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Food Stamps - Page 5

Look at the conditions our poor generally have and you will have answered your own question. The poor and starving of a vast majority of the 3rd world nations would love to have it as good as the poor in the US. Seriously, talk to anyone that works the cash registers at a grocery store and ask them how the people who come into the store that use food stamps look. Ask them what the poor buy. Ask them how the poor got to the store. Ask them did the poor have time to text while waiting to checkout. When we use the word poor in the US, for a great majority that fall under that umbrella they certainly would not be considered poor in another country.

Stamps Food

Agreed. I have seen this many times in the US where the US 'poor' have facilities and access to things that others could only dream of in other countries. North Americans like to compare too much:

Am I keeping up with Hollywood or the person next door? If I am not then I have to get whatever help I need to ensure I have all the facilities and comforts I want at my disposal.

Another key factor here is diet. A lot of north Americans consume too much, and if they focused on a healthy lifestyle they might see where they do not spend as much on junk and can therefore use the money towards more healthy living thus leaving out the need for Food Stamps. Of course there are genuine cases out there but most likely not to the large amount that the US currently supports.

Food Stamps Reviews Consumer & Travel Family Culture

Record one in six Americans now on food stamps as depression escalates:

While the mainstream media has all but convinced most Americans that the nation is slowly climbing out of the "recession," new statistics released by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggest otherwise Ref. Source 6

Page 5 Stamps Food

My husband was recently (March 2011) laid off from a job that he had for 7 years. We have six children (all boys ages 2-11) to support. It was an extremely difficult time for us. We do have a decent amount of food storage and a large garden. We do not have fancy phones--just a $25 per month trac phone and we do not have cable television. We have an antennae on top of our house. We applied for government benefits as we needed the health insurance help, since we lost our health benefits when the job ended. We have two children with special needs and one with a health condition that needs to be monitored continuously. I suffered from some depression when we turned to government assistance for help. Never in my life have I experienced depression. We are very independent, self-reliant people. I knew we truly must be in a difficult circumstance if we were asking the government for help. We have never done this before. Because of my husband's unemployment, we qualified for food stamps. We were asked by government employees if we wanted it to be continuous, month to month or a temporary three month grant. We opted for the TEMPORARY help as we were hopeful that my husband would be able to find employment within the next three months. Luckily, he found another job three weeks after losing his job!

However, we were quite surprised to see how much money was on that food stamp card. It was more than we spend on our budget in three months for groceries, and we are a family of 8. We had assumed that the amount on the card was for the entire three months of TEMPORARY help. However, it turns out that the amount given on the card was for each month. We NEVER spend that amount on groceries each month! We took the TEMPORARY food stamp help to stock up on our food storage and on basic items--baking soda, flour, sugar, salt, shortening, oil, etc...We were grateful for this temporary help, and grateful for the food stamp program during this time period in our lives of unemployment, but I do think there could be some budget cuts for this program. I think the program is great for temporary help, but I think the system is/has been abused by many over a long period of time and so it has a bad reputation. We felt bad for needing to get the government's help, but I think we felt that way because so many people have abused the program. We only used the program temporarily to get us back on our feet when my husband was unemployed. I am all for helping someone temporarily while they work there way to getting into a better situation. It was interesting to see how the government programs work. In Arizona, I don't know how illegals are able to use the programs as we had to provide several pieces of documentation containing our citizenship for each person in our family--birth certificates, social security cards, proof of address, utility bills, proof of residence, etc...

Stamps Food

Helping people that find themselves in situations like yours Pianomom is exactly what the spirit of the program was when initially created. However, you really can get food stamps being an illegal. Here is a website that pretty well explains the loopholes:

Source 1

Basically, the hurdles that they put up for you only stop the honest people. Arizona is pretty progressive in trying to stop illegals from gaining access to social programs, so it might be harder there.

Food Stamps

That my friends is where America fails her own citizens. On one hand you have those who do nothing and suck the most blood out of people like vampires, and then you have the others who participate in the blood bank drive so its always full for the suckers to keep sucking. The equation is simple, stop filling the bank and when the supply runs dry all the vampires will not come to feed anymore, they will go somewhere else, maybe even back to Transylvania-Mexico or wherever it is they come from.

Food Stamps - Page 5

I mentioned the illegals in Arizona on the food stamp program in particular because I live in southern Arizona so I know of many illegals that are somehow abusing the system and receiving benefits. We live a little over an hour away from the U.S./Mexico border. I just don't know how the illegals are able to get benefits, without falsifying data. For us, we had to show A LOT of documentation, and it was all certified by a notary. It is a HUGE problem in our state. Our state budget would be eased if we could solve getting illegals off the food stamps and health insurance that is state funded and paid. This was made for legal citizens of the United States.

Vincenzo

Our Arizona State government has been quite progressive in trying to ease this issue, but the federal government keeps getting involved and slowing down our progress.

Food Stamps Culture Family Travel & Consumer Reviews - Page 5

Wow, I find it disturbing that illegal immigrants are able to access these benefits. We're all going through hard times but the program was designed for people who I believe they are either legal US residents or citizens. I would like to know how often are they checked/supervised to find out if they continuously need the support?