For starters, there is a huge and largely inaccurate stereotype or stigma attached to people or families on food stamps. Not everyone that get help in this form, is lazy or mooching off the government.
Some families, like mine for example, are trying to raise a special needs child or have major health problems.
While it’s true that the system is abused by some, please don’t lump us all together. There are millions of people with legitimate need for help and assistance, not judgement. If you are unable to engage in tactful or respectful dialog, please refrain from leaving your silliness in the comments. 🙂
SNAP
This will be out first grocery shopping trip on our reduced SNAP budget. SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, in other words, food stamps.
My family benefits from this program and while I would prefer to be self-sufficient, my family situation limits my ability to do so. There are millions of families and individuals on this program and while there are people that horribly abuse the program, a great many of us rely on SNAP to feed our families for various legitimate reasons.
The problem that many of us are facing is that as of November 1, 2013, there have been major cuts and the benefits have been slashed.
I think when I figured this out on our end, it was something like a 17% loss in monthly benefits. As the health of 2 members of my family gets worse, our financial struggle has worsened as well.
Having said that, I’m not someone that believes it’s the government’s responsibility to provide for my family. However, we have legitimate health issues that limit my ability to work outside of the home and so I’m grateful for the help.
My concern is the same as many other people’s going into November. How are we going to survive on even less, than we had before? The simple answer for me is, I don’t know.
What will likely happen is that my wife and I will consume less, in order to ensure the kids get what they need.
To be completely honest, it would be tough feeding my kids, even if we had a $1,000 a month budget. Kids with Autism and various sensory needs can be notoriously difficult to feed and ensure proper diet. I struggle with that personally, as my kids are very sensory sensitive and have life threatening food allergies.
I’m truly worried because our situation is complicated enough as it is. Now we have to try and figure out how to make a much smaller budget stretch just as far.
Again, I don’t mean to come across as ungrateful. This is just the unpleasant reality that I have found myself facing.
I’m curious to know how many of you are going to be impacted as well?
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i still havnet got a letter yet. I think mine get on the card on the 11th so i will have to wait and see. my sick kid’s appitite is weird. some days he can stand the smell and taste of pizza and some days it makes him sick. right now i have chicken, pizza, eggrolls, stuff for egg and cheese wraps, hamburgers, hamburger helper, speggetti and he cant stomach any of it right now. i dont know how special needs parents with kids with eating issues make it on the small amount of snap. i understand a little bit about the sensory issues with food such as mac and cheese is my favorite food but if it is shells and cheese i wont touch it because of the way it feels in my mouth. thank God that is the only thing, but if NT people think about the one thing like that is yucky they should be able to empathise with people that have a whole list of food like that. it is not that hard to imagine. or right after my kids bone marrow translant he could only have processed foods so there would be no bacteria but people dont understand that it is expensive that is.
Sorry for the typos, autocorrect isn’t my friend today.
this really worries me, and I don't even get government assistance. I work for an employment agency and see people struggling to make ends meet, with sick children, losing jobs, barely able to pay for their bus pass and taking low wage jobs because they can't get anything else. How could they possibly survive on even less assistance when they can barely survive? The gov. wastes so much money when it needs to go to those that truly need help.
I haven’t heard yet about how we’ll be affected, I’ll find out on the 8th (they’ll send me a letter, I’m sure, a week or two later as usual). I’m a bit nervous, I’ll admit. With food allergies and sensory issues, the food budget is already tight and I have no idea yet what can else we can cut.
Rob Gorski, Can you post a list of foods you and your family regularly consume? Also do you have an Amazon wish list? Thank you! 🙂
Meaghan1985 We must have some of the same so-called friends, LOL. I see posts like that all the time in my newsfeed. What is even worse is that I had one so-called FB friend who was bashing the crap out of people who are on Food Stamps while at the same time was receiving Food Stamps. Then had the nerve to unfriend me after I busted them out on FB, LOL!!!
I was Facebook friends with someone who was always posting horrible things about a lot of topics, including people on public assistance. One of the things she said was that people on food stamps shouldn’t get the same food as everyone else, they should be given a sack of rice and a block of cheese and “if you want frozen pizzas and pop-tarts, get a job” or some such nonsense. I finally had to unfriend her because her posts were upsetting me so much all the time.
My food stamps don’t come in until the 9th but according to my caseworker there won’t be any change in what I receive. We shall see though when the 9th comes around !