I don't have a problem with food stamps. You need to do what you can to feed your family.

As many of you know, I recently started working at a grocery store during the evenings, and a large percentage of my community does use food stamps. And, while I haven't seen any of the crazy abuses that you often hear in regards to use of food stamps (no one has come in and bought all lobster), I have to say, the amount of people that come in and buy pop or energy drinks, for themselves or their friends and then uses their food stamps to pay for it, completely blows me away. It is bad on your teeth, your bones, and helps contribute to obesity - I believe it is a major negative factor in a lot of peoples health. And some of these people are drinking it like it is water! To me, it is almost as bad as buying alcohol and cigarettes, things that you are not allowed to buy with your food stamps.

Anyway, that is my thoughts on the matter for the evening.

I hear ya Mel. I knew this dumb girl who was frauding the system she was lying about who lived in her house and the income of the household and she would take ALL of her food stams and use it just on SODA!

I love soda though If I had food stamps I would buy lobster.... lol

__________________
Mom of one kangaroo!

You know, I do drink the occasional pop / soda. Never had use for the energy drinks. But, and this is probably why I compare it to alcohol and tobacco, I have a husband who is always fighting his addiction to the stuff. It's awful. He can go cold turkey for bit and then turn around and is drinking five of them in a day. He seems to have no ability to drink in moderation with the stuff.

And I guess my gripe isn't so much with the actual people, let's face it people are going to buy whatever they want / can if given the ability regardless of the health issues. If I had food stamps, I probably would buy the same expensive tea bags that I do now! Heck, I'd use my card at Starbucks if they let me!

I think my biggest complaint is the lobbyists that the pop / soda industry is sending out to make sure the government does not change that allowance in the food stamp program. These people are making a lot of money off of these drinks and I don't think they're going to let that slip through their fingers. And that is my big problem is government not always working in the best behalf of the people.

I Agree with you , But I Also think there are many things that shouldn't Be allowed On food stamps.
and No Matter what the persons story , I Know Some people need them. I Still think that vouchers for Healthy Food only should Be given. Maybe Vouchers for meat , and For veggies and Rice.
Or However it could be done.

I Don't think people really need to drink anything But milk and Water ....

The smell of red bull makes me wanna puke! Oh boy that was a rough rough night

__________________
Mom of one kangaroo!

I agree that people shouldn't be allowed to buy certain things with food stamps (lobster!?!!) but I also think that there are other certain necessities that they should be allowed to buy but cannot. For instance, toilet paper, hygene products (esp. those for women) and cleaning products. For those who are disabled and really cannot work it's extremely hard to obtain these items.

__________________
Lookin' for a bargin?? Check this out - http://mommysavers.com/boards/grocery-bargains/

I know where you are coming from but many things are bad for you:

Butter, anything with high fructose corn syrup, anything with partially hydrogenated oils, alcohol, lots of prepared foods, those candy-cereals, the list could go on and on...

And you never know, that person who is buying ginger ale with their food stamps might just be buying it for their sick child at home...

The point is, if they cut out all the unhealthy things people eat from food stamps, the list would indeed be small. To me you can't cut Gatoraide from food stamps and then allow people to buy butter like hydrogenated spreads. They are bad for you too.

Even the 'healthy' things are not good for you if that's all you eat. Meat is not very healthy for you either. In moderation it is ok, but every food pyramid thing will tell you to eat less meat.

I do have to add though I think it would be interesting to see what people buy. I think it would be interesting to see how much you could find out about someone by what they buy and if you were correct or not.

I love watching what people buy. Like alcohol increases like 3 times over the weekends and doubles on hot days. 4th of July weekend - near as I can tell no one ate fruit or veggies, I think I had one or two orders of vegetables. That was the weekend I started and I really was worried about people. It has evened out since then.

I was a front-end manager at a grocery store for three years when food stamps were in paper. (boy did I just date myself ) I saw many things that people would buy (gum, candy bar) just to get the cash to buy beer. It makes people who REALLY need them look bad and keeps them from getting what they need because of the abuse.

My "favorite" customer was the one who drove a benz and had very expensive clothes, and lots of bling. Her purse alone cost more than I made working in a month. She would come in and buy steak, seafood and other high cuts of meat. Did she need them? I don't really know I do know she didn't work but had all of that nice stuff. Made me want to judge her and I am sure we all did.

The store I worked for said if I didn't take the food stamps another store would and we would loose the guaranteed money. That makes me sad too.

__________________
Want to save some green? Join a coupon train.

So you're saying, someone on food stamps should only be eating beans and rice? Lobster is food, if that's what they want to buy, I don't see why they can't.

__________________
Wendy~Self-proclaimed hippie momma to Bob and Jamie