29 Comments

1. As much as I would prefer if people used food stamps for exclusively healthy foods, preferably from farmers’ markets, legislating that reeks of paternalism. Banning anything that is demonstrably unhealthy (and even establishing that criteria would be difficult) would exacerbate a class dichotomy between the rich who can afford their junk food, and the lipitor and personal trainer to mitigate against it, and the poor who are left with no choice. These programs should empower people to make choices, not make the choices for them. However, food stamp programs should also make a serious effort towards educating those who use them about the value of healthy food, ways to cook it, and the importance of exercise. Even if you were to ban unhealthy food, if you do not change the context in which it is consumed, you’ve done nothing but frustrate people who will go out and purchase it anyway but now at their own expense.

   Comment by Sean — September 20, 2007 @ 6:46 pm

2. We can’t even agree on what constitutes healthy food. As much as I can’t bear the thought that food stamps be used on Koolaid, soda, chips, and the like, I’d hate to think that real foods like eggs, cheddar cheese, liver, whole milk, butter, etc. would be off limits because some bureacrats think they are unhealthy. So, no, I don’t think so.

   Comment by Anna — September 20, 2007 @ 6:59 pm

3. But the money going to food stamps comes from taxpayers, doesn’t it? Therefore the taxpayers should have a say in how it’s spent, ie, not wastefully.

   Comment by Gillian — September 20, 2007 @ 7:05 pm

4. I think it is a better idea to educate rather than legislate. Is the physician able to recommend a nutritionist to her patients? It seems as though WIC does offer nutrition services to participants but I can’t tell if they are mandatory or not.

   Comment by Nic — September 20, 2007 @ 7:37 pm

5. One of the things I do at work is distribute supermarket gift cards to local families that are in emergency situations. I find that there is a huge variation in their living situations. If someone doesn’t have a proper kitchen, or if they are working two jobs to make ends meet, it’s very hard for them to cook. And while it’s easy to say “cooking isn’t that difficult,” if you have never had the opportunity to learn, it can look impossible.

   Furthermore, what’s healthy for me may be different from what’s healthy for you. I used to regularly donate food to the Failure To Thrive clinic at Boston Medical Center. Because the children they treat are malnourished, they prefer high-fat items like peanut butter, clam chowder and canned spaghetti and meatballs. Those kids need calories.

   Nic, WIC does restrict what can be purchased; look behind the cash register at your supermarket and you may see an illustrated list. I think milk, orange juice, and unsweetened cereals are about it. But that’s a supplement to food stamps, not the entire ration.

   Comment by Brigid — September 20, 2007 @ 9:35 pm

6. I second what Brigid says–regardless of what we might think of using food stamps to buy processed & low quality foods, these are convenience foods for a reason. As I have learned, there is a huge learning curve to eating well. It’s not just learning what is healthy or not, but also what to do with the healthy foods once you’ve got them and having the *time* to do it (not to mention the energy after your second shift at work). My dinners tend to be very healthy, whole-foods based, and take on average two hours to prepare. If I weren’t a SAHM, this would be out of the question. And it’s taken me a good 2 years worth of concentrated effort to learn how to cook like this at all. Had I been working two (or even one) job, plus raising children, I doubt I’d've had the leftover time or energy to do so. I’m sure there are ways of streamlining healthy cooking for time/energy crunches, but again, one must have the time/energy to *learn* these things. I have no suggestions for how to change this situation. Suggesting that education is the answer isn’t wrong, I think, but it really misses the deeper problem that, in fact, living in poverty is the problem.

   I’ve been on WIC, and yes, there are both restrictions on what can be purchased and required nutritional councilling, and neither are particularly helpful. In fact, you get a coupon of a specific list of things that can be purchased each week (a much longer list if you’re breastfeeding). Most of these things, like dried beans and carrots, fall squarely into the “don’t know what to do with it and don’t have time to deal with it even if I did know what to do with it” category. The nutritional councilling is fairly standard–similar to what one gets in High School phys. ed. classes. Not very helpful, not very informative, and still doesn’t help actually get food on the table. *sigh*

   Comment by Robyn M. — September 20, 2007 @ 10:25 pm

7. I loved what Robyn said here:

   “Suggesting that education is the answer isn’t wrong, I think, but it really misses the deeper problem that, in fact, living in poverty is the problem.”

