With so Many Residents on Food Stamps, why are there food deserts in New York City?

[martybegan]

NYPD ANNOUNCES SEVENTH STRAIGHT MONTH OF MAJOR CRIME DECLINE IN APRIL 2025

NYPD ANNOUNCES SEVENTH STRAIGHT MONTH OF MAJOR CRIME DECLINE IN APRIL 2025

www.nyc.gov

Under the current mayor.

It's still not good, and those numbers can always be fudged.

 

[citygator]

Under the current mayor.

It's still not good, and those numbers can always be fudged.

How do you know who your dad is? Is it just because your parents told you so? Come on man. Without evidence that the numbers are fudged you have the requirement to prove it. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

You can always be worried about what happens and that is why you vote.

 

[initforme]

Snap benefits are a miniscule cost. I agree able bodied peoe should be working a job with a good wage, but you get all bent out of shape because of the program itself is funny. This nation is awash in wealth so snap benefits are a non issue.

 

[Seymour Flops]

Snap benefits are a miniscule cost. I agree able bodied peoe should be working a job with a good wage, but you get all bent out of shape because of the program itself is funny. This nation is awash in wealth so snap benefits are a non issue.

Given the lack of personal responsibility shown by typical SNAP recipients, I am sure that SNAP benefits are the only reason that many of their children get any food at home at all.

Sadly, some of them find ways to trade SNAP EBT cards for drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes, in which leaves schools to feed them. I applaud schools for doing that. Children should not suffer for their parents refusal to adult, and the welfare system has created so many adults with a dependency mindset that there would not be enough foster care available if we took such unfortunate children out of their homes due to their parents declining to feed them.

I strongly favor SNAP benefits for those reasons. I only question why there would be "food deserts" in areas in which large numbers of people recieve them. What are those SNAP beneficiaries doing with their EBT cards if there is no food available for purchase?

 

[Leo123]

You should seek help. I’ve seen your debate skills here. Your IQ is in the low 90’s. Which is why my effective retort caused you to seek shelter in name calling.

My skills have reduced you to only hurling insults.

 

[citygator]

My skills have reduced you to only hurling insults.

I posted a legitimate point with a link. You responded with an insult and got an insult back. Your skills can’t remember a whole 3 posts ago. Total genius.

 

[Leo123]

I posted a legitimate point with a link. You responded with an insult and got an insult back. Your skills can’t remember a whole 3 posts ago. Total genius.

Unfortunately, that link you posted has nothing to do with the subject at hand it was about crime decline not 'food deserts.' You can't even remember what you posted, dufus.

 

[Rigby5]

At least that is the claim of the future mayor who wants to open government run food stores.

Mamdani proposes a network of city-owned grocery stores that do not pay rent or property taxes, which will allow them to keep food prices low. They are designed “to lower prices, not price gouging,” Mamdani explains in a video

Twenty percent of New York city residents receive snap benefits almost thirty percent in the Bronx receive them.

Emergency Food in NYC - Data Team Emergency Food in NYC

Millions of tax dollars are spent providing these snap benefits, and then more millions are spent on government programs.
To revitalize so called "food deserts."

Why would there be areas in which junk food, but no healthy food is available, when the whole idea of the snap program is to allow the poor to buy healthy food?

New York's $10 Million Initiative to Combat Food Deserts and Promote Healthy Eating - NYC Food Policy Center (Hunter College) New York's $10 Million Initiative to Combat Food Deserts and Promote Healthy Eating - NYC Food Policy Center (Hunter College)

Two obvious answers readily occur to me. But I would like to hear input from others before I give my take on that.

Very few people qualify for food stamps, and they are not free but are just a subsidy that at most is about 50%.

The problem is that in high crime areas, there are almost no stores at all, and the few that do exist are double the price of normal stores.

 

[Rigby5]

Government run food stores.....sounds North Korean or Russian. Are they filled with products labeled in black and white and look like the old generic stuff?

When you are not forced to pay for advertising and stockholder profits, you can cut the price of food in half.

 

[Rigby5]

Not to mention that snap cards can be used for groceries that are delivered.

It looks like walmart is on the list of food stores that will deliver two.It's not benefit recipients. I wonder why new york city residents don't just order from walmart?

Crepitus, maybe you have an explanation for that?

Where Can I Pay With EBT Online? Where Can I Pay With EBT Online?

