Thread: Food stamp use soaring across U.S., stigma fades

Food stamp use soaring across U.S., stigma fades


A GROWING NEED FOR A PROGRAM ONCE SCORNED Greg Dawson and his wife, Sheila, of Martinsville, Ohio, help feed their family of seven with a $300 monthly food stamp benefit. Center and right, the food pantry in Lebanon, Ohio, where residents can also enroll in what is formally called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

By JASON DePARLE and ROBERT GEBELOFF
Published: November 28, 2009

MARTINSVILLE, Ohio — With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.

It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs.

Virtually all have incomes near or below the federal poverty line, but their eclectic ranks testify to the range of people struggling with basic needs. They include single mothers and married couples, the newly jobless and the chronically poor, longtime recipients of welfare checks and workers whose reduced hours or slender wages leave pantries bare.

While the numbers have soared during the recession, the path was cleared in better times when the Bush administration led a campaign to erase the program’s stigma, calling food stamps “nutritional aidâ€

Ths is what obama and his corporate and political thugs have created in order to starve and bankrupt us so we can't fight back when they completely devour our democracy and install the Shadow gov't........

PS
If "we the people" are able to do so, we can start community garden's to help feed American citizens in need. And/or we can create community barter systems so that some people maybe sharing/preparing food in exchange for a person/family doing yard work for the people sharing/preparing food for them and so forth. Bartering can get a bit complicated or not.

We all have skills and/or can provide services/goods that someone else needs. It is a matter of getting people together to put this in action. No money is needed in this type of system. And it would help to feed hungry Americans.

I discovered that in the "Sanctuary City" where I live that most of the people in soup kitchens and/or asking for help from charities were mostly illegals. They are the reason that many Americans are suffering, I don't want to feed them and/or give them anything.

So this is where some creativity is required.

ELE: Spot on! In my town, it's typically non-English speaking women who are standing in line at the grocery with their Link card (electronic food stamps). Most of them with multiple anchor babies.

Saw that myself Reggie. My business was flaggin' as I couldn't compete with the you know whos, and was down to about 35 to 40 dollars a week for food, and here were 4 non English speaking people ahead of me with 4 and 5 gallons of milk, and other assorted groceries that tolled up to about 200 bucks, and I had Ramen Noodles, a 10 pound bag of rice that was reduced as it had a piece of tape covering a hole in the bag, and other assorted foods that were very cheap, like the "mystery" cans on the reduced shelf in the back corner of the store. Ya' know, the ones with no labels.

And yes they had there welfare food cards or slips that they use. Don't know this stuff mtself as I never used them, and it will be a cold day in hades before I stoop that low for myself. Besides, I'm always given an excuse as to why I don't qualify. Even though the year before last I was down to a yearly rate of $8,300.00, yes that's no joke, $8,300.00 for the year. And what is the poverty line now? So much for bein' a small business owner.