   I work in a big city, lots of guns, crime, and fear. There aren’t many big food markets to begin with, let alone a way to get to them safely and get the purchases home. Walking and public transportation limit purchases, regardless of one’s desire to eat healthier. A bag of chips weighs less than a melon or a bag of carrots/apples, or a sack of rice, and you can buy it at the local grocery.

   There was a time in my life I was in this position. I had to walk 3 miles to a food market, along a busy highway. I could only carry one bag home. I didn’t have time to make this trip often, once a week at best. What would you buy?

   Comment by Bix — September 21, 2007 @ 6:04 am

8. Robyn is right - poverty is the problem. It’s a huge problem - the physical being in poverty and the mindset that goes along with it. Been there. Done that.

   I’ll have a lot to add to this eventually, as a food banker (I work for a regional food bank in Illinois). Emergency food is a whole ‘nother aspect to the food system that often goes overlooked.

   Comment by Lisa B-K — September 21, 2007 @ 9:01 am

9. As usual my wife Robyn took the words out of my mouth, but I would add that WIC did help us to eat a little better by forcing us to learn how to use items we wouldn’t otherwise have bought or cooked with. Some weeks the beans went uneaten, but some weeks we tried something.

   If all of the food stamps are required to be spent on healthy food the result will be undernourishment, because many of the families won’t know or have time to use them. But if you required say that 20% of the week’s food stamps be spent on healthy food (from a decent sized list), the family would eat based on their previous habits with the rest, but would have some incentive to start trying to change their habits. You might even be able to up the % a little gradually. The trick is to give an incentive to change habits, and time to do it, rather than making the restrictions one more punishment for being poor, or one more way the man tells you what to do.

   -Brian M.

   Comment by Brian M. — September 21, 2007 @ 9:44 am

10. This reminds me of a story I heard some years ago about a woman who was offended and upset when she encountered a customer ahead of her in line at the supermarket buying a birthday cake, a bag of potato chips and a six-pack of soda with food stamps.

    The woman demanded to know why her tax dollars were funding food stamps that were being used to buy junk food. How dare that food stamp recipient buy such garbage?

    The woman buying the cake pointed to a little girl waiting by the door. “That’s my daughter, and today is her birthday,” she said. “I can’t afford to buy her any kind of present, and using these food stamps toward cake and pop means we’ll go hungry for a few days before the end of the month. But cake and pop is ALL she’s getting for her birthday. Do YOU want to go tell my daughter that she isn’t allowed to celebrate her birthday at all because I can’t use food stamps to buy her a cake?”

    We can’t dictate what people do with the money or their government assistance. I get the point the doctor is trying to make, but it’s prejudicial. Better to put the effort into teaching people about healthful eating and making those foods easily available than in banning certain foods.

    Comment by Sheryl — September 21, 2007 @ 2:43 pm

11. There was a commenter on another blog who recounted how she had used food stamps for soda because she could get back the bottle/can deposits in cash which would provide a bit more for food. I think there is a lot about food stamps that those of us who have never used them wouldn’t know.

    Another very interesting account of (barely) getting by on limited food budgets is in a book called Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (Paperback) by Barbara Ehrenreich.

    Comment by Anna — September 23, 2007 @ 11:50 pm

12. It would be interesting to see a breakdown of exactly what percentage of food stamp money is spent on “junk” versus other items. I wonder how much of a “problem” this really is.

    I bet food stamp recipients buy roughly the same things that the rest of us do.

    Comment by Richard — September 26, 2007 @ 12:04 am

13. My name is Katie and my daughter and I are currently on food stamps after my husband left us. I do buy healthy foods with my food stamps, at 22, as a single mom I get out receipes and put together a food plan and buy those items. However for instance her 1st birthday is tomorrow…like said above, should I not be allowed to purchase her a cake for her birthday?

    And also you must remember that while I try my hardest to instill in her at barely a year old that healthy eating habits are important sometimes its about getting them to eat what they will. I too pay taxes and paid much more in taxes when I owned my home and worked from 14-21 years old. So being on food stamps for a little while to help me out doesn’t bother me. And I find it a little absurd that someone wants to tell me what to buy and cook for my family. Why don’t they come over and cook with these items for me?

