Gawker recently featured a
post advocating food stamps for the underemployed. And, since it's Gawker, the post also makes fun of NYU's student-run news blog NYU Local, whose authors
may have been a little too outraged to discover one of their own taking advantage of the program. It all started when
The New York Times covered an NYU journalism graduate student who is receiving food stamps, since he only makes $450 a month through freelance writing jobs.
But all gawking aside, the bloggers make a valid point—food stamps exist to help
anyone who qualifies for the program, whether a struggling family of four or a grad student, and nobody should feel ashamed to participate in the program.
I checked out the
website for the Department of Agriculture's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the agency that supplies food stamps. The primary requirement is that the family or individual's income should be 130 percent or less of the federal poverty guidelines, which is why the grad student was eligible.
You have to apply for food stamps on a state level, and a handful of states even offer
online applications—handy!
Do you know anyone on food stamps? Does it surprise you to read about a grad student using the program?
Comments (16)
I only know people who abuse the system. I'm sure there are needy people out there, but the ones I know have nice cars, fancy cell phones, and cable TV. So I'm not a fan.
I think food stamps are there for anyone who needs them at the time. Why should the grad student be any different? I'm sure he/she is having just a rough time as an uneducated person taking care of their family with a minimum wage job. Just because you have an education doesn't mean you automatically can get a high paying job.
@averyswife@xanga - some people do abuse it, and they are usually the ones that are able to get the help. Me and my husband need it but can't get it, because he makes too much gross income.
Food stamps are a way of life for many people in my community. My only encounters with Food Stamps is when I buy them on discount. Food Stamps are currently going for 40 cents on the dollar, which means that you can get twenty dollars of food stamps for eight dollars. That's just a smart investment for the buyer.
One of the biggest reasons a person will sell their food stamps is alcohol and cigarettes. Another is to get hairs and nails done at a salon. I'm not saying its legal, just that its often done. Who wouldn't want to buy food for the fraction of the price?
I have no issues with food stamps as long as the person or family needs them. I dont think a grad student is any diffrent. I would rather help them through grad school with my tax dollars so they will get a better job and hopefully not need the program anymore, then someone who gets foodstamps and just sits around playing games or watching tv not even attempting to better him/herself so they are selfsufficiant.
@DeLasombra@xanga - Where do you buy food stamps? I'm jealous, groceries are expensive
I know people on food stamps, who have been on food stamps, I myself was on food stamps and for a while my mother was when I was a little kid.
However, food stamps can be abused, as well. People can sometimes use them for things they shouldn't be using them for, if you know how to get around it. Even with EBT cards it is possible. And some people intentionally attempt to be unemployed in order to get food stamps, as well as other welfare.
A lot of states have it so that if you are unemployed, you have to go around handing in applications around town or around where you think you could commute if you had to. This is also easy to get around. You just have to hand the app in and write down where it was, who you gave it to. Most of these places, if it's checked they just call and ask "did so-and-so hand an application in on-this-date, at-this-time, to so-and-so?" and if the answer is yes that's it.
However, you can make sure that you won't get hired if you don't fully fill out the application. And even if you get a call back, you can always say that you aren't interested.
Not everyone does this, but a lot of people do. Welfare, food stamps, all things like this are meant to be a hand up and not a hand out. But, some people would prefer the hand out, so instead of putting that effort into getting a job and keeping a job and supporting yourself or your family on your own, they make a career out of cheating the government like that. Which also means that these kinds of programs have less money in them than they should, because they are being used for people who probably don't really need the program if they wanted to do something about it.
But, I know that any time you have something like this there are going to be people who abuse the system. It's just how it is. And I applaud the people who use food stamps the way that they are supposed to use it, and other government programs. I have no animosity toward people who truly need it and are using it as it is meant to be used. :)
I think that food stamps and other government programs that are designed to give people who are struggling and meet the requirements a hand up are good and that we do need them. I would be very sad to see them stop.
But, I think for the most part these days, people dislike food stamps and other government programs more because of the people that abuse them. Whereas, it used to be a matter of pride. I think for some people it still is, but for the majority in this society today they are just thinking of those who abuse what is supposed to be there to help people. Ya know? :/
My mom is currently on food stamps. She lost her job, over a year ago, and has had no luck getting another one. She has a mortgage payment of $1400 every month, other bills to pay, so It's great that she's getting food stamps to at least be able to eat!! We're all living in the same house now, so that we can all help each other out. My husband is now unemployed again for the 2nd time. Yes, there are people who abuse the system, but there are also plenty of people who really do need the assistance. I would GLADLY pay taxes into welfare so that the people who need it can get it, even if that means a few who abuse the system will get it too. I won't be caught on a blog, complaining about how my taxes mean more than other people and people on assistance probably don't need it. Usually, and this is just my opinion, the ones who whine and complain about welfare the most, are usually the most self absorbed people, who spend way too much time whining and think they're better than everybody else. People just need to get over it.
