study shows how 42M recipients spend their food stamps

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Junk food is cheap. Healthy food is expensive. Work from there.

The reality is that preparing healthy food is time-consuming, especially if someone is juggling two jobs or one job and childcare (e.g., getting kids to and from daycare, school, etc). It is exhausting to stand on your feet all day, then stand to cook as well as be present for your kids.

It effing sucks to not have money. My parents stressed over every meal as there were more mouths than portions. I grew up hating cooking because it = stress. Now I generally love to cook, but it took some years to get to that place.

So many excuses from well meaning, but misguided altruists.

It takes 10 mins to boil an egg. You can eat the white for protein and discard the yolk if you want.

You can eat a banana or fruit immediately.

Pasta takes 7 minutes.

I’m sorry but microwaving a hungry man dinner that’s 55% sodium and other crap hurts our country.

On a similar note, I’m tired of the “healthy at any size” movement.

Snap benefits primarily being used for fking soda and chips is why we are here. It affects everything from early death to military retention rates. Stop making excuses for unhealthy behavior because you feel bad about poor people. You are not helping with encouraging shtty food at every meal.

So a dozen eggs = 2.5 servings for a family of four. What happens for the rest of the week?

Pasta sucks. It really does. Just carbs carbs carbs. I make it for my family 1x/week with sauteed fresh veggies and a protein side or with tossed greens and browned Italian chicken sausage. That's it.

Fruit is great in the moment but there's no protein in it.

The real solution - people earning living wages through just one job, having an affordable home, and access to health care so if they are injured on the job they can recover and return to the work force as opposed to hobble around for the remainder of their life.

But somehow a bag of chips and a package of cookies is sufficient and better because they have lots and lots of calories? How?

America’s obesity problem is insane. Taxpayers are paying to make people obese and then paying for the people they made obese to receive medical treatment for obesity related medical conditions. people suffer when obese. We are really hurting our poorest population.

[Anonymous]

Policing the poor’s buying habits is one of the biggest hobbies of conservatives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Junk food is cheap. Healthy food is expensive. Work from there.

The reality is that preparing healthy food is time-consuming, especially if someone is juggling two jobs or one job and childcare (e.g., getting kids to and from daycare, school, etc). It is exhausting to stand on your feet all day, then stand to cook as well as be present for your kids.

It effing sucks to not have money. My parents stressed over every meal as there were more mouths than portions. I grew up hating cooking because it = stress. Now I generally love to cook, but it took some years to get to that place.

So many excuses from well meaning, but misguided altruists.

It takes 10 mins to boil an egg. You can eat the white for protein and discard the yolk if you want.

You can eat a banana or fruit immediately.

Pasta takes 7 minutes.

I’m sorry but microwaving a hungry man dinner that’s 55% sodium and other crap hurts our country.

On a similar note, I’m tired of the “healthy at any size” movement.

Snap benefits primarily being used for fking soda and chips is why we are here. It affects everything from early death to military retention rates. Stop making excuses for unhealthy behavior because you feel bad about poor people. You are not helping with encouraging shtty food at every meal.

So a dozen eggs = 2.5 servings for a family of four. What happens for the rest of the week?

Pasta sucks. It really does. Just carbs carbs carbs. I make it for my family 1x/week with sauteed fresh veggies and a protein side or with tossed greens and browned Italian chicken sausage. That's it.

Fruit is great in the moment but there's no protein in it.

The real solution - people earning living wages through just one job, having an affordable home, and access to health care so if they are injured on the job they can recover and return to the work force as opposed to hobble around for the remainder of their life.

But somehow a bag of chips and a package of cookies is sufficient and better because they have lots and lots of calories? How?

America’s obesity problem is insane. Taxpayers are paying to make people obese and then paying for the people they made obese to receive medical treatment for obesity related medical conditions. people suffer when obese. We are really hurting our poorest population.

Everybody is overweight or obese in the U.S. The standard American diet is trash. Nobody exercises. No wonder we have huge problems with T2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s. The situation with microplastics probably isn’t helping either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Policing the poor’s buying habits is one of the biggest hobbies of conservatives.

+1

Finding something they don't like in the shopping cart is just a way to de-legitimize helping the poor. Go check their shopping carts. Nobody looks at the nutritional value of that bottle of wine or the tub of Ben and Jerry's.

