bitter old Vermontese cali primitive wants to improve food stamps

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024967894

Oh my.

cali (92,818 posts)    Sat May 17, 2014, 08:49 PM

What I'd like to do to improve the food stamp program

I wish there was some non-coercive, non-condescending way to help people on food stamps make better, more delicious, healthier food- and that means starting with what you purchase. My idea is that it would work something like this, only healthier and it would be free to food stamp recipients- and include a shopping list and cooking instruction and help- and yes I know that quite a few people who are poor don't have the freezer capacity.
 
http://dreamdinners.com/main.php?static=online_experience

So a group would get together (once a week instead of once a month) and the participants would get help customizing a menu for their families and cooking it, and their would be information about nutrition. It would/could also be a social thing, like a quilting bee.
 
I'm pretty sure it would work in my town which is home to this very cool place, and the people that run it or pretty fantastic. It's part of The Center for an Agricultural Economy which is a non-profit and they already do a lot for the local food pantry.
 
http://www.hardwickagriculture.org/vermont-food-venture-center

What do you think?

Edited to add for those who are saying they want to hear from folks in the SNAP Program:
 
I am on foodstamps. Here's my thread about my experience with the program:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024965981

[ExGeeEye]

Dat be too much like wo-

wor---

W...

Damn.  That $#!+ da cracka suckas be doin'.

[diesel driver]

Limit purchases to basic food items, no steaks, no prefab frozen crap, store brands and bulk items only.  

No sodas, no candy, no ice cream, etc.

Kinda like how WIC does it:  You get ONLY what's on the check, and ONLY what's on an approved list.

BTW, cali, if you're too f'n stooopid to figure out a menu, maybe you're just too f'n stooopid to live.  Please, eliminate yourself and your kindred spirits from the human gene pool, before another one of you "geniuses" piss in it again.

[Gina]

Food stamps aren't a lifestyle.  You shouldn't be on them long enough to make damn menus.

[Delmar]

I wish there was some non-coercive, non-condescending way to ...

If it isn't coercive and condescending, then it wasn't thought up by democrats.

[GOBUCKS]

I wish there was some non-coercive, non-condescending way to help people on food stamps

Food stamps should be coercive, condescending, and embarrassing.

Why not have a group that gets together once a week to figure out how to get off food stamps.

Deadbeats eating mushroom duxelles and dandelion salad with a shallot vinaigrette are still deadbeats.

And why should deadbeats be encouraged to have a healthy diet?

If they're going to stay on the dole, it's better for everyone if they die young.

[FlippyDoo]

What I'd like to do to improve the food stamp program...

1) Random drug tests to recipients. If it is okay to test those who are working to pay the taxes that fund the food stamp program, surely it is okay to test those who are benefiting from the food stamp program.

2) Require recipients to work. The work could involve picking up trash on the side of the highways or sweeping/mopping the courthouse.

3) Limit the items that can be purchased.

[Dori]

Limit purchases to basic food items, no steaks, no prefab frozen crap, store brands and bulk items only.  

No sodas, no candy, no ice cream, etc.

Kinda like how WIC does it:  You get ONLY what's on the check, and ONLY what's on an approved list.

I like the idea of a food barn/warehouse.  The food stamp users get their food there.  Only approved items are for sale.  Packaging is half the cost in super markets, why not buy some of the food in bulk.  There could also be an area for recipe exchanges or menu planning before they shop, to stretch their dollars.

It's sad, but some people really are clueless on how to stretch food dollars or prepare a healthy meal. 

[miskie]

I like the idea of a food barn/warehouse.  The food stamp users get their food there.  Only approved items are for sale.  Packaging is half the cost in super markets, why not buy some of the food in bulk.  There could also be an area for recipe exchanges or menu planning before they shop, to stretch their dollars.

It's sad, but some people really are clueless on how to stretch food dollars or prepare a healthy meal.

At least that what the primitive response would be to your sensible suggestion.

[I_B_Perky]

I like the idea of a food barn/warehouse.  The food stamp users get their food there.  Only approved items are for sale.  Packaging is half the cost in super markets, why not buy some of the food in bulk.  There could also be an area for recipe exchanges or menu planning before they shop, to stretch their dollars.

It's sad, but some people really are clueless on how to stretch food dollars or prepare a healthy meal.

I have always said that, Dori. Government stores. The welfare class should shop at government stores. Beans, bread, cheese, milk, just the staples.  I'd like to see government hospitals for the welfare class too. Basic medical care.  If someone has shown they cannot provide for themselves, then they should be told how to live. For that matter, a better idea would be government housing. Spartan quarters with no control over when to get up, when to eat, when to go to bed, what to do, the heat/cooling, etc,  just like boot camp. If it is good enough for the military, it is good enough for the welfare class. Welfare should not be a way of life and if some want to make it that way, then they should lose all control of their lives until they decide to get off their butts and become productive members.

One caveat though... those that are on temporary assistance would be exempt. In other words... if you paid x in taxes the previous year, then you get a pass for x number of months. I would more than likely exempt senior citizens too and those that are mentally challenged. 

[diesel driver]

I have always said that, Dori. Government stores. The welfare class should shop at government stores. Beans, bread, cheese, milk, just the staples.  I'd like to see government hospitals for the welfare class too. Basic medical care.  If someone has shown they cannot provide for themselves, then they should be told how to live. For that matter, a better idea would be government housing. Spartan quarters with no control over when to get up, when to eat, when to go to bed, what to do, the heat/cooling, etc,  just like boot camp. If it is good enough for the military, it is good enough for the welfare class. Welfare should not be a way of life and if some want to make it that way, then they should lose all control of their lives until they decide to get off their butts and become productive members.

