Posted on 07/14/2018 10:18:44 AM PDT by spintreebob
Most SNAP recipients spend ... early it increases food insecurity.
39% spend 2/3 of monthly benefit in the first 4 days. 14% of GA households are food insecure. Over 1.6 million (16%) utilized $2.54b in SNAP in GA.
Few statistically significant differences explain why spending patterns are so different.
We hoped we would be able to find something that said the ‘patient’ people do this and ‘impatient’ people do that, but we did not, Dorfman said. I guess it comes down to personality.
Many households are connected to SNAP through local food banks and caseworkers at state agencies, DFCS, Camardelle said. “These organizations play a huge role in advising and guiding SNAP participants on when and how to use their SNAP dollars so they can stretch them over the full month, said Camardelle, noting the need for more of these resources.
In 2017, SNAP-Ed, the nutrition education arm of DFCS, operated at 820 locations in 77 of Georgia’s 159 counties through partnerships with four organizations. (This includes most of the metro Atlanta area.) That year, 137,336 participants, or about 8% of total SNAP recipients in the state, were reached. According to data from DFCS, program participants were 19% more likely to not run out of food before month’s end after the intervention.
In Georgia, SNAP recipients receive on average, $1.40 per meal per person, Camardelle said. Research from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in 2016 found that raising the monthly SNAP benefit by $30 per person per month improves the likelihood of stretching groceries throughout the full month and purchasing more nutritious foods.
SNAP-Ed is the nutrition arm of the Food Stamp Program.
policymakers should be less concerned about when people spend and more concerned about how little they have to spend.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
People who spend most all at once go to the big box retailer. People who spend little by little each day go to the quikie mart in the gas station.
These Public and private organizations play a role ... noting the need for more of these resources.
... concerned about how little they have to spend.
People who spend at the big box might buy frozen lobster. People who spend at quikie mart buy chips and soda.
I stand in line at Walmart and watch. I pay cash at the gas station and watch.
A GA University now plans to do a similar study on Medicaid and health car, with a focus on rural health care.
A good study is always about knowing what you don't know and asking questions to discover what you don't know. Will this new study ask the right questions of we who provide the data?
(hope u like excerpt style.)
[ big box retailer ]
Yes, often an inefficient way to spend food dollars. While some items are a good buy, the big packages are often not the best value per ounce/serving size.
It seems to me that the study is looking at ability to budget and plan ahead. The very qualities it examines are very likely to be the same qualities that lead to dependence on these programs to begin with.
How may tax dollars were wasted on this?
I’ve never been on any type of welfare but I try to limit grocery shopping to once a month. Never understood those who make milk runs every other day. Such a waste of time and gas.
Another factor for consideration is drug addicts and alcoholics who sell use of their card for fifty cents on the dollar. Those are usually converted in the first day or two. I imagine that is throwing off the averages.
Perhaps their spendthrift traits have something to do with why they are on welfare. Cognitive science has found that the ability to delay gratification for a greater reward is a predictor of success. Even more so than IQ.
“It seems to me that the study is looking at ability to budget and plan ahead. The very qualities it examines are very likely to be the same qualities that lead to dependence on these programs to begin with.”
Agree, and now that this crap is electronic, why not pay it out weekly?
Nope, it’ll buy $30 worth of more bacon, pork chops, and soda.
Why every first workday of the month is ‘Mother’s Day’ around here.
We wait until the next weekend to go to the casinos, after they have dropped all the SNAP money, and collect on the machines. Plus, no crowds since they blew their wad.
The nearest big box store is two hours away but even if it were closer, I wouldn’t buy a membership. Excuse me, but I’m not going to pay some store to accept me as a paying customer. I’ve gone a time or two when they’ve had a free day or someone gave me their card and twice I’ve come home with a busted bottle that was hidden in a multi-pack or there was something else wrong.
Yes, nothing wrong with stocking up but they waste money not checking the unit price.
With a wife and four kids, I don't have space in the fridge for the roughly 30 gallons of milk my family uses in a month.
I would consider Walmart to be a big-box store, but has the cheapest prices outside of stores like Aldi.
I am not sure why this is a story. Give people money and they spend how and when they want. What else is new?
There is a fool proof way of helping the SNAPers. Limit their food purchases to food items that have to be cooked and not the precooked items that cost more. A whole lot of flour, cornmeal, cooking oil, lower cost cuts of meat, and vegetables (maybe canned), rice, potatoes, dried beans and peas, will be cheaper and better. Oh, mom doesn’t work so she doesn’t have time to cook. I never cease to be amazed at the number of food vendors that have signs saying that they accept SNAP. Places that many who get up and go to work everyday cannot afford on their hard earned budgets.
I am sick and tired of standing in the checkout line behind these people and watching them put the best cuts of meat (steaks, bonless ham, precooked chicken breasts and etc.) on the counter. A little bit of ground beef with a whole lot of Hamburger Helper will go a long way. Also, a few meatballs with a whole lot of spaghetti will go far to feed a family. The proper choices are infinite, but without any limits, the SNAPers will never make them.
Another fact is that during school, their children are getting free breakfast and lunch. Some school districts are sending them home with a sack lunch for supper. Meanwhile, the SNAP payments remain the same year round. Some school districts are providing lunches during the summer vacation. This provides the parent/s with opportunity to sell some of their SNAP benefits for cents on the dollar cash. We that are providing the free stuff are fools for allowing this to continue.
There needs to be sensible limitations on what can be purchased using SNAP. The reason these limitations do not exist are due to the power of those that lobby on behalf of the processed food industry. Everyone wants a place at the public trough provided by those that get no free stuff.
I was in a similar situation as a young enlisted sailor with a family. Even with food stamps, we barely got along. And we didn’t buy lobster and junk food at the quick mart. It was Ramen noodles, mac and cheese, and basic foods. Many enlisted families were in the same situation and we did not trade the food stamps for cash.
Start with the areas of the country that have the highest percentage of SNAP recipients and cut all those people off of their benefits.
The article doesn’t seem to contain any info about the % of SNAP actually used for food purchases and what kinds of goods the rest of the money is used for...
Illegal aliens like to spend fraudulently gotten bennies on booze and steaks and gambling etc
Then you’ve never tried to keep three growing children fed. And milk won’t last a month in the fridge.
Does the study allow for time and gas management or does it lump all lump spending together? I’m not on welfare but I try to limit my trips to the grocery store to once a month or even every 6 weeks so that would put me in their spend all at once category. I can either drive into the nearby town and buy moldy produce and rock hard bread at the little grocer or I can wait to do one big grocery shopping at the Walmart 3-4 towns (no grocers in any of them) away when I pick up our meds. All one trip. Saves time and gas.
Does the study consider some poor people don’t have reliable transportation so they need to plan their errands accordingly?
Does the study consider those with half a brain might study the sales circulars and shop with lots of their needed items are on sale?
Buy a freezer.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.