    Comment by Katie — October 16, 2007 @ 12:18 pm

14. I use foodstamps and also the local foodbank. I think if people knew how much expired food comes to the poor from the foodbank they would be concerned. high salaries at the top of this. Big fund raising… like the empty bowls project, but at the very end of it we take a risk each time we open a can or a bag. I have been told this is a win win situation. Perhaps if food banks were run by volunteers expired food would be taken completely off the shelves. But it looks good for the higher ups to be distributing all this food to the poor. I wonder if any new food is ever being purchased at all in these foodbanks. Foodstamps give me the option of buying fresh food instead of expired. I can cook for my cats and not have to buy the garbage being sold as premium or quality (commercial pet food) with real money. I realize that if my government found out I was using foodstamps to feed my cat they would try to find a way to prevent this. Thank goodness for the foodstamp program. It is not broken yet, so don’t try to fix it!

    Comment by Concha Castaneda — October 18, 2007 @ 10:54 am

15. Recently, I applied for food stamps at social services after an employer told me it wasn’t going to work out. At that employment place I was interviewed and worked with other managers for about a week and a half until this person, I was never formally introduced to started working with me. Whoever it was said it wasn’t going to work out. So, I applied for food stamps a few days later, since I was unemployed. I told this to the local food stamp office. I got a letter back saying “…Your application has not been approved because the principal wage earner in your household voluntarily quit a job…”, which is inaccurate because I did not quit and I am staying with my mother. Regardless, I am looking for decent work. I have thought about requirements for the food stamp program before. However, I have been even more concerned about it recently because I have been denied food stamps. I am a vegetarian. I also agree with healthy food choices. I also agree with stricter requirements for food stamp programs to prevent fraud and abuse of the food stamp program. Furthermore, I do not think it is right for people like me to be denied food stamps when other people buy meat and unhealthy food, and make irresponsible purchases with food stamps. I do not make enough money to pay certain taxes. However, I am sure there are many vegetarians and other responsible people who do not want their tax money going to a program that supports abuse of workers, supports abuse, allows irresponsible purchases, supports commerce that is against their beliefs and supports the purchase of products that is against their beliefs. Support of such irresponsibility also perpetuates poverty. If you cannot buy alcohol with food stamps, it logically follows you cannot buy meat or other irresponsible products with food stamps. Further, if food stamps go to buy healthy and responsibly grown food we will all be healthier and happier. For example, healthy and responsible purchases support new jobs that are better for workers. Workers who work for irresponsible employers that produce meat and other products will be happy to have a better job producing responsible and healthy products. These workers will have a safer and humane work environment and will be mentally and physically healthier. There is no need for food stamps to go to support jobs that make workers unhappy and unhealthy. Also, there is no need for food stamps to support the purchase of products that are not good for the people buying them. In fact, it is less expensive to support vegetarian diets or sustainable meat, and humane and local food. If you look up the facts you will find meat contributes to greenhouse gasses and takes up more land to produce; there is more to learn about health and responsible purchasing. I have been a vegetarian for about fifteen years. Other vegetarians are more strict than me and do not consume milk and other animal products; sometimes I get soy milk. Those who consume meat need to learn the difference between factory meat, and sustainable meat and be aware of what else their purchases support. It is not right to subject workers, or animals, to such conditions because workers need a job and customers buy certain products at the store; it is irresponsible and I resent it. In the long run, it is less expensive and better to make healthy and responsible food choices. Again, there is no need to support unhealthy jobs for workers; there is no need to support abuse; there is no need to support unhealthy products. Food stamps were not intended to hurt and abuse. The purpose of food stamps is to help. Thank you.

    Comment by Cynthia Anne Swisher — November 6, 2007 @ 2:34 pm

16. Wow! I have to make a comment here. Let me preface this by saying that Iam not trying to get your sympathy or complain about my situation. I have a college education, and I was married when my children were born. I am not some one who sits around collecting everything I can so I don’t have to work. I have had a lot of things happen in recent years and have collected food stamps more than once and know the system.

