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Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« on: November 02, 2013, 01:20:37 pm »
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/02/food-stamps-cuts-food-banks/3356667/

Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY 9:10 a.m. EDT November 2, 2013
Cuts to the federal food stamp program are likely to create a run on food bank supplies

Food banks across the country, stretched thin in the aftermath of the recession, are bracing for more people coming through their doors in the wake of cuts to the federal food stamp program.

Food stamp benefits to 47 million Americans were cut starting Friday as a temporary boost to the federal program comes to an end without new funding from a deadlocked Congress.

Under the program, known formally as the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, or SNAP, a family of four that gets $668 per month in benefits will find that amount cut by $36.

"It may not sound like a lot but to a person like me, it is," says Annie Crisp, 30, a single mother of two girls in Lancaster, Ohio. "It's not just a number."

She says she received a little less than $550 a month in food stamps and now will receive $497. Crisp, a babysitter who brings home about $830 a month, says the food stamps help her buy her family fresh fruits, vegetables and meat.

Crisp worries now she may end up trying to supplement her family's groceries by going to a food bank or cutting into her electric or gas money for the month. The cut, she says, also means she will have to buy more canned fruits and vegetables, foregoing her daughters' favorite fruit, kiwi, and buying packaged meat.

Food banks served 37 million Americans in 2010, up from 25 million in 2006, according to the most recent numbers from Feeding America, an umbrella organization for 200 food banks nationwide.

"Our network is already overburdened with a a tremendous increase in need," says Maura Daly, a Feeding America spokeswoman.

Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, says the cuts will hurt more than 1.8 million Ohioans. "This is taking food off the plate and out of the mouths of our most vulnerable friends and neighbors," she says.

She says seniors, children, people with disabilities and veterans will be among the groups hardest hit by the cuts because they are the groups most reliant on food stamps.

The saving grace, she says, is that the holiday season is approaching in November and December, the time of year when most food banks receive more than half of their donations during the year. The flip side is that more people turn to food banks for help during that time too.

Michael Flood, CEO of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, says the full impact is still too soon to tell, but he says the cuts are immediate, which means that the 656 agencies that run pantries and soup kitchens in his county may start to see more people in the next few weeks. The problem, he says, is that food banks will not have sufficient food to meet a great demand.

He says agencies will do one of two things when their food supply runs low: they will serve a set number of people and cut off the line when they run out of food baskets or they will put less food in the baskets so they can make more of them.

Diana Stanley, CEO of the Lord's Place, which runs job and housing programs for the homeless in West Palm Beach, Fl., says the clients her agency work with do not have any discretionary income. Even the smallest cuts can cause major upheaval in their lives, she says.

"The food stamps help as our families move into independence," she says. "So these cuts are scary for us." She says more than 80% of the 250 people a day the agency works with receive food stamps.

SNAP, which benefits one in seven Americans, is administered by the Department of Agriculture and is authorized in a five-year omnibus farm bill covering all agricultural programs. Congress is currently debating the bill, which has additional cuts to the program totaling up to $40 billion. A cut that size, say advocates, such as Hamler-Fugitt and Flood, would be devastating.
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Offline collins

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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2013, 06:42:46 pm »
Well, I think some people legitimately needs food stamps due to illness/hardship, but they can't continue to be a way of life. SNAP/EBT/food stamps are supposed to be supplementary - there's WIC/free school meals and other programs out there. There is an obesity problem with the poor that's pretty apparent.

People like this "single mother" quoted in the article have probably being using food stamps all their lives, and it's a good bet the mother of two voted for Obama. The economy is in the tank, people who work are suffering and she should not be exempt from that.

Offline kevindavis007

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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2013, 02:14:25 am »
Well, I think some people legitimately needs food stamps due to illness/hardship, but they can't continue to be a way of life. SNAP/EBT/food stamps are supposed to be supplementary - there's WIC/free school meals and other programs out there. There is an obesity problem with the poor that's pretty apparent.

People like this "single mother" quoted in the article have probably being using food stamps all their lives, and it's a good bet the mother of two voted for Obama. The economy is in the tank, people who work are suffering and she should not be exempt from that.

Personally I think we should put limits in what the people on snap can buy..
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Offline EC

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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #3 on: November 03, 2013, 02:39:17 am »
Personally I think we should put limits in what the people on snap can buy..

Who picks?

I am not necessarily disagreeing with you - but if my life falls into the pot and I need to beg for help from the safety net - who gets to pick what I can feed my family?

Ever been dirt poor? If you have you know how much you crave sweet and fatty foods. Not because they are good for you, but because they make you feel good for a few minutes.
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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #4 on: November 03, 2013, 03:53:39 am »
Who picks?

I am not necessarily disagreeing with you - but if my life falls into the pot and I need to beg for help from the safety net - who gets to pick what I can feed my family?

Ever been dirt poor? If you have you know how much you crave sweet and fatty foods. Not because they are good for you, but because they make you feel good for a few minutes.

For starters, no lobster, no beer - no alcoholic drinks, period - but staples are fine.

Offline EC

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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #5 on: November 03, 2013, 06:09:17 am »
For starters, no lobster, no beer - no alcoholic drinks, period - but staples are fine.

Agreed with no booze. Totally.

What if you are on the coast of Maine? Lobster there is poor mans stew - or fish bait.

We can buy a 3 lb (frozen) lobster and get three meals out of it for 2 people. Should that count? How about chicken? A single large chicken can feed 4 comfortably for 3 days.
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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #6 on: November 03, 2013, 06:31:34 am »
Personally I think we should put limits in what the people on snap can buy..