[Anonymous]

The whole premise of this thread is a lie. I read the USDA report EPIC claims to use, and the key findings were that overall breakdown of expenditures for SNAP and non-SNAP households are essentially the same.

https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/ops/SNAPFoodsTypicallyPurchased-Summary.pdf

Shame on you for trusting such a BS propaganda outlet!

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is not even close to the same. People on food stamps spend substantially less on vegetables and fruit. More on frozen food, desserts and sweetened beverages. Their diet is even more terrible than the typical American and taxpayers are subsidizing bad behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is not even close to the same. People on food stamps spend substantially less on vegetables and fruit. More on frozen food, desserts and sweetened beverages. Their diet is even more terrible than the typical American and taxpayers are subsidizing bad behavior.

And the reason for that has already been explained many times. Fresh fruit and vegetables don't keep, they take time, skill, and a stocked kitchen to prepare, and many low income people use food as pleasure/entertainment since they cannot afford additional activities.

You're being willfully obtuse. Why us it easier for you all to believe a whole contingent of the population chooses to act entirely illogically, than it is for you to believe the mechanics of our society are broken in such a way that their unfortunate choices are the result of them trying to survive that broken system? Do you honestly, in your heart of hearts believe that people WANT to live this way?

[Anonymous]

I blame Blackrock and Vanguard owned corporations that churn out chemical laden, addictive garbage, and the FDA that allows it to be called food.

Depopulation, people, depopulation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is not even close to the same. People on food stamps spend substantially less on vegetables and fruit. More on frozen food, desserts and sweetened beverages. Their diet is even more terrible than the typical American and taxpayers are subsidizing bad behavior.

And the reason for that has already been explained many times. Fresh fruit and vegetables don't keep, they take time, skill, and a stocked kitchen to prepare, and many low income people use food as pleasure/entertainment since they cannot afford additional activities.

You're being willfully obtuse. Why us it easier for you all to believe a whole contingent of the population chooses to act entirely illogically, than it is for you to believe the mechanics of our society are broken in such a way that their unfortunate choices are the result of them trying to survive that broken system? Do you honestly, in your heart of hearts believe that people WANT to live this way?

If they didn’t want to live this way, they wouldn’t.

For better or worse, our society maximizes freedom. This includes the freedom to make poor choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is not even close to the same. People on food stamps spend substantially less on vegetables and fruit. More on frozen food, desserts and sweetened beverages. Their diet is even more terrible than the typical American and taxpayers are subsidizing bad behavior.

And the reason for that has already been explained many times. Fresh fruit and vegetables don't keep, they take time, skill, and a stocked kitchen to prepare, and many low income people use food as pleasure/entertainment since they cannot afford additional activities.

You're being willfully obtuse. Why us it easier for you all to believe a whole contingent of the population chooses to act entirely illogically, than it is for you to believe the mechanics of our society are broken in such a way that their unfortunate choices are the result of them trying to survive that broken system? Do you honestly, in your heart of hearts believe that people WANT to live this way?

“Wanting to live this way” and willing to make positive changes to improve your lifestyle are not synonymous. There needs to be a a cutoff somewhere because right now too many people are getting welfare that don’t deserve it. Of course there are some people that genuinely come on hard times, but the % of SNAP recipients taking advantage of the system and getting benefits is too high. I especially have a problem with giving more benefits to people that continue to have children they can’t afford. There should be a two or 3 child limit for welfare benefit calculation purposes. Anything above this threshold and no additional money.

[Anonymous]

A lot of corporations and farmers getting welfare too, my friend.

[Anonymous]

“If yer don’t eat yer meat (veggies), how can you have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you won’t eat yer. Eat (veggies)”

Liberals want to give food aid to the “poor”, but they also want to control what they eat. Those school garbage cans bursting with food the kids won’t eat are evidence this doesn’t work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is not even close to the same. People on food stamps spend substantially less on vegetables and fruit. More on frozen food, desserts and sweetened beverages. Their diet is even more terrible than the typical American and taxpayers are subsidizing bad behavior.

And the reason for that has already been explained many times. Fresh fruit and vegetables don't keep, they take time, skill, and a stocked kitchen to prepare, and many low income people use food as pleasure/entertainment since they cannot afford additional activities.

You're being willfully obtuse. Why us it easier for you all to believe a whole contingent of the population chooses to act entirely illogically, than it is for you to believe the mechanics of our society are broken in such a way that their unfortunate choices are the result of them trying to survive that broken system? Do you honestly, in your heart of hearts believe that people WANT to live this way?