    I am a single mom with 5 children. I was recently fired from a job and am now recieving food stamps. My family is eligible for $250 each month in food stamps. We eat a failrly strict diet, we do not consume dairy, pork or red meats. I prefer to purchase fresh organic and local. I go to the local farmer’s market, when I was younger ands there were paper food stamps, many of the local farmers would accept them, but now that there are card readers to purchase, I cannot buy produce at the farmer’s market on food stamps. I looked into purchasing a CSA share as an inexpensive way to have more fresh organic produce, but I can’t do that with food stamps either. I would also love to be able to afford to by free range organic chicken and wild caught fish, but on $250 a month we buy what is cheap and can streatch for 6 people. This means that the best I can do is to buy inexpensive conventional vegetables and whole grain breads and plain conventional chickens and occasionally fish (also spendy). Once in a while I purchase a birthday cake, and I do fill my childrens stockings on food stamps (usually fruit and nuts with a few pieces of candy). It is not possible to live on this amount of money, and I always have to find ways to get more food. My unemployment check barely covers the rent and electric, by the time I put gas in the car so I can look for a job, there is nothing left. The WIC program is only available for families with children under 5 so we don’t get any supplemental help, local food banks give on average one grocery bag full of food once a month this lasts only a day or 2 with my size family. They don’t offer rice milk or other non-dairy things and usually are packed full of mac and cheese even though we specify we don’t eat dairy products, hey but even the food banks give out junk food, pies and cakes. Oh, and by the way, the food stamp program does give you a little booklet when you first get them that tells you how to eat on a small budget. It encourages the purchase of large quantities of filling foods with little to no nutritional value which it then gives some ideas on how to combine these to make a meal. Pasta, rice , potato flakes, hamburger and macaroni and cheese are the main ingredients for most of the dishes. It tells you that fresh fruits and vegetables should be purchased sparingly as they are more expensive.

    Oh and another thing you might want to look into if you are so concerned about the food that the poor are eating is the school lunch program. My children are all eligible for free school lunches each day as well as breakfast. The breakfast at school they usually have a choice of presweetened cereal, a doughnut, or a sausage and cheese biscuit. Considering we do not eat either pork or cheese this leaves my kids eating sugar for breakfast every day. During the e-coli in spinach scare, the salad bars were removed from our schools never to return, there are 2 days a week that there is no alternative that my children can eat. One day a week is a choice of pizza (they consider cheese pizza a vegetarian choice), the other day they have 2 different beef products. Even when there is a salad on the menu, it contains ham and cheese and they are not allowed to have it without. The chicken that is served is all breaded chicken nuggets and chicken burgers. My children prefer to take their lunch so they can at least not feel ill when they come home.

    Comment by Shawnna — December 20, 2007 @ 7:24 pm

17. I just applied and recieved food stamps today. I have been feeding my family of 3 on a $35 a week budget for 6 months. My husband got injured at work and they docked his pay to min. wage. So it is a blessing that we were approved for these. Unlike most people I saw in the office today I was humbled that I was granted such. Now I have had to cut back on how much we buy that is fresh produce and organic for almost a year now. I am psyched that I can now afford to buy my daughter vegatables every week now and have an ample supply of organic milk. And since they granted us such a large amount and I am a savy and frugal shopper, whatever we do not use for our budget I will be donating to my local charities or another family that is in need of help.

    Oh and I will also be buying a birthday cake for my daughters’ 3rd birthday this weekend.

    Comment by Lisa — January 17, 2008 @ 12:57 am

18. o.k i have a few comments. Im not over weight, i eat healty. But i also enjoy a few snacks here and there and a can of soda. Because im out of work being laid off from my job and unable to locate a new one that gives people the right to say i cant eat the way i have all my life when I am in fact healthy? Yes i drink soda, yes i eat a few cookies every once in a while but thats not all i buy with my foodstamps also meats and dairy. Sorry that i dont like a lot of vegtables and fruit. So telling someone they cant eat what they want with the help from the state is wrong. No one person can say hey your not healty you eat how we tell you to eat. Sorry my physican has told me im as healty as can be and i am NOT overweight.You can not take away from my freedom because i am unemployed without fault of my own. I should not have to change my life because the goverment says so. I have enough change as it is. I dont like being out of work and as soon as i find a job i will not have to have the support of foodstamsp. Not everyone abuses the help and not everyone can be nor should be treated the same way.