One caveat though... those that are on temporary assistance would be exempt. In other words... if you paid x in taxes the previous year, then you get a pass for x number of months. I would more than likely exempt senior citizens too and those that are mentally challenged.

You got my vote!   

[I_B_Perky]

You got my vote!   

Hitler took over Germany one beer hall at a time. I'm doing the same for America... except one website at a time.

Results so far? Zero. What's in a number though?  It's the effort that counts! 

[BlueStateSaint]

Results so far? Zero.

There's always a first time.

[thundley4]

How about we put all the people on food stamps and welfare with no jobs into camps and feed them in cafeterias and Moochelle can dictate the foods they get fed. 

[Wineslob]

I like the idea of a food barn/warehouse.  The food stamp users get their food there.  Only approved items are for sale.  Packaging is half the cost in super markets, why not buy some of the food in bulk.  There could also be an area for recipe exchanges or menu planning before they shop, to stretch their dollars.

It's sad, but some people really are clueless on how to stretch food dollars or prepare a healthy meal.

Except for the beer.


 

[Karin]

Response to yeoman6987 (Reply #9)

Sat May 17, 2014, 10:01 PM

Star Member cali (92,851 posts)

15. I have been on food stamps for 2 and a half years. You're hearing from someone who
 knows the program- and who has cooked professionally.

TWO AND A HALF YEARS!   And I notice that's "has" as in past tense.  We'll remember forever.

Nobody's going to go to these dopey meetings, Cali. 

[dane]

What I'd like to do to improve the food stamp program...

1) Random drug tests to recipients. If it is okay to test those who are working to pay the taxes that fund the food stamp program, surely it is okay to test those who are benefiting from the food stamp program.

2) Require recipients to work. The work could involve picking up trash on the side of the highways or sweeping/mopping the courthouse.

3) Limit the items that can be purchased.

I would like to see random drug tests for elected officials and/or anyone receiving pay via taxes.

I am retired Navy, and I can pass the pee tests.  I passed them while on active duty, passed them to work at various jobs following Navy retirement in 1988 (including WalMart and Department of Corrections), with the secret being 'don't put contraband into one's body'.  It's that easy.

[FiddyBeowulf]

In WI certain foods are not taxed at the check out*. Maybe the states can use that as a basis to exclude certain foods from being able to be purchased by food stamps.




*

What food is taxable and what is exempt?

In general, the sale of food for human consumption is exempt, with the following exceptions as defined in Section Tax 11.51(3), Wis. Adm. Code:

    Candy
    Dietary supplements
    Prepared food
    Soft drinks

[Karin]

They're all being extra moonbatty on that thread, with stars in their eyes, dreaming of controlling the masses' dietary intake, with a one-size-fits-all diet for all the workers and peasants. 

Someone tried to inject a little common sense:

Response to cali (Reply #40)

Sun May 18, 2014, 04:44 AM

Shandris (1,772 posts)

44. Look, I know that has a nice ring to it, but...

...that doesn't have a whole hell of a lot to do with nutrition. Oh, it -can-, to be certain, but doesn't by necessity. It's a political statement.

And while politics is all well and good, when politics interferes with real life, politics loses. For a well-to-do person with Whole Foods and Trader Joes and whatever-the-heck-else shops people like to use for all their organic needs, I'm sure it's peachy keen. Joe, whose out painting the interior of a house for $8/hour in 110 degree temperature needs more for lunch than a tofu sandwich and tuna on crackers.

Eh. Tuna and crackers are both processed. Let me rephrase. He needs more from his lunch than the expectation of heading home, handmaking some bread from scratch, then using it to pack a condiment-free lunch with some...kale or whatever to eat tomorrow with an orange on the side. Neither does he need to plan on heading home, heating up the crock pot, and cooking a different whole meat every day so he can appease someone 3,000 miles away who thinks that its just -too unhealthy- for him to use Carl Buddig turkey instead of non-processed. I don't think you realize -just- what all 'processed' food -really- means.
 

To which, Cali was a colossal bitch. 

[GOBUCKS]

Whatever happened to those big wheels of government cheese?

They made enough bumchow for a month.

[Carl]

Hey Cali you stupid scrunt...how much food could you buy for the cost of your Internet service over the last 2 1/2 years?

[Karin]

Response to U4ikLefty (Reply #72)

Mon May 19, 2014, 02:17 AM

Star Member cali (92,851 posts)

73. that is particularly rough
 
I have a friend who this year was burning her kitchen cabinets for heat. these stories make me sad and angry. 

She couldn't find any firewood in the wilds of Vermont? 

[YupItsMe]

One caveat though... those that are on temporary assistance would be exempt. In other words... if you paid x in taxes the previous year, then you get a pass for x number of months. I would more than likely exempt senior citizens too and those that are mentally challenged.

So, in others words everyone on the DUmp would still qualify.

[landofconfusion80]

She couldn't find any firewood in the wilds of Vermont?

hmmmm...primitive wandering lost in the frozen mountains desperately trying to find firewood stacked properly.  not seeing a downside to this whatsoever.

[GOBUCKS]

DUmmy cali is hilarious when she has a nose full of oxycontin!

someone who has cooked professionally

Before being fired in the Great Earwig Scandal, she cooked tea.