Nothing makes me angrier than being in line behind someone with my basket full of store brand items while they have the cashier ringing up name brand everything and paying with their EBT.

I don't want anyone to go hungry, but I would support restrictions on what they can buy with their EBT.

I think if their address doesn't have them living in a food dessert, they shouldn't be allowed to use their cards at places like 7-11. I've seen people rack up $60 bills in 7-11 buying their insanely priced frozen food items. There's a Food Lion right across the street with much better prices! But the 7-11 is right next door to the main lower income housing apartments and closer than crossing the street and walking a bit through the shopping center so they mainly go to 7-11.

Anonymous wrote:Why? . Poor people need caffeine to work too and cant afford a 6 dollar matcha or oat milk latte every morning like the elitist snobs who look down on them.

Poor people dont need to be punished. If you want to go after sugar, go after Starbucks as well but you won't because the poor dont use food stamps for it

Then give them coffee not cola. Cola is like 85 grams of high fructose corn syrup. It’s terrible. You get a sugar rush and then crash. Also, I pay taxes and I have to pay for folks who get free food stamps who are morbidly obese because of cola?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-governor-calls-on-incoming-trump-officials-to-ban-junk-food-in-food-stamps-make-america-healthy-again

We shouldn’t be buying Coca Cola for welfare recipients.

Reminder: wasn't that long ago that conservatives got all kinds of outraged about the suggestion that people should eat less junk food and corn-syrup-laden sodas. And Sarah Palin defiantly hoisted a 64 ounce big gulp of Coca Cola to thunderous applause at CPAC.



It's so weird that Republicans have no historical knowledge or memory of what they believed and stood for just a few years ago.

It's so weird Democrats seceeded from the Union over slavery. They have no historical knowledge or memory of what they believed.

Plantation/slave owners were conservatives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I know is that the people I know who are struggling financially have so little joy in their lives, that if a can of Coke is going to make them feel a little indulgent, I'm not going to deny them that. I used to think like OP, that it's a no brainer to restrict SNAP benefits to necessities. Then I realized I have friends who are poor, and talked to them about it.

And why not a bottle of wine too? Rich ladies drink wine, who are we to deprive the poor of simple pleasures?

SNAP is supposed to be about feeding people.

If they want to buy Coke or Cheetos because that is important in their life they should do it with their own money, just as they would with cigarettes or alcohol.

I've seen this same argument before about how people using food stamps have full carts of junk food and I dont understand the surprise. Food stamps are a small fixed amount every month, and if you finish up the fixed amount, you have to wait till the next month

You get more items for your buck and a larger quantity of items when you buy cheap processed foods. It's convenient, faster, tastier than healthy food. If you only get 100 dollars a month food stamps, you arent going to shop at Whole Foods and buy artisan snacks and kombucha

Wrong. You’d get more for your money if you bought real food. A large 30-serving container of rolled oats is $3. Big bags of rice and beans are cheap. Milk is cheap. I could go on. There is an obesity epidemic and it is particularly worse for those that are low income. Food stamps should only be used for qualifying purchases, similar to WIC: specific lower cost produce, milk, eggs, bread, oats, beans, lentils, etc. This ensures heathy food must be purchased and consumed.

Anonymous wrote:I think part of the problem is that many people who rely on food stamps live in food deserts. It would be great if the government could provide incentives to discount grocery stores like Aldi's to spread to rural areas. The difference in price between Aldi's and more traditional supermarket chains is astounding.

The food desert argument is largely incorrect. https://news.uchicago.edu/story/food-deserts-not-blame-growing-nutrition-gap-between-rich-and-poor-study-finds Also, if people aren’t able to buy soda or junk food with EBT cards anymore, the stores in “food deserts” (which rely heavily on food stamp revenue) will have to sell healthier options if they want government money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I know is that the people I know who are struggling financially have so little joy in their lives, that if a can of Coke is going to make them feel a little indulgent, I'm not going to deny them that. I used to think like OP, that it's a no brainer to restrict SNAP benefits to necessities. Then I realized I have friends who are poor, and talked to them about it.

And why not a bottle of wine too? Rich ladies drink wine, who are we to deprive the poor of simple pleasures?

SNAP is supposed to be about feeding people.

If they want to buy Coke or Cheetos because that is important in their life they should do it with their own money, just as they would with cigarettes or alcohol.

