Living on food stamps

[leahjade]

average is $4 a person per day

I don't know where this figure always comes from on these boards?? Our area (low cost of living) the figure is $700 per month for a family of four and we currently spend less than that on groceries now. Plus if you qualified for food stamps, your kids would get free lunches and breakfasts so it would be easier for you to do. I don't think it's quite the hardship people make it out to be - you can certainly eat healthy meals on that. Eating ramen noodles every day on food stamps is one of those urban myths.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

In our area a family of 5 would get 800.00 a month which is 300 more than we as a family of 5 spend on groceries per month. We have a budget we stick too . OP I know your intent was not to attack food stamp recipients but the fact is that food stamp recipients also get free breakfast and lunches for their school age children along with those food stamp benefits. You will need to factor that into your food budget. So 800.00 plus 1.25 for breakfast and 2.00 for lunch in my area per school age child.

To the person who said to take away all the technological stuff to make the poverty more real. I know people on welfare and food stamps and have talked to many social workers and there are many "poor people" who have more technology and high end clothes and shoes than I do. The family I am specifically thinking of bought a Xbox with rent money then applied for emergency funds to cover the rent.

6000 in EIC that my friends sister gets every year buys a lot of toys specially when she doesn't have to buy food or medical and has her parents certified as a day care so they can collect from taxpayers for watching their own kids the 20 hours a week she works so that she can have cash but no go over income limits.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[angierae]

Well I remember reading Mayor Booker's blog over the week he did that and the only thing I came away with was the impression that the Mayor had never had to grocery shop on a budget before in his life.

Seriously, he bought bagged salad, some cans of beans rather than the dried and soak method, and some sweet potatoes and then spent the week remarking on how hungry he felt. There didn't seem to be any attempt to shop sales, find useable coupons, meal plan or anything. And he couldn't even cook, he burned his sweet potato.

There was another lady who did the challenge about at the same time and her menu was amazing. She was the complete opposite though, she had handmade croutons and completely from scratch soup. As she pointed out in her blog though, she also had a kitchen fully stocked with working equipment, she could drive to any store to get the sale items, and she had a degree in Operation Logistics so she knew how to plan and then execute a plan. She also had a work at home job so she wasn't getting off the city bus from work at 6pm and facing a houseful of hungry kids who wanted to eat by 6:20pm.

I think somewhere in the middle is probably the reality of what could be expected of most people.

I think Cory Booker's experience was very telling, though. I know a lot of people who, if they found themselves out of work for a long period of time and had to rely on assistance would be just as unprepared. Being able to live on very little is a learned skill. There is a world of difference between me and my husband, as he grew up affluent and I grew up with a dad on disability and a stepmom who had to get social security as his caretaker.

 

[leahjade]

To the person who said to take away all the technological stuff to make the poverty more real

I worked in an assistance office for a year, and there were very few receipients who didn't have computers, video games and cellphones, so I think that would be more like a living in the 1970's experiment not living as a food stamp family!

 

[crisi]

I don't know where this figure always comes from on these boards?? Our area (low cost of living) the figure is $700 per month for a family of four and we currently spend less than that on groceries now. Plus if you qualified for food stamps, your kids would get free lunches and breakfasts so it would be easier for you to do. I don't think it's quite the hardship people make it out to be - you can certainly eat healthy meals on that. Eating ramen noodles every day on food stamps is one of those urban myths.

From here. http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/18SNAPavg$PP.htm

 

[momof3ds]

I will say this, it really depends on an individual's circumstances. I grew up on welfare, living in public housing. My mother had mental disabilities and psychological issues.

I don't know what she got every month but she wasn't great at making it last. Yes, I got free breakfast and lunch at school but that didn't help on weekends or school vacations.

Often, we had little or nothing left the last 2 weeks of the month.

Also, we had no car and the closest grocery store was overpriced with low quality meats and produce. This meant walking 45 minutes away to the next closest store (this continues to be an issue in many urban low income neighborhoods).

At the same time, I did have an atari game system which was the latest thing back then.

 

[pocomom]

I don't know where this figure always comes from on these boards?? Our area (low cost of living) the figure is $700 per month for a family of four and we currently spend less than that on groceries now. Plus if you qualified for food stamps, your kids would get free lunches and breakfasts so it would be easier for you to do. I don't think it's quite the hardship people make it out to be - you can certainly eat healthy meals on that. Eating ramen noodles every day on food stamps is one of those urban myths.

The figure comes from the snap website- they list Max benefits which is what everyone else is quoting, but other places on their website you can find what the average benefit (which I assume the working poor would qualify for) is, as $4 per person a day.

 

[robinb]

Why are you doing this? The Mario Batali Food Stamp Challenge is meant to show people how it feels to walk in the shoes of people who have a limited amount of money for food. It's meant to create empathy for people on food stamps. I may be wrong, but it seems that you are approaching this as a super-duper-Budget-Board-No-Spend-February-Eat-For-$10-Per-Day challenge all rolled into one. On one hand, I think it's fine to find inspiration to save money where you can. OTOH I am bothered that inspiration comes from the poverty and distress of others.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

The figure comes from the snap website- they list Max benefits which is what everyone else is quoting, but other places on their website you can find what the average benefit (which I assume the working poor would qualify for) is, as $4 per person a day.

