It horrifies me that the top categories for purchases using the federal snap benefits are as follows:
Meat, Poultry, Seafood
Sweetened Beverages
Vegatables
Frozen Prepared Meals
Prepared Deserts
High Fat Cheese
Fruits
Salty Snacks
Milk
Cereal
What bothers me a lot about this list of SNAP benefits is that is not a list of healthy or even cost-effective eating habits.
Meat, Poultry, Seafood may rank high because of their relative expense – meat even basic cuts like ground beef – are expensive on a per pound basis. But also it suggests that meat is a frequent purchase of SNAP recipients, rather then one that should be only occasionally eaten as funds allows. I get animal agriculture wants to sell more of their product, and doctors want more patients with heart problems and diabetes leading to kidney problems, but especially red meats are bad and most people eat too much poultry and seafood. These things certainly should not be a core part of a healthy diet.
Sweetened beverages, namely soda, being purchased by SNAP shouldn’t be allowed. It’s like cigarettes, we shouldn’t be subsidizing human death. You have some extra personal spending cash to stick into the vending machine, fine, but it’s shouldn’t be subsidized by taxpayers at all. It’s a complete waste of taxpayer resources and it is actively shortening the lives of SNAP recipients.
Vegetables are good. Maybe they would be higher on the list if they weren’t so relatively inexpensive compared to meat, especially the flash-frozen type. But they are actually are what the program should be for. Likewise, fruti, no argument there. High-fat cheese (which is basically all cheeses as low-fat cheese taste like crap) and dairy is fine, but again, it seems like too many SNAP recipients are spending far more on it then would be part of a healthy diet, and there wasting their valuable SNAP dollars that should go to buying long-lasting, healthier staples like rice, beans, and yes fruit and vegetables.
Then you got the that wide range of big spend on frozen prepared meals and frozen deserts. Desserts are as they are described. Should taxpayers be paying for them? Most people on food stamps probably could pay out of their own pocket for such treats, every once and while. I get that their funds are tight, still I don’t think we should be encouraging as a society any more then necessary junk food. Prepared meals are convienent, but they also are pretty darn unhealthy too. People should learn basic cooking skills, not be so reliant on overpriced paper and plastic and chemical meals.
Hunger is a real thing, and it’s a problem. 30 percent of SNAP recipients are children, 10 percent are severely disabled, 21 percent are elderly and quite frail, and all are very, very poor. Many would go hungry without SNAP. But too much of the program is being spent on overpackaged, plastic wrap chemical-food like items and not on basic nutritional needs of families. I am not against helping those truly in need get the food they need, but we the taxpayers shouldn’t be filling their carts with the products that are killing both their bodies with fat, sugar and salt – and the planet with all the paper and plastic wrappings.
People say I don’t understand true poverty. But I grew up quite poor and use to eat pretty piss poor food. Food stamps would go a lot farther at feeding the hungry if the program was much more limited on what it covered and included a nutritional and home economics educational program that taught people how to do basic cooking. I am not talking about 50 ingredient restaurant or commercial style food, but instead putting together ingredients in ways that provide necessary nutrients while being reasonably palative. I don’t think we should be punishing the poor, but I do think it makes sense to guide the poor to healthy foods that not only fill their stomachs but also power their lives.
I do a lot of reading and clicking on ads about low-income services and products. I enjoy figuring out the various products, how they work and how they scam or otherwise defraud the poor. Sometimes for some people in certain situations though they might be a good deal or make sense for them.
I am always looking to save a few bucks or earn a little more money, although most of the things I see marketed are incredibly scammy. But maybe I’m just resistent to change. But I’m always fascinated by how the poor live and get by, especially with everything being as expensive as it is these days.
My budget is always tight and I’m always looking for ways to save a bit of money. I do wish government programs like food stamps or housing assistance were available for me – it would be nice to get some healthy groceries for free or save a bit on rent. Not that I really need it – my rent excluding utilities is under 10% of my income and grocery bill is only a few percent. I’m fortunate compared to some but I wouldn’t mind a little extra to save towards tomorrow.