Key Takeaways​

• If trips to the grocery store are a challenge, many retailers and stores allow you to use your SNAP EBT card for grocery delivery and pickup.
• Amazon, Walmart, and Target just some of the retailers that accept online EBT payments for SNAP-eligible food items.

EBT is not free.
At most, it is a 50% subsidy.
You have to pay cash to refill an EBT card.

 

[Rigby5]

You can't put a grocery store in the lower level of an apartment complex designed for retail to be part of said lower level?

It's not the people in the expensive neighborhoods complaining they can't get to a grocery store or a supermarket.

With no parking, it is not cost effective.

 

[Rigby5]

Why are so many poor people living in an area with such high land prices?

Because the land is used vertically for very high population densities that make it affordable. But no food is available.

 

[Rigby5]

But, there is rent free space available for food retailers, according to the future mayor of New York.

Why not give Walmart some free real estate, and not charge them property taxes as the next mayor has proposed for his government-run grocery stores?

Walmart is a front for China, and we do not want to export our wealthy to China.
A city run grocery store can sell food for half the price.

 

[Rigby5]

Given the lack of personal responsibility shown by typical SNAP recipients, I am sure that SNAP benefits are the only reason that many of their children get any food at home at all.

Sadly, some of them find ways to trade SNAP EBT cards for drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes, in which leaves schools to feed them. I applaud schools for doing that. Children should not suffer for their parents refusal to adult, and the welfare system has created so many adults with a dependency mindset that there would not be enough foster care available if we took such unfortunate children out of their homes due to their parents declining to feed them.

I strongly favor SNAP benefits for those reasons. I only question why there would be "food deserts" in areas in which large numbers of people recieve them. What are those SNAP beneficiaries doing with their EBT cards if there is no food available for purchase?

There is food available in these "food deserts", but it is over twice the cost.

By the way, EBT cards either have a photo or you need to show a photo ID when using them, so they can't be traded for drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes.

 

[Seymour Flops]

Very few people qualify for food stamps, and they are not free but are just a subsidy that at most is about 50%.

Complete bullshit.

The problem is that in high crime areas, there are almost no stores at all, and the few that do exist are double the price of normal stores.

Are these high crime areas in Dem run or GOP run cities?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

When you are not forced to pay for advertising and stockholder profits, you can cut the price of food in half.

Is that why the Soviet Union had stores overflowing with free food until 1989?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Because the land is used vertically for very high population densities that make it affordable. But no food is available.

Poor people who can't afford food are living in expensive real estate that's magically not expensive, because they're in tall buildings?

List some of that tall cheap real estate, maybe I'll buy a condo.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

A city run grocery store can sell food for half the price.

Are you under the impression that Walmart has a 50% profit margin?

 

[Dragonlady]

At least that is the claim of the future mayor who wants to open government run food stores.

Mamdani proposes a network of city-owned grocery stores that do not pay rent or property taxes, which will allow them to keep food prices low. They are designed “to lower prices, not price gouging,” Mamdani explains in a video

Twenty percent of New York city residents receive snap benefits almost thirty percent in the Bronx receive them.

Emergency Food in NYC - Data Team Emergency Food in NYC

Millions of tax dollars are spent providing these snap benefits, and then more millions are spent on government programs.
To revitalize so called "food deserts."

Why would there be areas in which junk food, but no healthy food is available, when the whole idea of the snap program is to allow the poor to buy healthy food?

New York's $10 Million Initiative to Combat Food Deserts and Promote Healthy Eating - NYC Food Policy Center (Hunter College) New York's $10 Million Initiative to Combat Food Deserts and Promote Healthy Eating - NYC Food Policy Center (Hunter College)

Two obvious answers readily occur to me. But I would like to hear input from others before I give my take on that.

This thread is proof positive of white privilege.

The mere fact that MAGA voters cannot even fathom the concepts of “food deserts”, or what a potential solution to the problem might look like, is the very essence of “white privilege” because in white neighbourhoods, such problems don’t currently exist and have never existed.

And what’s totally laughable but not the slightest bit funny, is that a bunch of white people are sitting at their keyboards pooh poohing the perfectly reasonable solution proposed by a brown man who NY voters supported and who won his party’s nomination on the basis of people voting in favour of his “people first” platform.

For those of you having difficulty defining white privilege, this thread is that definition.

 

[initforme]

Are you under the impression that Walmart has a 50% profit margin?

Considering the pittance they pay their employees its way higher than what they report.