    Comment by Kelly — January 25, 2008 @ 10:56 am

19. no the food stamp should be used for all foods except red bull, bawls, jolt, rockstar,etc.
    the pops kids get at halloween should be stamped with the stamp.

    Comment by mat — February 5, 2008 @ 9:46 am

20. More and more farmers markets are working hard to get the EBT card readers so that all farmers can accept food stamps. This is a very big step in the right direction, because I think that healthy food choices is all about accessibility. Lots of organic farms are not near cities, but only come in for markets. Also, most of the food in supermarkets is not actually all that healthy, but that is what is available to most of the population. With the recent focus on local farm products, I’m hopeful that families that have food stamps will have more access to more healthful food options than they currently have.

    Comment by Mara Welton — March 8, 2008 @ 10:32 pm

21. healthier food are more expensive then food that are non-healthy. sometimes this stops people from buying healthier food, and they end up buying cheaper products, that arnt good for them!

    The government and food suplliers need to take that into consideration, but at the same time need to think fair trade!!

    Comment by lilzx — April 15, 2008 @ 4:42 am

22. I once read an article online about a guy working at walmart who was insulting Foodstamp recipients. He was FIRED! I’m glad. Sorry to say but 376 a month feeding four children; you can’t afford to buy the best of everything. The unhealthy foods are the cheapest. Until that changes taxpayers should just get over it. Why don’t they fight to help lower food cost or something. I am not saying that pouring soda down your kids mouth all day. But, soda does cost less than some of the Natural fruit juices. Instead of the doctor complaining or fearing to ask what foodstamp recipients eat, she should offer free nutrition classes or advice instead of insulting.

    Comment by michelle — June 9, 2008 @ 1:24 pm

23. We are in a culture where, in general, many people don’t know what to do with those healthy foods. To pick on those recieving support is unfair at best. I know when transitioning to whole and fresh foods, my husband and I had many difficulties; the ‘meat and potatoes’ diet we had been raised on did not include fresh vegetables.

    My parents, while never receiving gov. support, had a very tight food budget. Non-perishables and canned goods were the staples because they would last (including treats like cupcakes, cookies or koolade). Food that goes bad is money down the disposal. Even on good weeks, there are occasionally vegetables in my fridge that don’t get eaten, maybe we went out more often, maybe we forgot it was in there, etc. Had they been canned, they would still be available to eat. To my mother, this was an important characteristic. On a tight budget, the non-perishable aspect of processed foods is considered a value of itself.

    These are the kinds of foods we were used to when we were married. Learning how to budget for and use those fresh veggies was a feat of its own, with a lot of waste in the process. For a family living in poverty, struggling with jobs, family, paying the rest of the bills, I can see why an after school snack of twinkies or a dinner of hamburger helper and a can of green beans might be a relief!

    Comment by Jes — June 12, 2008 @ 10:33 pm

24. Wow! I came across this conversation while searching for the current list of acceptable foods for my state’s WIC program (which by the way, I never did find). I have a college degree, own my own home (me and the bank, anyway), have four beautiful children and a husband, and up until February when my last child was born, I had a successful business. I was not able to sustain the business with four kids under five, so my income was cut out of our equation. That meant having to make some really difficult choices. We sold the car that we were still making payments on, we cut back on our phone services, dropped the cable, stopped eating out, and lots of other really un-fun things. Our house is also on the market, but you know how that is going! In the meantime, my husband has started working 45-50 hours a week. It still isn’t enough.

    The modest addition of food stamps to our budget has made it so there is still something to eat. I am frustrated with the thought that everyone that uses food stamps is a dredge on society. We pay taxes, lots of ‘em. And, I was made to feel aweful enough by simply walking through the door of DHS to ask for help. Additional restriction on what I can buy would be a pretty harsh slap in the face. No, I haven’t bought pop or candy with my foodstamps, there simply isn’t enough to waste it on something like that. However, in addition to fruits and veggies, I have bought my kids granola bars, cereal (generic), yogurt, ground turkey, cheese, pop tarts, and some other stuff I am sure wouldn’t be on a “Healthy” food list.