Most of the tips you find on the internet are marketing scams, silly or things that I do already. I installed energy efficient bulbs in my apartment the day I moved in 18 years ago. I keep the heat low, I don’t have a television, home internet or television. I unplug everything from the microwave to my computer when I’m not using it. I invest in high interest savings accounts and low cost index funds, do a lot of shopping at Wally World. All things the internet loves but aren’t a savings when that’s your norm.
Some day when I own my own land and live out in the country, I’ll probably be making a lot less money. While I’ll have more savings at that point, the frugal habits I have now will help me in the future. Maybe I’ll have lower expenses, although land and a home can be expensive to manage. But good habits I learn today can lead a healthier future.
Dolly Sods Road, straight as an arrow part of the way through Dolly Sods, reminds me of a true wilderness, like you might in Alaska or Idaho. It is always terribly washboard, because of the high elevation means it often dry. Strangely enough, parts of Dolly Sods are quite soggy because storms hit the east side of the Allegheny Front quite hard but the actual top of the front is quite dry as water quickly runs off it.
Finally put my summer clothes back in the attic. Got the remaining winter clothes out. I still can’t believe the warm weather has disappeared so quickly, it seems like it was just spring time a few weeks ago.
Roughly 15 weeks until Valentines Day when there is typically enough daylight at 5 PM to ride all the way home, assuming the bike path isn’t too icy or snow covered.
I am going to keep riding my bike into work whenever the bike path is passable or at least it’s not too cold. I’m not going to beat the shit out of my bike this time riding on the path if it’s totally covered with frozen ice and snow, though I may take the Delmar Bypass and Corning’s Hill, which is better now that they repaved it.
The nights will be dark heading down to the local bus. I have two fairly new front lights for my bike and I ordered extra rear-lights for use on my bike. I want to remain visible as possible to other motorists well after dark, and will probably add more reflective tape to the bike this weekend if I stop by the hardware store.
Not looking forward to taking the slow, and late local bus home, but there is no need to rush home to a dark and cold apartment all winter long. I’d rather just take the bus rather then drive my big jacked up truck back and forth to the office all of the time. I don’t know, I’ll take it day by day. Certainly not having the express bus does limit options, but I’m not ready to give up riding or avoiding driving whenever possible.
The man who spoke to Semafor also said he once met the former mayor at a Mets game in 2016. “How bad is it having the same last name as me?” the former mayor apparently asked him. “Dude, you’re killing me,” the Long Island man said he responded.
Though their names are quite similar, lest you mistake them for identical: The former mayor spells his last name with a space and a lowercase d, while the man who spoke to the Times sticks with no space and an uppercase D. As the no-space-uppercase DeBlasio put it to Semafor, only “low-class Italians use a little d.” Case closed, I guess!
I was surprised that SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), the food stamps program is not like WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) in that there is no requirement that foods be healthy. SNAP prohibits certain items like hot food, alcohol, and tobacco – but not specifically prohibit processed, unhealthy foods. There is no list of SNAP legal foods outside of those broad prohibitions.
Is there really much of a difference between consuming tobacco and alcohol, and eating a candy bar or drinking soda? Or eating hot pockets? While snacking on candy bars won’t get you into an immediate auto wreck this afternoon, it will lead to diabetes, heart disease, obesity and a shorter lifespan. I really don’t think the government should be using taxpayer resources to subsidize death and disease.
The USDA has been pushing back against Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s push on the use of food stamps to buy soda and other junk food. They say it’s difficult to technically implement but I would argue that’s not true if they can do it already for WIC. Why should processed foods be part of SNAP? They already ban hot foods, so I don’t see why they couldn’t ban most other processed foods and have a much more limited list of healthy, nutritious foods that support a healthy body.
Restricting food stamps to healthy foods only makes sense and would save the government money. It could also be used to increase food stamp allotments to individual recipients – if some people choose not to fully utilize their benefit – they could plow that into a higher overall allotment for all recipients, ensuring that people have more healthy food.
