Reminder that the shutdown is this friday and no word on food stamps for march.

if they didn't budget them thru February they are DUMB... They did not need to sell them off or whatever they did before the end of February.... I didn't begin spend MINE until February got here.

SUPPLEMENTAL
Nutrition
ASSISTANCE
Program


Definition of Supplement:
[link to www.merriam-webster.com (secure)]

(Entry 1 of 2)
1a : something that completes or makes an addition
b : dietary supplement

supplement verb
supplemented; supplementing; supplements

Definition of supplement (Entry 2 of 2)
transitive verb
: to add or serve as a supplement to
does odd jobs to supplement his income

Definition of Assistance:
[link to www.merriam-webster.com (secure)]
he act of helping or assisting someone or the help supplied : aid
financial and technical assistance
"Can I be of any assistance?"[=can I help you?]


Now. I don't see the phrase "Provide complete" or even "Complete" in the original law anywhere. SNAP exists only to supplement food stores for needy families. To help them round out their nutritional needs when they cannot be met by the income alone.

That too many needy famillies piss this away on soda pop and pre-packaged crap- or even (yes) lobster and filet mignon/sirloin strip is the new norm. It's fueled by intervention of the bleeding heart socialists and lobbyists for big agra. Have to keep those big beef prices up, dontcha know? Add to that, some recipients sell their SNAP card for 50 cents on the dollar for cash- to buy drugs or whatever... That's a new normal, too. Because they can get away with it.

One of my oldest friends is in social work (30+ years now in the Boston area), and has told me time & again about how jaded she has become from all the scammers she interviews. Lots from Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. She *must* approve them for SNAP/EBT/etc... because they showed up "in need" and cannot prove that they aren't the same "Mary Smith" who was kicked off SNAP/EBT last year because of fraud. Three baby-daddies, a 3-bed condo in a nice development (where a few units were set aside for Section-8). It is a disgusting, generational cycle.

There are at least a few food pantries in each city, some have dozens. Some rural areas are supplied by a few mobile pantries depending upon the weekend and historical demand. I know, as I have worked in many for the past 25 years.

Many people are too proud to use SNAP/Government assistance, but will use the Food Pantries. Most every SNAP recipient will also use the Food Pantries. And they are a greedy lot. They will go from pantry to pantry, like it's their only profession. Believe me- the peope who work at the pantries swap notes, LOL, and we know who the scroungers are.

They are usually lazy imbeciles who sound like they smoke a carton of cigarettes a week, and come in with a 4-year-old sipping soda from a baby bottle in a 500.00 stroller!

Like the woman who refused a bag of beautiful, fresh, local green beans instead of canned, high-sodium green beans. So she asked for the "recipe" for canned, sliced green beans. Huh? I mean, really, WTF?

And the man & woman who came in to my food pantry early December to register- had no birth certs for their 5 children, but demanded to get on the list for the "free Christmas gifts" because the Salvation Army was full up and sent them our way. They never came back after we told them we required the BC's... BTW she sat there clicking on her new iPhone with her fancy manicure, wearing a nice North Face coat... Ugh. Scroungers.

So, OP, fuck your "Starving" people. They are not starving. They are lazy as fuck. Their kids get free breakfast, lunch, snacks, sometimes dinner, and sometimes bags of free food to take home for weekends. ALL paid for by taxpayers. And all that doesn't make a dent in their SNAP/EBT allowance. It should! How freaking lazy does one have to be to not make your children breakfast/lunch/dinner and/or teach them to make it themselves?

Nope, all these SNAP/EBT kids know now is how to open a "can" of Mac & Cheese or Sodium Soup to microwave it. That is, unless they cut themselves on the darn metal lid and have to go to the ER at Taxpayers expense... (happens all too often, BTW). When I was a kid in the 70's & 80's, the "commodities" or actual "food stamp" recipient kids knew how to cook a basic, nutritionally-sound meal for themselves while their single mom was working. I had several friends who did this, and they had pride.

Oh, and heaven forbid that a needy family should "suffer" a 20-minute sermon before receiving several bags of free, nutritious food. This isn't a must at most food banks/pantries, but it is at some, especially in the south, as I understand. Local Food Banks/Pantries are the best- and most people who work them are saints.

I am not a saint. I am so cynical now about some of our "clients" that I'm quitting the food bank service. My time is better served teaching certain refugees how to garden/shop/coupon/prepare meals (i.e.: do not butcher and cook your goat on the cement floor of your apartment building).

Again, OP- shove your "starving" people up your yin-yang because that shit don't fly here. There are starving kids in Greenwich, CT. Why is that? Time to take the kids from the "parents." 'Cause they suck, and no kid deserves to be stuck with a lazy, fuckwit imbecile for a parent.