I've seen this same argument before about how people using food stamps have full carts of junk food and I dont understand the surprise. Food stamps are a small fixed amount every month, and if you finish up the fixed amount, you have to wait till the next month

You get more items for your buck and a larger quantity of items when you buy cheap processed foods. It's convenient, faster, tastier than healthy food. If you only get 100 dollars a month food stamps, you arent going to shop at Whole Foods and buy artisan snacks and kombucha

Processed foods are not cheap and it is bizarre to pretend that there is no food middle ground between Whole Foods and Doritos.

For real! $100 won’t get you far at whole foods but it can get you very far at Aldi.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I know is that the people I know who are struggling financially have so little joy in their lives, that if a can of Coke is going to make them feel a little indulgent, I'm not going to deny them that. I used to think like OP, that it's a no brainer to restrict SNAP benefits to necessities. Then I realized I have friends who are poor, and talked to them about it.

And why not a bottle of wine too? Rich ladies drink wine, who are we to deprive the poor of simple pleasures?

SNAP is supposed to be about feeding people.

If they want to buy Coke or Cheetos because that is important in their life they should do it with their own money, just as they would with cigarettes or alcohol.

I've seen this same argument before about how people using food stamps have full carts of junk food and I dont understand the surprise. Food stamps are a small fixed amount every month, and if you finish up the fixed amount, you have to wait till the next month

You get more items for your buck and a larger quantity of items when you buy cheap processed foods. It's convenient, faster, tastier than healthy food. If you only get 100 dollars a month food stamps, you arent going to shop at Whole Foods and buy artisan snacks and kombucha

Processed foods are not cheap and it is bizarre to pretend that there is no food middle ground between Whole Foods and Doritos.

I think part of the problem is that many people who rely on food stamps live in food deserts. It would be great if the government could provide incentives to discount grocery stores like Aldi's to spread to rural areas. The difference in price between Aldi's and more traditional supermarket chains is astounding.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-governor-calls-on-incoming-trump-officials-to-ban-junk-food-in-food-stamps-make-america-healthy-again

We shouldn’t be buying Coca Cola for welfare recipients.

These poor people have very little so why deny them Coca-Cola? How the hell can this affect you?

I’ve been poor, third World country type of poor. So I’m not saying this to be heartless or because I haven’t been there.

Government funded food stamps and food programs should only be used for providing nutritious foods and not junk food.

For the same amount of food that you can buy a 12 pack of soda, $14 on sale right now at Safeway, you can buy the ingredients to make at least two nights worth of meals. When you have so very little, you need to use your benefits to the max. And that certainly does not include buying Coca-Cola.

If you want to use your own money for that by all means, nobody can tell you what to do with your own money. But even now I don’t buy soda because I think it’s a waste of money.

As to how this affects us, the comment up thread about subsidizing junk food now and then subsidizing medical bills for obesity later is right. This affects all of us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-governor-calls-on-incoming-trump-officials-to-ban-junk-food-in-food-stamps-make-america-healthy-again

We shouldn’t be buying Coca Cola for welfare recipients.

These poor people have very little so why deny them Coca-Cola? How the hell can this affect you?

Are you kidding? All of these people are on Medicare or Medicaid so we are also footing the bill for their medical care. So first we pay for them to drink soda and eat candy, and then we pay for their obesity and diabetes related insulin, surgeries, other medications. Of course that affects us!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I know is that the people I know who are struggling financially have so little joy in their lives, that if a can of Coke is going to make them feel a little indulgent, I'm not going to deny them that. I used to think like OP, that it's a no brainer to restrict SNAP benefits to necessities. Then I realized I have friends who are poor, and talked to them about it.

And why not a bottle of wine too? Rich ladies drink wine, who are we to deprive the poor of simple pleasures?

SNAP is supposed to be about feeding people.

If they want to buy Coke or Cheetos because that is important in their life they should do it with their own money, just as they would with cigarettes or alcohol.

I've seen this same argument before about how people using food stamps have full carts of junk food and I dont understand the surprise. Food stamps are a small fixed amount every month, and if you finish up the fixed amount, you have to wait till the next month

You get more items for your buck and a larger quantity of items when you buy cheap processed foods. It's convenient, faster, tastier than healthy food. If you only get 100 dollars a month food stamps, you arent going to shop at Whole Foods and buy artisan snacks and kombucha

Jumping from a cart of soda and candy straight to buying kombucha at WF just shows us that you KNOW you don’t have a decent argument.

Yes, of course it’s more convenient and faster to eat candy rather than make a sandwich or cook rice. So what. The purpose of the program is nutrition and stopping people from starving. That’s much better achieved by preventing people from buying things that you just admitted most will choose to buy given the option because it’s more convenient.

