Food Stamp question

[maxiesmom]

Besides, helping people to get through school so they can make at least a living wage is what food stamps and other government assistance is for.

According to the government's web site food stamps "helps low-income people buy food". That is it.

 

[Colleen27]

The little I know about WIC comes from what I learned from my foster daughter's case. You are allotted a certain amount of items - fruit, dairy, grains etc per month per child. You have a card just like a debit card and the WIC eligible items are noted on the shelves at the grocery store. There are quite a large variety and surprisingly, to me anyway, the grains are whole grains and the dairy low fat (I think under 2 you can get whole milk). So I could buy whole wheat taco shells but not the white ones. We don't opt to take WIC for FD because we simply don't need it and you have to meet with a nurse every month and I've heard from other foster parents that its not pleasant. If she was on formula I would probably do it, but the amount we get in board covers the amount she eats.

That's how it is here too. WIC provides specific products, and you have to choose from a list of approved brands/types/sizes. It is a good program in that it supplements with only healthy food but the requirements are difficult for working parents to comply with and it isn't the most efficient thing in the world because of how the approved product list is handled. If you shop at a major retailer like Kroger, you can get store brands. If you live in an inner city or rural area and shop a minor/non-chain grocer, you have to buy the much more expensive Juicy Juice or Starkist or other name brands because smaller stores' private labels aren't on the approved list.

And that doesn't teach budgeting. You don't educate someone on how to handle money by taking away all autonomy, nor by encouraging that sort of "price is no object" approach to grocery shopping. Food stamps as they exist today teach those lessons far more effectively - you have $XX to get through the month, and how you use it is up to you. If you think it is worth having grilled cheese, eggs, and pasta for dinner a couple-few nights a week to splurge once in a while you can. If you want meat every night, you have to buy the cheaper cuts and watch for sales. Those trade-offs teach lessons in a way that a voucher-based system cannot.

 

[luvsJack]

According to the government's web site food stamps "helps low-income people buy food". That is it.

And while going to grad school she probably WAS a low-income family, but she was working toward getting out of that income bracket and for that she should be commended not put down or told she was wrong for using the resources available to her.

 

[leahjade]

The way each person spends the benefits that they get is not your business, it is the govs business.

Wrong what you do with the money you EARN is your business, what is done with the money taxpayers give is their business. I wish everyone could work a week at a government assistance office or a non-profit and you would see how much the system needs changed.

 

[tasha99]

And while going to grad school she probably WAS a low-income family, but she was working toward getting out of that income bracket and for that she should be commended not put down or told she was wrong for using the resources available to her.

Thank you. Before going back to grad school, I was low income, but not food stamp low. I got the EIC and worked. I worked and volunteered in my prospective field during my postbac year, but during grad school, that wasn't possible. I was "no income" so I quit getting the EIC but was eligible (or rather my kids were) for food stamps.

Someone suggested working through grad school, but that was not an option. Between academics and clinic time, it was anywhere from 60-80 hours/week already. I tried to work at night in the computer lab since it was empty and the people who worked there just did their homework on the job, but I didn't get that. Not many employers will hire someone to just sit around and read school material, and with the recession, those few jobs were hard to get. Part time school was also not an option--the slots in my program were competitive and limited, and they didn't accept part time students.

But, oh well. My cohort of 23 people had two single moms who got some food assistance through school. We both made it through and have good jobs now. I think going back to school worked out well from all perspectives--my family has more (it's gonna hit us next year when my oldest kids no longer qualify for Pell Grants, lol) and the government has more because we no longer qualify for aid and are paying in.

 

[leahjade]

Someone suggested working through grad school, but that was not an option

My husband and I both worked full-time with high stress jobs while going to grad school with 3 kids - we never even thought of quitting our jobs and going on public assistance, wow what you learn on the disboards!

 

[luvsJack]

Wrong what you do with the money you EARN is your business, what is done with the money taxpayers give is their business. I wish everyone could work a week at a government assistance office or a non-profit and you would see how much the system needs changed.

I don't have to work there, I have spent enough time there between the years I used assistance myself and the few years ds and dil did. I know there are those that abuse the system. But there are many more stories of people that do not abuse, that use the system the way it was intended and either work there way out of the system or continue to use it due to disablities, or some other inablity to work.

What is the taxpayers business is the things that can be changed by legislation, that doesn't include what YOU think someone should or should not buy on food stamps. That doesn't include the 5 minutes you see in the grocery store that tells you nothing about the person you are observing.

 

[marmalade]

My husband and I both worked full-time with high stress jobs while going to grad school with 3 kids - we never even thought of quitting our jobs and going on public assistance, wow what you learn on the disboards!

Did you have help from family or friends to watch your kids while you and your DH were at work or at school?

 

[luvsJack]

My husband and I both worked full-time with high stress jobs while going to grad school with 3 kids - we never even thought of quitting our jobs and going on public assistance, wow what you learn on the disboards!

There are many programs of education that require you NOT to work. We have several AAS programs that during clinicals, specify that the student cannot work. Many have to stay out of town during their clincals, so even if it wasn't specified, they still would have a hard time doing it.

Student teachers at the nearby univerisity are told they cannot hold a job during their student teaching.

What you did worked for you. Doesn't mean it works for everyone. You cannot judge everyone by your own experience.

 

[NYEmomma]

My husband and I both worked full-time with high stress jobs while going to grad school with 3 kids - we never even thought of quitting our jobs and going on public assistance, wow what you learn on the disboards!

Depends on what program you're going through, whether working while attending school is possible or not.