My figure came directly from the application website for the state of indiana. I was curious at one point what our benefits would be if we were I qualify (which we don't) because we do budget only 500.00 a month for grocery shopping including pet food and cleaning supplies and not 800.00 a month on just groceries plus free lunch and breakfast.

My mother was a single mother with mental health issues and so I speak from experience about having the latest technology and clothes but no rent money (emergency housing would pay rent if the money was gone) my mom wouldn't have known a budget if it bit her on the nose. We were flush at the beginning of the month and nothing at the end.

She has worked and been off PA for decades but budget grocery shopping is still a issue. She likes prepared food. I think we all know on here that prepared food is expensive.

I think that is more the issue than the amount of benefits given. Education for how to budget and how to get the most for your grocery dollars is lacking. Well lacking regardless of income which is why I agree that some people are really unprepared if they lose a significant portion of their income.

We make our own pizza dough it is CHEAP and yet a lot of people I know equate bobelli with homemade dough.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[happygirl]

Millions of people do this a day, I don't see the educational benefit from it.

 

[Amii]

I homeschool my son and we did the same thing. We didn't go by the food stamp income guidelines. Instead I give him a budget and he had to buy organic food for 6 people. I started at $300.00 and we worked our way down to $75 a week. He had to plan the meals, make out a shopping list, purchase the food and prepare it.

I still have him plan and shop for the groceries using our budget for food. I think it's important for kids to learn these kinds of skills. He learned a lot form the whole process.

 

[kim929]

Those families would also get free or reduced school lunches as well as SNAP.

In RI, snap is the new name for food stamps.
You can qualify for Snap and not receive cash

 

[pocomom]

Why are you doing this? The Mario Batali Food Stamp Challenge is meant to show people how it feels to walk in the shoes of people who have a limited amount of money for food. It's meant to create empathy for people on food stamps. I may be wrong, but it seems that you are approaching this as a super-duper-Budget-Board-No-Spend-February-Eat-For-$10-Per-Day challenge all rolled into one. On one hand, I think it's fine to find inspiration to save money where you can. OTOH I am bothered that inspiration comes from the poverty and distress of others.

um.... thought it might help create empathy for my kids, plus be a learning experience for them and help us save.... shesh!

 

[descovy]

My family and I spent 6 weeks in a pay by the week motel.

In our case, we were not in dire straits. Old house sold too fast... new house not ready, and 6 weeks not long enough to rent an apartment, but too long to pay for anything nicer.

It was an eye opening experience. Families living there. School bus actually comes to the hotel to pick up the kids.

Our food bill shot up dramatically. There was no pantry. We had a microwave, 2 burner stove and a smallish refrigerator. A big pot, a little pot, and a frying pan.

It was not like home with a fully stocked pantry. We found ourselves at the grocery every other day (and thank god we had a car because it wouldn't have been an easy walk) You couldn't stock up when something was on sale, and you didn't have room for large packages. I'll kid you not, our grocery bill doubled, and we were NOT eating fancy.

In real life, some weeks I spend less than $50 week for a family of 5. But I have a fully stocked freezer. Some weeks its just a grocery list of bread milk and fresh produce. I could do this a month straight if I wanted to/had to. But it is not a realistic view of someone on food stamps not living in the suburbs with 3 groceries a 5 min drive away.

 

[riley2008]

I homeschool. Typically this time of year we start a unit on nutrition (coinciding with mommy needing to lose vaca and holiday weight and one of the lessons my kids and I have talked about working on is the Food Stamp Challenge. You may have heard Mario Battelli (sp) and Cory Booker have done it recently. Basically you commit to living on a food budget of a typical food stamp recipent for a week or in our case a month. We are adding to it the need for it to be healthy meals, not just ramen Our budget for our family of five is up for debate.... average is $4 a person per day but in our area I looked up our max benefits which would be almost 200 more a month .... so still deciding on that...
We'll be making most of our own household cleaners, and ditching a lot of paper goods. Although food stamps wouldn't pay for regular cleaners, vinegar, baking soda and what not would be covered since they are edible. I already coupon like crazy for personal care items so we probably have enough to just not buy any for the month.
In additon, we won't be spending anything for extra entertainment, no toys at the store, etc. no buying the kids new googles when they forget them for swim team, I was going to ok one fill up at the gas station a week, pet food, and medications and they would continue outside lessons, but no extra field trips etc. We will be working up to it all the next week and a half and then offically starting for February. If you are wondering how this is homeschooling (question my mom asked) we'll be working a lot of math in, journalling and using to to springboard discussions on poverty, relating it to history (great depression- we're even starting a victory garden)Lots of writing practice, computers. Also, we'll be using the time we have not going out to actually play with some of the things we have here! And of course it doesn't hurt to save some money post christmas /vacation! Anyone want to join us?
Obviously, our regular bills will get paid. The kids and I will be making up the official rules the next day or two... Anything else I 'm not thinking of?

I think it's a great idea. (And to the person who questioned how this is educational? ... anytime we do LEARN something, it's educational.)