    On the flip side, I also have seen people completely abuse the system. I agree that the entire system needs an overhaul, but I don’t think limited food choices is the change that is needed. Each month you are alloted a specified amount and when it is gone it is gone. If you choose to buy pop and chips, then that is all there will be to eat. I don’t think the people that are using this system to feed their kids are the ones that are abusing it like you may think.

    I am sure that the lady feeding her cat isn’t buying pop and candy….

    Comment by Kelly — July 4, 2008 @ 9:23 am

25. I can’t see how restrictions on what food assistance recipients could possibly work. As has been mentioned, there is so little agreement on what is healthy to begin with. Just as an example, the doctor who was bemoaning his patients’ choices in a comment on this site indicated that low-fat dairy products should be opted over high fat. But I have a healthy fourteen-month daughter and I much prefer organic full-fat yogurt over the low-fat versions (many of which are often also over-processed). How angry would I be if I couldn’t make this choice because the government decided unequivocally that my food stamps could only go towards low-fat choices, leaving no room for special considerations, like the age of my child, or the fact that although we consume full-fat dairy products, we do so moderately.

    Yes, my family has recently become eligible for food assistance. I applied with great trepidation, and I think it’s because I intuitively understood that criticism that one opens oneself up to when accepting government assistance. Although I certainly support greater nutritional education (for the general population–not just those on public assistance!), I am very uneasy about the sense of judgement some feel entitled to because “our tax dollars are funding this,” after all!

    Look, my tax dollars have funded these programs, too–for many years, as they continue to. And when my husband and I graduate in two years and get well-paying jobs, we will be contributing even more. I believe in the need for education regarding nutrition, but I don’t accept the argument that we should control the diets of those poor rubes on food stamps–first because the government can’t do so, fairly. And also because people on food stamps have also paid into the system and deserve the same freedom to choose that we all do.

    Comment by Diane — July 12, 2008 @ 10:08 am

26. Although I agree it would be wise to educate those on food stamps rather than dictate, this method has proven to not work. I am 24 and the oldest of eight kids. We were on food stamps my entire life. Luckily, I like to eat healthy and exercise, but unfortunately I am the only one in my family. Since going away to college and taking a good look at my family, I have realized that the food stamp program only hurt us. My siblings are almost all overweight- especially the youngest ones. The reason for this is that the parents buy a LOT of soda. Why? because soda is easier to deal with- you grab a can and go- and also because it becomes beneficial when returning the cans for money. My mom and step-dad also do not care about their kids and what they eat. The only foods they eat are something they can throw in the microwave or cook themselves (such as hotdogs). In fact, according to one of my siblings, milk is a scarcity in the household because it is so expensive and goes so fast when they do have it. Having gone through the “system” growing up I know that they do educate the parents on what to feed their kids and what is healthy. Unfortunately, some parents just don’t care about their children like they should. For that reason, I wish someone had regulated what my parents had bought for me and what they are buying now for my siblings. It is terrible to see someone you love not being cared for properly and I have a good feeling that I am not the only one who is/was in this situation.