I agree. People are using SNAP money to purchase gasoline and selling the SNAP cards on the Internet. That is completely outrageous and should be made illegal.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2013, 06:35:18 am by SPQR »

Offline Rapunzel

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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #7 on: November 03, 2013, 06:38:18 am »
I agree. People are using SNAP money to purchase gasoline and selling the SNAP cards on the Internet. That is completely outrageous.

Anyone who watched the FOX special Food Stamp Nation knows just how badly this is being abused.  Not just "surfer dude" who drives a new truck and has no "visbile" means of support yet has his EBT card and showed how he buys lobster to share with all his surfing buddies, but in the Ozarks where people were proud of not being on government assistance and then along comes Obama/Vilsack and their new food stamp push - and actual rewarding government workers for signing people up on food stamps... so this lady in the Ozarks figures out these people won't take food, but they will take seeds to grow food and that is how it started, soon she had them roped in to their EBT cards and she won an award for signing up the most people on SNAP.  Then there was the Spanish language soap operas they ran about how easy it was to get your EBT cards and why they were such a great deal.....

Sorry, I am out of sympathy all the way around.  This is a purpose in this country the churches and charity used to fill and as you can see in another article posted today the LDS who has always fed the poor and needy was pushed out of doing so by this government..... then there is the kids who are fed breakfast, lunch and snacks at school - cannot even bring a lunch from home.... Michelle has deemed they have to eat on the taxpayers, not mom.
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Offline EC

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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2013, 07:06:05 am »
No way am I disagreeing.

Food stamps were supposed to be like you reaching out and grabbing someone who was falling off a bridge. Nothing wrong with that - admirable and pretty much automatic. But no one said the guy could hang from your arm for years.
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Offline EC

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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #9 on: November 03, 2013, 07:12:16 am »
Sorry, I am out of sympathy all the way around.  This is a purpose in this country the churches and charity used to fill and as you can see in another article posted today the LDS who has always fed the poor and needy was pushed out of doing so by this government..... then there is the kids who are fed breakfast, lunch and snacks at school - cannot even bring a lunch from home.... Michelle has deemed they have to eat on the taxpayers, not mom.

Anyone in a town with a Sikh temple need never miss a meal. You show up, you are fed - very well. It is nothing amazing - dhal, flat bread and whatever veggies made it into the pot, but it is filling and also rather good. No questions asked. No need to be a Sikh. No need to pray. Nothing. If you can offer something, do so. If you can't - well, maybe next time.

It is actually the origin of the everything stew I have mentioned on the hot food line. The flat bread is different - depends on the flour - and beans are used more than lentils, but it it is the same basic idea.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2013, 07:21:06 am by EC »
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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #10 on: November 03, 2013, 02:01:49 pm »
Agreed with no booze. Totally.

What if you are on the coast of Maine? Lobster there is poor mans stew - or fish bait.

We can buy a 3 lb (frozen) lobster and get three meals out of it for 2 people. Should that count? How about chicken? A single large chicken can feed 4 comfortably for 3 days.

If we don't want a one-size-fits-all solution, then the range of qualifying products can be set by MSA (metropolitan statistical area); that way, if you live in an area where lobster is a cheap staple, then it qualifies; otherwise it doesn't.  In the absence of that, lobster doesn't count because it is predominantly a luxury item.  Lines have to be drawn and that is not an unreasonable line to draw.

Offline kevindavis007

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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #11 on: November 03, 2013, 02:24:20 pm »
If we don't want a one-size-fits-all solution, then the range of qualifying products can be set by MSA (metropolitan statistical area); that way, if you live in an area where lobster is a cheap staple, then it qualifies; otherwise it doesn't.  In the absence of that, lobster doesn't count because it is predominantly a luxury item.  Lines have to be drawn and that is not an unreasonable line to draw.

I think that is best option... Do it by region.
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Offline EC

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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #12 on: November 03, 2013, 03:47:35 pm »
If we don't want a one-size-fits-all solution, then the range of qualifying products can be set by MSA (metropolitan statistical area); that way, if you live in an area where lobster is a cheap staple, then it qualifies; otherwise it doesn't.  In the absence of that, lobster doesn't count because it is predominantly a luxury item.  Lines have to be drawn and that is not an unreasonable line to draw.

That would work and is certainly reasonable. I do agree though - it should be staples only.
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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2013, 05:29:05 am »
That would work and is certainly reasonable. I do agree though - it should be staples only.

 I prefer private organizations take care of this problem because they have better accountability.Since we are stuck with the program its should be used for basic necessities not using it to buy lobster, gasoline or selling EBT/SNAP over the Internet. Anyone caught abusing the program should go to jail. This program should have better oversight by Congress. I agree with you EC
« Last Edit: November 04, 2013, 05:29:30 am by SPQR »

Offline EC

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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #14 on: November 04, 2013, 06:27:15 am »
I prefer private organizations take care of this problem because they have better accountability.Since we are stuck with the program its should be used for basic necessities not using it to buy lobster, gasoline or selling EBT/SNAP over the Internet. Anyone caught abusing the program should go to jail. This program should have better oversight by Congress. I agree with you EC

Accountability is the big thing. Not just oversight of the program itself, but personal accountability for those on the program. I wouldn't send anyone abusing the EBT program to jail - I'd simply ban them from receiving benefits for a few years. Sort of a "Try to game the system, you are history" sort of thing.

There are always people who need a hand. A hand up, not a hand out. Don't mind those - anyone can hit that point at any time. Then, there are the leeches.
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Offline olde north church

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Re: Food stamp cuts create high demand for food bank supplies
« Reply #15 on: November 04, 2013, 01:52:31 pm »
"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche".
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