The person who took those food stamps committed a crime. When I was cashier in California it was the rule to ask for Food Stamp card of person cashing in those food stamps if they did not have the ID I did not accept them. I rarely had food stamp people come thru my line. I am sure the word got out.
This was back in the 1980's and food stamps were a new thing to me. There were no cards to prove indent and the methods were sloppy.
People would go to the What ever it was called once a month and get their allotted number of food stamps in a tair out booklet. Those who were unable to get there were mailed the booklets to their home. The stamps if one could call them that, were in progression with $1.00-$5.00 -$`10.00, each booklet held IIRC $25.00 worth of stamps.
These stamps were often sold for less the value so the recipients could get cash to buy soap, toilet paper, shampoo, etc. non food items but necessary for them.
The military commissary's took food stamps, and coupons and it was a surprise to me to see all the young woman with kids in tow that were using them. These were the dependents that had to live off base as the waiting list for free housing was very long.
What to do, I became a Scofflaw and traded full price cash for stamps as people needed diapers for their kids, even Xmas and birthday presents. I did not make one penny on the trade, and I never had a twinge of conscious that I was doing anything wrong.
This was a underground act that we Officer and Chiefs wives did when we knew about a young enlisted mans family was in need.
Here is how it worked, once a month we would each put $50.00 in an envelope and give it to the wife of a Wardroom's husband.. She in turn turned the money over to a couple of wives that had the job of deciding what family needed the money the most---number of children, health issues etc. We except for those two wives had no idea who or what family the money went to.
The stamps were mailed to us, with no return address. We had the choice then to use them ourselves or give them to a family in need. Most of us did not even open the envelope we mailed them back to a PO> box with no name on it, just Resident or Box holder.
We took to this as a covert mission, keep the family's of the men on Subs intact or at least comfortable while they were gone 3-8 months. While our men were on patrol everything top secrete, we wives also had our secrets that helped keep good men at their jobs of defending us.
Then too there was the secrecy of the whole thing that almost made it a game to us, a mission that was to benefit our country. ---our husbands would become closed mouthed about their job and we in turn had the satisfaction of knowing we were also closed mouth to them for the same end, to insure the dependents of our men would not become a burden to them or worry as they were far away.
I do not know if we were breaking any kind of laws, perhaps we were as all the rigamoral about getting help from one place to another came up.
If we could keep just a couple family's intact, that was our goal and it did keep quite a few of the men in the nuclear Navy in service then heading out to make more money in civilian life.
Things have naturally changed, now id are needed and that plan has been thwarted, but I am sure there are other ways that we can help the dependents, a large Coupon exchange for example is now going on, and perhaps the Wives and dependents have found a way to do much as we did 30 years ago.-----Where there is a will, there is a way.
