. My stepmom had a little stashed so they are ok for now but the way things are going? WHo knows..

Chartreuse said:

Lazy?

No - I'M lazy. I hate working. I spend a good portion of every day goofing off at work. Then I go home and whine every time I actually have to do something, like the dishes or laundry. Facing a day of chores on the weekend is enough to make me head for the bed or the bottle. (Only being slightly facetious here.)

With very few exceptions, people raising kids don't have that luxury.

I'm getting really fed up with the judgmental attitude of some of the folks around here. You expect everyone to be just as highly-functioning as you are, to have encyclopedic knowledge of how to live on a budget, and to do what 99% of the parents in this country aren't able to - get their kids to be satisfied with a processed-food free life, devoid of all the cereals and cookies and chips and soda and candy that are constantly advertised on tv.

Seriously, sometimes it seems that there is no one on the planet is in desperate enough straits for you to actually have some sympathy for.

Click to expand...

Why is common sense now uncommon? There was a time when a treat was a treat, now people want constant indulgement. I really dont care what they eat, I Just dont want taxes paying for it outside an emergency.

Quite frankly Church's and Food Pantries should be filling the void. I have no problem with charity and complete problems with entitlements.

There are many on Food Stamps that are prudent with there purchases, but the ones with cartfull of Pop and Junkfood are going to have a hard time stretching any food dollar.

$300 and SAY WHAT?!?!?!??!

My dad did the shopping for the house in Texas and we had five adults plus four neice/nephews i and out and HE didn't spend that much in a month....might have spent close to it and fedfive adults and four kids. Yes, comparatively speaking the adults got stuff on their own when out and the kids were weekends but still....

so sad

I'm a nutritionist with WIC in a sm nw town. we are seeing people that went off the program & with the high cost of everything had to come back. Many are so upset they have to come.

It's easy to say they are lazy. what are you to do with a couple of kids while you work, if you're lucky to find a day care center that doesn't have a waiting list most of the jobs we have are fast food. That does't begin to give you much left over for rent, utilities,insurance,cothes & medical.

Many have to live w/a parent & their children. some are lucky to find grants to finish nursing school to make a better life for their family. some have to do everything themselves because their baby's father ran off & doesn't pay support.

We don't have much in transportation. you still have to have the money to pay to use the bus. they have to walk blocks from bus just to get to our office. then they have to wait an hour or two till the bus comes around. Some can't get a ride & live in the country & have to depend on family or friend to bring them in, with gas prices that has been very hard.

If you were to ask them they would say they hate to be on the program. We try to give nutrition info & supplemental food. We check iron levels & give info to increase if it is low. We talk about healthy eating habits from prenatal, pregnancy,breast feeding, infant nutrition, & see children every 6 months to check health & give food nutrition ideas.

We used to have clothes basket for donations & these moms were so willing to share out grown clothes w/ other moms. they wanted to help others,. The administration made us stop.

We call the day before the appointment to remind them. we are seeing an average of 6 disconnects a day. We are so busy in our office of 2 that we can hardly keep the waiting to 1 week for an appointment.

I wish I could do more. I pray everyday that something in this nation would happen to open the eyes of our people in power. I don't think they have any idea how this all is affecting every city in the nation. I would love to take a polition & have him work a mimumin wage job & care for his famliy on that momey. I bet we would see some changes.

Sorry for my rant but this is something I see & live with everyday. America can you hear us?? would you help your brother in need. He needs your prayers & understanding.

camperjuli