Trump’s new food-stamps plan: A basket of U.S. food, direct to your doorstep

MarketWatch ^ | Feb 12, 2018 3:01 p.m. ET

[BenLurkin]

The White House says the changes could save $214 billion over a decade.

“The Budget proposes to combine the traditional retail-based SNAP electronic benefit with the direct provision of nutritious and 100 percent American-grown USDA Foods to participating households. This cost-effective proposal maintains our commitment to helping needy families avoid hunger while generating substantial savings,” the budget said.

Households receiving $90 per month or more would get a portion in shelf-stable milk, ready to eat cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned fruit, vegetables, and meat, poultry or fish. The remainder of the benefit would go onto the debit card for use at approved grocery stores.

The average monthly benefit per person was $125.79 last year. To be eligible for food stamps, the maximum gross monthly income is 130% of the federal poverty level, which for a single-person household is $12,140 and $16,460 for a household of two.

The White House adds that it wants to strengthen “the expectation for work among able-bodied adults and preserving the benefits for those most in need.”

[sheana]

They already get vouchers to use at the farmers markets. I quit going to ours around here because unless you get there when they first open all the good stuff is gone from the vouchers. The Mexicans here love fresh veggies.

[gnarledmaw]

I believe youre story and Im surprised youre not in the deep south. I say that because over the last few years Ive met a number of employment challenged individuals with drawls way up here that are using purchased shrimp to catch channel cats.

[Kartographer]

3 MRE’s a day? at $6.00 to $8.00 each? That’s a lot of money

[5th MEB]

If I recall correctly a single MRE is about 3,000 calories.
At 9,000 calories a day and no exercise or WORK, you had better be prepared to medically treat a lot of really FAT people.

[9YearLurker]

I remember volunteering with family members as a child back in the ‘60s at the food pantry handing out, yes, government cheese and beans and rice, etc.

It was a better way to do it. Now up MA, for example, food stamp recipients get vouchers for the crazy, overpriced but premium, organic produce and other goods at the local “farmers markets”.

Your average Joe and Jane Paycheck can’t afford the stuff, but it is somehow a great program to buy the stuff for the welfare crowd. (Actually a lot of the produce is not the stuff that the welfare population really wants or eats anyway.)

[sergeantdave]

“3 MREs per person per day”

That’s better than 3 C-rations.

Some day I need to tell the story of what happened to the private who set a can of C-rats atop the wood stove to warm it up. It gets messy and incongruos.

[Rebelbase]

If it can’t be cooked in a microwave oven there’s gonna be some starving people.

[Steven Tyler]

No moar pringles, soda pop, smokes, and selling the snap card for fiddy cents on the dollar

[The Antiyuppie]

No cigarettes? What the hell. You would think that they could throw in a few lottery tickets. That’s not unhealthy.

[tinamina]

When I was a kid there weren’t any food stamps. But there were commodities. Government surplus food. My parents had 12 children and Dad was a drunk. We needed food.
Commodities were dried milk and eggs, canned beef and spam. Cracked wheat flour. Peanut butter. Real butter. Whole grain uncooked cereal. Food that could be made into meals. It didn’t hurt that Mom had been a professional cook.
I’m thinking a return to surplus foods with cooking lessons might be the ticket.

[Buckeye McFrog]

The Left will have a cow? Corporate America will have a cow. SNAP is a giant subsidy program for retailers and food processors.

[Salvation]

I doubt that.

[tbw2]

No, but meat prices for the rest of us will go down.
Walmart’s stock WILL go down, given their reliance on food stamp buyers.

[tbw2]

It gives people on welfare/disability a very visceral reason to start earning more money.

[9YearLurker]

So what are the kids going to do, not eat?

[SaraJohnson]

Kids in these families often don’t get nutritious food.

[EinNYC]

You are expecting this drug addled idiots to know how to cook a balanced dinner? You are a funny, funny guy.

What? And give up scratching their wide a@@ and reaching for the next joint or booty partner? That's why, at least in NYC, there's a company called Hello Fresh, which delivers the ingredients for a meal:

What's Inside the Box Each Week

Easy-to-follow recipes with clear nutritional info
High-quality ingredients sourced straight from the farm
Convenient meal kits that fit perfectly in the fridge
A fun cooking experience that makes you feel unstoppable

Personally, as one who loves to cook, I find this pathetic. They are providing kits to people who don't want to bother to think and want to be led by the hand. They will not gain any knowledge of why certain ingredients are used, what could be substituted, what it's like to choose good ingredients, etc. This keeps the users in a perpetual state of childlike dependency, much like Pajama Guy.

[semimojo]

I’ve seen people in like use their card to buy gum, get $20 cash back off the card...

You've seen people get cash back on their EBT cards?

[Lurker]

Make it two per day, then. I’m okay with that.

L

[Redcitizen]

I liked the cheese. Thought it was great with tortillas and the canned meat.