Why are SNAP benefits so high?

[JustAnotherNut]

I buy steak and cut it into about 4 or 5 ounce servings. That's enough for me. For that extra $200/month I can eat steak every day. At $20/pound $200 will buy 30 5 oz. steaks.

Good for you, but only eating steak, without grains or fruits & veg will give you protein poisoning. And btw, the SNAP benefit amounts are the same in all states because it's the FEDS that determine the amounts allowed. If groceries are cheaper in your area, you can buy more than in more expensive states. Also, SNAP amounts are calculated for 3 square meals a day, per person per month

Now consider if you're a busy mom with 2 or 3 kids, working at MCD's for minimum wage, maybe taking a nursing course to get out of the program and onto a better life, and your income is deducted from your benefits. After allowable deductions, you may only get $150 in SNAP (or whatever the amounts would be, if any) and you only have that much to buy food with. Even after going to the food bank and whatever other resources available, that $150 is all you have to get cereal, milk, bread, fruits & veggies and any meats or proteins for the 3 or 4 of you for 3 meals + snacks for the whole month.......since she's so busy with work and school she has to rely alot more on convenience and prepared foods than homemade......all of which are usually more expensive in the long run. Another factor to include is whether or not she even knows how to cook from scratch, most people don't.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

SNAP benefits should be higher.

 

[toobfreak]

I buy steak and cut it into about 4 or 5 ounce servings. That's enough for me. For that extra $200/month I can eat steak every day. At $20/pound $200 will buy 30 5 oz. steaks.

Is that how you stretch out your SNAP benefit?

 

[Woodznutz]

What a load...

Do the math yerself.

 

[Woodznutz]

Is that how you stretch out your SNAP benefit?

That's how a really poor person could eat steak every day on SNAP.

 

[Woodznutz]

Good for you, but only eating steak, without grains or fruits & veg will give you protein poisoning. And btw, the SNAP benefit amounts are the same in all states because it's the FEDS that determine the amounts allowed. If groceries are cheaper in your area, you can buy more than in more expensive states. Also, SNAP amounts are calculated for 3 square meals a day, per person per month

Now consider if you're a busy mom with 2 or 3 kids, working at MCD's for minimum wage, maybe taking a nursing course to get out of the program and onto a better life, and your income is deducted from your benefits. After allowable deductions, you may only get $150 in SNAP (or whatever the amounts would be, if any) and you only have that much to buy food with. Even after going to the food bank and whatever other resources available, that $150 is all you have to get cereal, milk, bread, fruits & veggies and any meats or proteins for the 3 or 4 of you for 3 meals + snacks for the whole month.......since she's so busy with work and school she has to rely alot more on convenience and prepared foods than homemade......all of which are usually more expensive in the long run. Another factor to include is whether or not she even knows how to cook from scratch, most people don't.

The flaw in your response is that if her SNAP allowance is reduced by her income she has the money to buy all the necessary food for her and her family. Only the very poor get maximum benefits.

In your scenario she'd better learn how to cook or her family is in big trouble.

A small steak would only be part of one's daily fare. I was just using it as an example of what a really poor person could eat with SNAP.

 

[Woodznutz]

He admitted he wasn't all there.

No one is all there.

 

[Woodznutz]

SNAP benefits should be higher.

SNAP kids are fat enough already.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

People who have never used SNAP can be ignored.

 

[toobfreak]

That's how a really poor person could eat steak every day on SNAP.

By rationing their portions?

I could live on Wagyu steak 3X a day smothered in truffles myself--- all I need to do is just cut it all up into affordable portions!

When you must dictate your living and meals based on a BUDGET, you are hardly making out like the King you would have us believe all SNAP people live by.

 

[Woodznutz]

By rationing their portions?

I could live on Wagyu steak 3X a day smothered in truffles myself--- all I need to do is just cut it all up into affordable portions!

When you must dictate your living and meals based on a BUDGET, you are hardly making out like the King you would have us believe all SNAP people live by.

Well, if the SNAP food money keeps them from rioting in the street I guess its ok.

 

[Moonglow]

That's how a really poor person could eat steak every day on SNAP.

Yet, don't you miss yer call to be a dietitian?

 

[Woodznutz]

Yet, don't you miss yer call to be a dietitian?

I dunno. I've given some pretty good advice about that. But, people are like predatory animals, they 'wolf' their food down with hardly a chew causing all sorts of unpleasant health problems.

 

[Lisa558]

So high? I actually looked into that once, about 20 years ago because a friend was dealing with it, and at that time for many people, SNAP benefits only covered about a third the cost of food based on what a person needed for their age and weight to eat a normal, healthy, reasonable diet to meet the government's own recommendations. So, unless something has radically changed, my guess is no one if getting rich off of SNAP.


Maybe we need to put all government workers and SNAP beneficiaries on a diet of cardboard and pond water.

I know someone with four children under 8 (no fathers in the picture), and two are under 3, and she gets $1200 a month tax-free. Considering how little young children eat, $400 a month covers everything.

 

[Lisa558]

Do you live in a tent, then? Or do you have a really nice freeway underpass and a coveted mattress? You do qualify for SNAP, but remember that your free Medicare is gone unless you work 80 hours a month. I understand that could be any kind of work, too. What skills do you possess?

Doesn’t even have to be work. He could volunteer with a community center.

 

[whoisit]

Do you live in a tent, then? Or do you have a really nice freeway underpass and a coveted mattress? You do qualify for SNAP, but remember that your free Medicare is gone unless you work 80 hours a month. I understand that could be any kind of work, too. What skills do you possess?

I do hope your being sarcastic about the Medicare. The supplemental is much more expensive than it used to be.

 

[citygator]

Another thread started with the assumption that the poor have too much. What a crock of shit you guys sit on.

 

[Lisa558]

I do hope your being sarcastic about the Medicare. The supplemental is much more expensive than it used to be.

Yup. My supplemental is now as much as Medicare itself. Elderly on limited incomes are easily paying $400+ a month, when you add in the prescription drug plan, and yet able-bodied young adults who won’t get even a part-time job gets FREE medical insurance?

 

[Moonglow]

I know someone with four children under 8 (no fathers in the picture), and two are under 3, and she gets $1200 a month tax-free. Considering how little young children eat, $400 a month covers everything.

Twelve hundred a month from whom?

 

[whoisit]

Yup. My supplemental is now as much as Medicare itself. Elderly on limited incomes are easily paying $400+ a month, when you add in the prescription drug plan, and yet able-bodied young adults who won’t get even a part-time job gets FREE medical insurance?

Supplemental keeps going up, so I don't even know what we're paying now.