For our family, my kids would LOVE to live off of the max foodstamp amount for our family. Junk food here they'd come. Wouldn't be a challenge for us - and no I'm not talking about even using anything in the pantry.

(Oh, don't forget, that if you are getting the max foodstamp amount you are linkely getting SNAP benefits too - you can get your cleaning supplies, papergoods, and dog food with that.)

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[Tina]

I will say this, it really depends on an individual's circumstances. I grew up on welfare, living in public housing. My mother had mental disabilities and psychological issues.

I don't know what she got every month but she wasn't great at making it last. Yes, I got free breakfast and lunch at school but that didn't help on weekends or school vacations.

Often, we had little or nothing left the last 2 weeks of the month.

Also, we had no car and the closest grocery store was overpriced with low quality meats and produce. This meant walking 45 minutes away to the next closest store (this continues to be an issue in many urban low income neighborhoods).

At the same time, I did have an atari game system which was the latest thing back then.

This could have been written by me, right down to the Atari system. I don't remember how we got that, but I do remember when we had to sell it for rent money.

You point out a very important fact here and one that we had to deal with: making the food last the whole month and not having access to the store. We had this same issue. We only shopped once per month, for the most part. My mom would get her food stamps and would have to ask someone to take her shopping. We did not have a car or live in a city with public transportation. Not even a taxi in town (not that we could afford one if there were). So imagine shopping "healthy" for the whole month. Fresh fruits and vegetables do not last 30 days without going bad (and are expensive). So we had to stick with boxed, canned, or frozen items. Also, I didn't have a fabulous home-schooling mom baking away in the kitchen all day to make healthy, creative recipes. Most people are on welfare for a reason. If they could stand in the kitchen all day cooking, they could probably hold a job too.

I also had free lunches at school (no breakfast option) - in elementary school. Once I entered Jr. High, that was over. I didn't each lunch after the 6th grade. So yes, when I got home from school, I was ready to eat and I wasn't interested in waiting around for old mom to whip up something healthy unless it took 5 minutes to cook.

Families on welfare and food stamps face a lot of challenges that go far beyond healthy, cheap recipes.

 

[pocomom]

Millions of people do this a day, I don't see the educational benefit from it.

Pretty sure it is educational for kids to plan meals, make a budget, discuss poverty, read recipes, cook, shop in the budget, make decisions about what to eat on X amount of money, create price books of what is cheaper where, analyze what worked and didn't work, learn unit pricing, weighing and measurements, handling money, adding purchases up, making choices on activities we do because of funds, cut coupons, make inventories, write lists, research how lifestyles have changed in modern history, discuss needs and wants and research and write on modern day poverty. Millions of people drive a car, speak chinese, or do some sort of high skilled job, doesn't mean it is not educational for my kids to learn about it.

 

[Tina]

(Oh, don't forget, that if you are getting the max foodstamp amount you are linkely getting SNAP benefits too - you can get your cleaning supplies, papergoods, and dog food with that.)

I don't know what SNAP is - it didn't exist in Michigan in the late 70's/early 80's when I was on govt assistance. Those items you mentioned were "luxury" items and not included in the funds we received. We struggled to buy toilet paper and tampons! Heck, I remember once when cashier argued with my mom that we couldn't buy a can of Crisco shortening with our food stamps, telling us that it wasn't "food." After going back and forth, my mom just gave up and had her remove it. Of course, the cashier was wrong about this. But who wants to draw attention with a book of food stamps in your hand?

 

[Miss Peach]

I homeschool my son and we did the same thing. We didn't go by the food stamp income guidelines. Instead I give him a budget and he had to buy organic food for 6 people. I started at $300.00 and we worked our way down to $75 a week. He had to plan the meals, make out a shopping list, purchase the food and prepare it.

I still have him plan and shop for the groceries using our budget for food. I think it's important for kids to learn these kinds of skills. He learned a lot form the whole process.

This sounds like a great lesson that will serve your son all of his life!

How old was your son when you started this project?

Speaking to the falicy that people on food stamps are struggling to get by...
We have owned apartment buildings for the past thirty years. Approximately two thirds to three quarters of our tenants benefit from government programs.

Not a week goes by that we don't witness someone trading a trip to the grocery store using their food stamps for cash/material goods.

Whenever we get a new tenant,9 times out of 10, we or our managers are approached with a trade of food stamps for rent. For example, we are usually offered $100 of grocery purchases for $75 reduction in rent. It is a currency. Most food is procured through church run programs.

 

[robinb]

Pretty sure it is educational for kids to plan meals, make a budget, discuss poverty, read recipes, cook, shop in the budget, make decisions about what to eat on X amount of money, create price books of what is cheaper where, analyze what worked and didn't work, learn unit pricing, weighing and measurements, handling money, adding purchases up, making choices on activities we do because of funds, cut coupons, make inventories, write lists, research how lifestyles have changed in modern history, discuss needs and wants and research and write on modern day poverty. Millions of people drive a car, speak chinese, or do some sort of high skilled job, doesn't mean it is not educational for my kids to learn about it.

You can do ALL of that without pretending to be impoverished in some strange money saving scheme.