Anonymous wrote:First, this will never happen because the corporations who make these products will threaten to pull donation dollars from anyone supporting the idea.

Second, you all need to educate yourselves about the concept of food deserts. Many folks who use food stamps live in crappy areas where there aren't stores or markets that sell fresh foods. Or sometimes they do sell them, but they are incredibly expensive. So who is going to draw the line over what is fresh enough and what is too processed, and how will they ensure that everyone has access to a market selling affordable products? Also, many people on food stamps struggle with maintaining appliances/utilities that can be used to store and cook fresh food. How will that be addressed?

I mean, just say that you are mad that poor people are being given money for food. At least that would be honest.

There’s an entire category of items in the grocery store called “soda” and another one called “candy”. Hint: look at what’s written on the signs at the top of the aisles to find the items. That’s what we’re talking about here. Low hanging fruit that EVERYBODY acknowledges is unhealthy and causes damage to people. And we already exclude other unhealthy things in the grocery store from being able to be purchased with food stamps (no cigarettes for example). Literally the only attempted justification on this thread so far for leaving soda and candy as allowed purchases is “but poor people deserve some luxury!!” which is completely insane. Nobody deserves the luxury of someone else footing the bill so that they can suck down gallons of soda.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I know is that the people I know who are struggling financially have so little joy in their lives, that if a can of Coke is going to make them feel a little indulgent, I'm not going to deny them that. I used to think like OP, that it's a no brainer to restrict SNAP benefits to necessities. Then I realized I have friends who are poor, and talked to them about it.

And why not a bottle of wine too? Rich ladies drink wine, who are we to deprive the poor of simple pleasures?

SNAP is supposed to be about feeding people.

If they want to buy Coke or Cheetos because that is important in their life they should do it with their own money, just as they would with cigarettes or alcohol.

I've seen this same argument before about how people using food stamps have full carts of junk food and I dont understand the surprise. Food stamps are a small fixed amount every month, and if you finish up the fixed amount, you have to wait till the next month

You get more items for your buck and a larger quantity of items when you buy cheap processed foods. It's convenient, faster, tastier than healthy food. If you only get 100 dollars a month food stamps, you arent going to shop at Whole Foods and buy artisan snacks and kombucha

This is also just an excuse. You can buy a 20lb bag of white rice (11,821 calories) from the store for $11.14. A party size bag of chips (2,250 calories) from the same store costs $5.94. The cost per 100 calories for rice is 9.4 cents and it is 26.4 cents for chips. Junk food actually costs more per calorie than budget friendly healthier food.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I know is that the people I know who are struggling financially have so little joy in their lives, that if a can of Coke is going to make them feel a little indulgent, I'm not going to deny them that. I used to think like OP, that it's a no brainer to restrict SNAP benefits to necessities. Then I realized I have friends who are poor, and talked to them about it.

And why not a bottle of wine too? Rich ladies drink wine, who are we to deprive the poor of simple pleasures?

SNAP is supposed to be about feeding people.

If they want to buy Coke or Cheetos because that is important in their life they should do it with their own money, just as they would with cigarettes or alcohol.

I've seen this same argument before about how people using food stamps have full carts of junk food and I dont understand the surprise. Food stamps are a small fixed amount every month, and if you finish up the fixed amount, you have to wait till the next month

You get more items for your buck and a larger quantity of items when you buy cheap processed foods. It's convenient, faster, tastier than healthy food. If you only get 100 dollars a month food stamps, you arent going to shop at Whole Foods and buy artisan snacks and kombucha

You have seen the argument before because it is true. You get more food/calories per dollar buying real food than packaged garbage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I know is that the people I know who are struggling financially have so little joy in their lives, that if a can of Coke is going to make them feel a little indulgent, I'm not going to deny them that. I used to think like OP, that it's a no brainer to restrict SNAP benefits to necessities. Then I realized I have friends who are poor, and talked to them about it.

And why not a bottle of wine too? Rich ladies drink wine, who are we to deprive the poor of simple pleasures?

SNAP is supposed to be about feeding people.

If they want to buy Coke or Cheetos because that is important in their life they should do it with their own money, just as they would with cigarettes or alcohol.

I've seen this same argument before about how people using food stamps have full carts of junk food and I dont understand the surprise. Food stamps are a small fixed amount every month, and if you finish up the fixed amount, you have to wait till the next month

You get more items for your buck and a larger quantity of items when you buy cheap processed foods. It's convenient, faster, tastier than healthy food. If you only get 100 dollars a month food stamps, you arent going to shop at Whole Foods and buy artisan snacks and kombucha