And for the record, when we were on food stamps, well over a year ago, I was working and paying taxes too! We didn't make much money and we needed the assistance. But, since I was working and taxes were being taken out, my taxes do count for something. No one's taxes are or were more important than mine, so really, people can shove it!
I got through college on my own dime, working my butt off with scholarships and loans. I worked as much as I could, but with my class schedule, I couldn't pay my rent and bills and buy food, so I got food stamps. I actually initially applied for medical assistance, because I didn't have insurance, but I was turned down for that (apparently college is a luxury - even though I wasn't paying for it out of pocket) but they gave me food stamps. That extra money really helped for a couple years while I finished college! Of course I got screwed in the summer because I was making more money, but at the end of the summer when I went back to school, it took them 4 months to re-instate them. I also thankfully wound up getting medical assistance - I wound up in the emergency room twice one month and would have have tens of thousands of dollars in bills instead of the few hundred I wound up paying.
Welfare works for people who actually need it.
I'm a recent grad and my husband is in college still and we receive food stamps. I hesitated getting them because I felt that they should go to someone who really needed it, instead. One day we talked to his counselor and she said that the folks who need them are getting them, and that if we qualify we are one of those that need them. Put things in perspective for me. It's really helpful. When we get on our feet I will gladly pay my taxes to help this program. Yes, people abuse the system, but there are those who really need it and take the "temporary" part of "temporary assistance" to heart.
On the other hand, there are people who can't afford to have a job because they will lose Medicaid and that's why we need healthcare reform. But that's another topic.
My husband works full time and I stay home with the kids and we get food stamps to help cover some of our monthly groceries (we have 4 kids). And it really helps since his ex wife doesn't pay child support like she's supposed to for our two older kids. Once our youngest starts school I will go back to work part time and I'm sure we won't need them anymore. If I were to work part time now all the money I would make would just go to day care, that's why I stay home.
i work at a grocery store and i constantly see people using food stamps, and a lot of them don't even look like they need it. they wear designer clothes, have designer handbags, and one woman was even going to hilton head for vacation. now i'm not saying everyone who uses food stamps is like this, but in my opinion, if you can afford all that, you don't need to be on food stamps.
@DeLasombra@xanga - well when they catch you buying them, you will go to jail just as the one selling them. Food stamps are for people who need them, not idiots like you to buy, so they can get cigarettes. All you people should live in some poor country that has not eaten in days, to find out how easy you have it.
Hope they catch up with you!
Wow. The next time I go grocery shopping, I'll be very careful to "look" like I "need" foodstamps before I use them. I used to think I was paranoid...choosing an older kind looking woman as a check out person instead of a younger person who may be more likely to get snotty with me. I take my kids with me...see??? I have kids to feed! Now I'll be careful to look as poor as possible, too. So as not to alarm anyone. This conversation has been so enlightening.
My husband and I used food stamps for 3 months last year. I'm in grad school, and he was job hunting constantly but still couldn't find work. We had maxed out my Stafford loans and no one would give me a private loan. The thing a lot of people don't realize is that you don't qualify for food stamps unless you're working or have children (at least in Texas). So, the scenario of a bum who would rather get free money than work isn't really realistic unless we're talking about parents, and then we go ahead and give them the food stamps anyway because it's not their kids' fault. We were only eligible to receive the food stamps for those 3 months since my husband didn't have at least a 20 hour a week job. When he did get work, we reapplied and considered going back on them now that we were eligible, but realized that we could live without them, so we didn't get them.
It makes me sad that people abuse the gift and sell their food stamps for beer money and such, but I'm okay with it - any time you do a program to help out the people who need it, you have to balance between being so strict & selective that some people who need your help won't get it, and so open that anybody who wants to can abuse your charity. I would rather err a bit toward being open to abuse than have people starving for lack of a program like this. Even with having family that I knew would do whatever they could to help us if we absolutely needed money, it was terrifying to not have enough to meet all our needs like food, school books, and bills even after we were doing everything we could to cut back.
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