If they didn’t want to live this way, they wouldn’t.

For better or worse, our society maximizes freedom. This includes the freedom to make poor choices.

Thank you for at least owning up to your moronic stance that poor people WANT to live in poverty. Until people like you dispense of this totally nonsensical notion, we'll never solve these problems.

You believe they want it and are actively choosing it, and you think yourself morally superior and therefore in a position to judge and control them.

The reality is that our economic system REQUIRES an exploited underclass. The system itself creates poverty. The people in poverty are making choices you don't understand because you literally do not understand poverty.

But stand in judgement all you like. You and most Americans are far closer to poverty than you may realize. A job loss, a health issue, any number of things could bankrupt you tomorrow. And our systems would keep you barely treading water for the rest of your miserable life. And the percentage of the population living like this only grows every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Junk food is cheap. Healthy food is expensive. Work from there.

Chips and soda are not cheap! Frozen pizzas are not cheap! What junk food do you think is cheap?

Exactly. Growing up, we couldn’t afford that stuff.

dp This is 2024, not 1974. A 2 liter bottle of soda is cheaper than a half gallon of milk.

I also remember soda being expensive when I was younger. We only started getting it when my dad started making more when I was a teen. McD was also not that relatively cheap.

This is not the case today.

A little carton of fresh strawberries cost $4.99 (and sometimes $6.99). It's not much of a snack to last a week, and actually, it wouldn't even last week because it would start to get moldy. A bag of chips is $2.99 and can last a week.

A bag of chips doesn’t last a week. Chips cost between $6-$7 if not more per bag. Show me $2.99 chips.

You're not comparing like for like in terms of size.

A small carton with a dozen strawberries is $5. A small bag of chips that has more than a dozen chips is $2.99.

Fresh frozen strawberries are much cheaper than fresh and nutritious.

Apples
oranges
celery
carrots

what’s wrong with cucumbers and tomatoes and dressing as a side?

Your privilege is showing.

Fruit is very perishable. Most low income people cannot go to the grocery store more than once per week.

^Bloated government worker?

I'm the "fruit is very perishable" poster. I don't know if you're referring to me, but I work in the private sector, in tech. I've never worked for the government.

I eat fresh fruit almost every morning with my oatmeal, which takes like 30min to slow cook. Fruit is pretty expensive. We don't normally have chips in the house; the only soda we have is ginger ale, and a few small coke bottles for guests who want it. I wfh; I live a nice umc life. But, I didn't always. I grew up lower income, immigrant family.

I think so many of you live in a privileged bubble and have zero clue on what it's like to grow up in a low income, urban household, many with single working moms.

Now tell us you had soda and chips for supper. --Also from hard working immigrant family. We could never afford soda or chips. Ever.

Maybe you had a grandparent at home maybe an aunt too, neither worked, but they did provide free childcare and also prepared and cooked meals.

My extended family a generation ago lived as an extended unit and the older relatives took care of the daily household needs for the working adults and their children, they were poor and probably received food stamps for all I know, and yes they had time to go to multiple grocery stores once a week and shop for fresh veg and at low cost proteins, they also had friends with gardens and and fruit trees and in season they all shared fresh fruits and vegetables and they canned the excess.

They were poor, and they drank sugary drinks and chips when they had extra, but here’s the thing that life was really hard and not necessarily something that really exists in suburban and urban areas anymore. Times change and families change. The defendants of those people aren’t on food stamps they are all doing well. But when the occasional descendant falls through the cracks that same familial infrastructure isn’t there anymore to lift them up.

Don’t rest too solidly on your laurels as just about all first generation immigrants have the same story, i2-3 generations down the line, things crack, values change. People covet what they have, as they pulled themselves up by the bootstraps, or so they believe.

This is the story of America.

Poverty isn’t fun, making do with less in an increasingly expensive and urbanized/suburbanized country isn’t an easy thing to do, especially without a lot of family support. How many apartment dwellers have a wide network of friends that can drop off a free huge bag of squash, green beans, peaches or rabbits or venison. And a grandma who works sun up past sundown to pickle, can cook and bake from scratch for everyone in the house every day.

So the Government steps in where families and communities used to. Most people are doing the best they can. Living on margins.

I don’t disparage anyone for what they spend their SNAP dollars on. I have no idea their individual circumstances. There but for the Grace of God Go I.