My husband is a semester away from his MBA and has worked full-time and taken care of our daughter (and me with this pregnancy) the whole time. But that's because the program was set up in a way that he was able to... and he's spent 6 years to do a simple master's program because that's all the time & money we could afford.

I have a master's in education and like a PP said, at certain parts, it not only wasn't possible, but it wasn't ALLOWED that I work.

The impression I get from the PP in question that went to grad school and couldn't work, it appears as if her degree is in the medical field and the nursing students I know work an absolutely ridiculous number of clinical hours... there's just no way they can work on top of clinicals and school.

 

[Hannathy]

The impression I get from the PP in question that went to grad school and couldn't work, it appears as if her degree is in the medical field and the nursing students I know work an absolutely ridiculous number of clinical hours... there's just no way they can work on top of clinicals and school.

Then you don't do the program until you have saved enough money to afford it while you don't work. Or you find a program you can work while you go to school. You don't expect other people to pay for you.

I don't think grad students should get food stamps or other "welfare"

 

[marmalade]

Then you don't do the program until you have saved enough money to afford it while you don't work. Or you find a program you can work while you go to school. You don't expect other people to pay for you.

I don't think grad students should get food stamps or other "welfare"

But as PP stated prior to grad school she was receiving EIC, and stated if not going to school she would probably continue receiving it for years to come. But now that she was able to receive FS for her time in school she is no longer receiving EIC and paying her fair share of taxes.

It seems to me that the short time PP received the FS assistance is a lot less than the years she would have been receiving EIC and not paying any taxes at all.

 

[Ginny Favers]

Yeah, I feel like a sucker that I had to turn down the grad school I was accepted to and stay in my same low-income job because I couldn't afford the tuition... and here I am paying for other people to get ahead, instead.

 

[maxiesmom]

Then you don't do the program until you have saved enough money to afford it while you don't work. Or you find a program you can work while you go to school. You don't expect other people to pay for you.

I don't think grad students should get food stamps or other "welfare"

I agree.

The young man I mentioned is actually going into a medical program. He dropped his third job (where he worked where I work) in order to go. He had worked 3 jobs (bar tending, catering hall set up, and retail sales) in order to save enough to be able to do it. No food stamps necessary, he worked hard and saved.

 

[luvsJack]

Then you don't do the program until you have saved enough money to afford it while you don't work. Or you find a program you can work while you go to school. You don't expect other people to pay for you.

I don't think grad students should get food stamps or other "welfare"

How exactly do you propose someone do that if the low paying job they are in doesn't pay enough for them to save anything????

Would it be oh, so much better for her to have stayed in the low-paying job, not returned to school and continue NOT paying taxes and receiving EIC? Or even better, the students whose low-paying job DO qualify them for foodstamps and welfare, maybe they should just continue in the system instead of bettering themselves and getting out of it?

You can't have it both ways. You can't sit and judge that everyone on assistance should be trying to do something better and then sit in judgement of someone that uses the system to do the very thing you keep preaching that others should do.

Its like you and other posters resent so highly that someone receives assitance that you cannot see the forrest for the trees you keep staring at.

Yeah, I feel like a sucker that I had to turn down the grad school I was accepted to and stay in my same low-income job because I couldn't afford the tuition... and here I am paying for other people to get ahead, instead.

That was YOUR choice. Her choice was not wrong. She did what she needed to do to get an education so that she could support her family.

 

[luvsJack]

I agree.

The young man I mentioned is actually going into a medical program. He dropped his third job (where he worked where I work) in order to go. He had worked 3 jobs (bar tending, catering hall set up, and retail sales) in order to save enough to be able to do it. No food stamps necessary, he worked hard and saved.

Did he have family and children? Was he the main caretaker of those children? There are many more factors involved than "get three jobs and pay for it".

Is everyone so blind to the fact that every situation is far from being the same?

 

[Hannathy]

I said Graduate school! Big difference to get into grad school they have already earned a bachelors. They can get a job. I'm not talking about being in school to get their associates or a certificate or even their bachelors I'm talking grad school

Get a job and when you get a job that helps pay for grad school or you save enough then you go back. You don't get to be a professional student at others expense.

 

[marmalade]

I said Graduate school! Big difference to get into grad school they have already earned a bachelors. They can get a job. I'm not talking about being in school to get their associates or a certificate or even their bachelors I'm talking grad school

Get a job and when you get a job that helps pay for grad school or you save enough then you go back. You don't get to be a professional student at others expense.

Just because you have a bachelors degree and can get a job doesn't necessarily mean you can earn enough to support your family and save all the money needed to attend grad school. The PP you are talking about was receiving EIC, so obviously with her degree she wasn't making enough money or else she wouldn't be getting EIC. But now that she received a few years of food stamps she is no longer receiving EIC and is now paying taxes.

I honestly don't see how this is a bad thing?

 

[luvsJack]

I said Graduate school! Big difference to get into grad school they have already earned a bachelors. They can get a job. I'm not talking about being in school to get their associates or a certificate or even their bachelors I'm talking grad school

Get a job and when you get a job that helps pay for grad school or you save enough then you go back. You don't get to be a professional student at others expense.

"Before going back to grad school, I was low income, but not food stamp low."--from her last post.

Having a bachelor's doesn't mean you get a high paying job. Heck, it doesn't even mean you GET a job. I know a few bartenders with a bachelor's degree.

And going to grad school doesn't equal being a professional student either. She wasn't in school just to be in school and received FA and benefits, she got an education is now contributing to that system that helped her.

 

[MrsMears]

It's my understanding that the FS contract states when a receipt enters into a certain income bracket anytime in their life the FS's get paid back.