The reference to agribusiness acknowledges the food stamp program’s political history, which was partly to aid the poor, but even more importantly to ensure that agricultural surpluses got sopped up by someone. Food stamps met everyone’s needs: farmers (and agribusiness) got to plant more crops and artificially increase their income, poor folks got subsidized food, and welfare skeptics got the satisfaction of keeping a lid on cash transfers.
That was illegal – and if you had followed policy, would never have happened. Children are not permitted to use foodstamps issued to their parents; food stamps are only be used by the individual(s) actually listed on the food stamp ID card. Cashiers were supposed to ask to see the ID in questionable situations.
In addition, it is illegal for a food stamp benefit group to structure transactions so as to receive more than 99 cents in change per day. Your store should have been fined by the USDA for allowing those transactions to take place.
Now that we are using the debit cards, the “stamps” can’t be sold.
drhess mentioned WIC: That stands for Woman, Infants, and Children, and is a separate benefit program (as the name implies, it’s mostly geared towards single mothers). It can also be used to buy food, but only off of a specific list of approved items. You could buy a basic, no-added-sugar oat breakfast cereal with WIC, for instance, but not Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs. Most stores also participate in WIC, but a small convenience store might have only a few eligible items (probably just milk).
Also, the eligibility requirements for food stamps are not hard-and-fast. You have to go to an office to apply for them, and they’ll decide whether to grant them. There was a period in my childhood (in Cleveland, OH) when my family should have been eligible for food stamps, but the folks at the welfare office refused to believe that someone with a master’s degree (my mom) could possibly need food stamps (the job market for elementary school teachers was dismal at the time).
I’ll admit my sample size is small and biased (two independently-owned gas stations) but I’ve never known of any gas station that takes EBT (the new name for food stamps.) I’ve never had a need to go around asking, so I have no idea if I have the wrong impression.
Some years ago I worked on a project that included putting the local county’s welfare documents (the ones the county workers used) online. IIRC, to get food stamps and some other forms of social welfare, you had to go to a government office and be interviewed by a social worker. The social worker would verify your eligibility and examine everything they could obtain in your financial records. If you, for example, owned property that could be mortgaged or jewelry that could be sold (there was an exception for jewelry given in marriage) or stocks you would be denied benefits. If there was anyone else living in your home that might be sharing your food or share their food with you; you would be denied. The system in that place and time was such that legally getting food stamps or any other form of assistance meant you were pretty close to starving. The social workers I met while working on that job impressed me as angry, depressed individuals. They had gotten a degree and started a career wanting to help people and were rudely awakened to the fact that their jobs depended on their ability to *deny * people the assistance they needed to live.
Food stamps do not permit the user to purchase soap, razors, toilet paper, toothpaste or any other non-food items. To the best of my knowledge, there is no government assistance that gives poor people cash-in-hand. Rent goes directly to the landlord, or medical money to the clinic.
Bealzebub’s Bubby
Social Security supplemental income and SS disability are both deposited directly into the recipient’s bank account.
Amarone Obviously, those gas stations wuth just a few vending machines are inelligible. However, those with a quickie mat can be elligible and more than a few of this kind in Philly do accept food stamps.
In Philadelphia, stores generally anounce their participation in the EBT program through stickers on the door or in the window.
There’s a book “Sweet Charity” that discusses some of these issues. Actually, the same author Poppendeik (spelling?) has an earlier book with more on the history of these programs. But those two books by her and the book “Towards and End to Hunger” would provide all the details anybody not writing a thesis would need on this stuff. That, and the FRAC website: http://www.frac.org and the USDA website somebody list above.
The FRAC website also has a weekly newsletter on hunger and food issues in the USA that is very highly regarded, sign up for it if your interested in the issue, research on nutrition problems in the US and/or activism around hunger in the US.
The military gets at least some of it.
Robin
Are those programs means-tested? I was thinking of programs for people who are poor, because they are poor rather than programs for the disabled or elderly.
SSI is means-tested; you must have basically no resources at all and be disabled to quality. SSD is not means-tested; if you qualify as disabled you are entitled to a benefit which is determined based on how much you paid into the system before becoming disabled.
Thinking of my own situation (I’m disabled and housebound with no transport, so I do all … and I mean all … of my shopping online) …
Are food stamps / cards redeemable online?
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), commonly called “welfare” was a check mailed or direct deposit. This has now been replaced by Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF). These are both means tested, and TANF is time limited.
Not certain, but you should call a state office or advocate about it, as the answer may vary from state to state.
The “government cheese” is distributed by the USDA Food Distribution Programs. It’s part of the Commodities Programs, which provide food to some low-income populations through state agencies. This page has a summary of the benefits and services available. There are also Child Nutrition Commodities Programs which supply food and some reimbursement to school systems for school lunches served to low-income students. These programs affect a lot of people, since the income guidelines for free and reduced-price lunches are somewhat less restrictive than those used for food stamps and other assistance programs.
I used to work for a non-profit organization that ran group homes and a high school for troubled teenagers, and we went through an amazing amount of commodity food every month.
I’m not sure for how long the best of your knowledge has been wrong, but it is.
My line of work is related to the point-of-sale systems in grocery stores, so I am familiar with the EBT program from that angle.
EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) is the new system for delivering all types of government benefits, not just food stamps. An EBT card can access the cardholder’s “Food Stamp” account AND/OR their “Cash Benefits” account. The sources of the funds in the later comes from any type of government assistance such as state and local welfare payments, unemployment, housing, or energy assistance.
The EBT Cash Benefits account can be used to buy anything and even to get “cash-back” (cash in hand, just like from an ATM) from any retailer that accepts EBT cards. In fact, it’s not even necessary to purchase something in order to withdraw cash from this account.