    Comment by Anne — August 16, 2008 @ 10:41 pm

27. I agree and disagree with what has been said. And being a professional woman who has had to rely on food stamps several times in my life including now, I think I have the right to an opinion on this. First, I wish people wouldn’t feel so righteous about their opinions and second just because your tax dollars are supporting federal programs, don’t feel like you are any better than those of us that at some point in our lives have to ask for help.
    Second, yes I agree on health & nutrition education - it should be a requirement in schools just like it is in other countries. We need to know more about our bodies and about what we put in them than about the 3 R’s (”readin’, riting, rithmetic). And yes I agree with regulating what you can buy with food stamps - after all they are called FOOD stamps. Sodas are not food, nor are chips nor candy real foods. At the very least, those 3 must be banned from the food stamps programs.
    On the other hand, food stamps should be allowed to be used for vitamins & supplements and health foods. I think it is outrageous that you can buy soda, chips and candy with food stamps, but you can’t go to a health food store and buy healthy foods, vitamins and supplements.
    This is why in the ghettos people are sicker and suffer from more diseases. This creates more of a burden on the health care system.
    However, it is a vicious cycle that supports the big corporations and manufacturers of all the poison (junk food) and the legal drug manufacturers and their dealers. And of course it is also big money for the media (tv, trash magazines, newspapers, etc). It also supports the big monsters of oil.
    Therefore, it is something created by capitalism to support the government and support the multinationals.
    And you must know that also part of this big bussiness mafia mentality is to keep the masses brain washed and “happy” munching on poison and drinking more poison watching and reading more brainwashing material. It all works together to keep people’s brains functioning at a very low level so that the powerful stay on top - same governments, same multinationals.
    We need to wake up and put a stop to all the poison and change the whole system from the ground. It starts at home - eat organic, eat local, grow food, grow sprouts, boycot the multinationals, the junk food, the sodas, the poison, the legal and illegal drugs, magazines, newspapers, comercial tv, commercial radio, etc., etc. AND THINK FOR YOURSELF!
    I cannot understand where drinking soda is easier than drinking juice—?????, it is cheaper, however, you’re not supposed to drink several glasses a day of any liquid- except for water - you must drink 8 or more of those a day and one or two of juice a day - and if it is pure juice, mix it with water. There is NO NEED to drink sodas at all. Just like there is NO NEED to smoke cigarattes or drink alcohol. If you think you “need” sodas, you are an addict, then you Need to go for help. Because your body Needs to heal and in order to heal it Needs food as medicine, not as garbage.
    Health Education needs to go to the less priviledged and teach to make better choices and to cook simple healthy savory meals.
    We need to visualize a world that would support all that so that we can become healthier and better human beings.
    Peace, Love and Joy to all….M

    Comment by Mari — August 22, 2008 @ 12:35 pm

28. Soda is not a food group. In NY state, certain edible products are taxed (soda, candy, chips, etc.). I want people to be have access to food, regardless of their ability to pay for it, but, I repeat, soda is not food. It supplants food in a person’s diet. Go ahead and buy it, but don’t ask me to pay for it. Smokers often smoke to quell a craving for a cigarette. That doesn’t make cigarettes food.

    Comment by donna — September 21, 2008 @ 3:39 pm

29. I read all the comments, and I would have loved to make some sassy remarks to people, but instead I would like to publish my own experience.

    First, let me tell you that I am a twenty-three year-old college student, and I have had Food Stamps for almost two months.

    Many people have been complaining that people on Food Stamps are abusing it–well, I’m not going to disagree with you, but there plenty of people who are not.

    The whole reason I even applied for Food Stamps was because I couldn’t AFFORD and healthy food. I had no money for fresh fruit and veggies, and I also have a lot of food allergies, which makes me have to buy some items from the pricey organic sections of the supermarket–And I’m sure some taxpayers would get angry and tell me I should shop for the cheapest items!

    As a person with these allergies, I would be very upset if the government told me what to buy. I think they would have to make an exception for people who cannot eat certain foods, and so sometimes the alternatives are not as healthy. Like one of the rants above that said the government should prohibit red meat for FS–Well, that’s just ridiculous. If the government were to do that to me then I would be forced to only buy fruit and vegetable because of my allergies. That is hardly a complete and total balance of nutrition!

    I do buy those little bags of chips for my school lunches every know and then. I know, here I am, one of those sinful people wasting your tax dollars on chips! Get your pitchforks ready! My lunch also consists of a 100% juice box or an organic milk box, an apple, granola, etc… A small bag of chips per month is a little much to cry about.

    I guess my point is that, I buy an occasional treat for myself, but the big treat is that I can finally afford to buy healthier options. If I didn’t have the card I wouldn’t be able to afford a nutritional diet.
    The only reason I applied was so that I could afford these items because I was feeling sick everyday from not meeting my calorie intake and eating things I was allergic to.

    Comment by L — October 6, 2008 @ 5:53 pm

Leave a comment

Topics

This is a list of keywords related to posts. The bigger the keyword, the more related posts there are. Click one to view all such posts.