How about taking a deep, deep breath and slowing down for just a moment, please.

Granted, I cannot speak to the needy or the scroungers in the south. However, I can speak a little about another area of the country, where I have known a number of people and served in a food bank.

We have needy people here, some of them, genuinely needy. There are people who are elderly, low income, disabled, and really need the help of an EBT card. I do know some cheaters - there were only two food banks in this area, and I knew a few people who went to both, by using someone else's address for the area of one. This was their way of making it through the world, along with moving from town to town and telephoning churches for help. They were a young couple, she with a disability income, he doing nothing but being her payee.
Okay, not good.

A pair of sisters who claimed eight people each time they went to the food bank, though there were only the two of them. One on disability and the other sometimes working. Again, not good.

Mostly there were people really in need - people who couldn't manage without help.

Many were older, on a very small income, ashamed, but very much in need, having to swallow the pride and do the hard thing.

You seem to have had only bad events around needy people, and I am sorry this is true. However, when you express your anger, disappointment, dismay in this manner, you place a pall over those who truly have needs and are shamed further by your testimony, and by the people who read what you have to say and are immediately your cheerleaders and thence berate the needy even further.

Please remember some people truly are in harsh situations and require all the assistance they are willing and able to acquire. We need to have a care for their sensibilities and pride. Some of them are even on GLP!

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

A lot of people already forgot about that issue, If they don't give out funds before friday then it's go time for riots. People are already hungry and starving because the february benefits were given out around january 18th.

Get ready everybody.

OK, I took several deep breaths- circular breaths, even- before I decided how to respond to your post.

I am in the northeast. I never said I was in the south, only that I knew how things "rolled" down there via religious-based food pantries. I have eleven+ family members who work in food pantries down there (GA & SC), and most of them are religion-based (Baptist/Pentecostal/Episcopal). Not so up here in VT, NH & ME. And that is where my personal experiences, anecdotally as they are, come into play.

I do not only have "bad events around needy people," as you erroneously surmise. In fact, I had enjoyed 18+ years of serving others with hardly a bad taste in my mouth. Until the past 8 years or so.

It is evident from your response that you know somewhat about what I described- the scroungers who go from one food pantry to another. However, elderly and/or infirm people are NOT my target for disdain, and I believe that was pretty clear in my post. So, I would sug02gest that you also need to take a few deep, circular breaths. Really understand what I am writing here, OK?

About the infirm & elderly...
My children and I often help a 400+lb, 30-something man up the stairs and then down again with his food every two weeks. He has a condition in his leg (elephantitis? I don't ask) that makes it really huge and swollen. But he never complains and he is always chatting about how he will make 6+ dinners out of the pork roast we gave him, or a nice gazpacho from the tomatoes and peppers... Super nice young man, and he obviously has a need. He is just one we see regularly.

The elderly have been harassed by some of the more recent Food Pantry "clients." We see very few elderly lately (past 5 years or so), unless they are brought in by a younger relative. I suspect most now participate in the Meals on Wheels program, and there are also other food pantries via several churches who provide for homebound elderly.

However, in my area, we constantly see "refugees" from Maine. That means people from Somalia, Ghana, Congo (DR), Syria, Kenya, and other far-flung countries. They show up in minivans and huge SUV'sApparently, Maine cannot handle the influx of "refugees" into their cities of Portland & Lewi.on... and so, while the refugees enjoy the free cash (SNAP/EBT/Welfare) that the state of Maine gives them, they have also learned to travel west to New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts for the free food at our Food Pantries.

And the Food Pantries and Food Banks are such a huge draw for them, by word-of-mouth, that they are making it impossible for us to serve our local elderly and infirm. Many of them get nasty and even violent and threaten some of the elderly ladies who work there when they are offered meats which contain pork. They also harrass the elderly women & men who had been coming in to the Food Pantry for years. This was basically my breaking point.

I decided to help educate some of these "refugees" in food shopping & preparation (the ones who signed up for classes) instead of constantly pulling my hair out at their crazy antics. As far as I am concerned... the ones we can assimilate will hopefully pass it on to others. Just like our ancestors in NYC from Ellis Island: the Italians, Germans, Polish, Irish, Russian Jews, etc...

See, I'd like to be part of the solution, but in general... yeah, Fuck those scrounges using SNAP and EBT as a way of life. None of them have urgent need, in fact- none of them have any need. They are locusts! They take from those who are truly in need. I, in no way, feel shamed by my denigration of these scammers and scrounges. They leave next to nothing for those truly in need. And then they go and sell it at their flea market stall...