Wisconsin, under the guise of making poor people eat right, unless it is Michelle Obama insisting on healthy school lunches, has a list of foods that food stamp recipients can’t eat with their SNAP benefits.
The list: organic food, (shouldn’t this be included), cranberry sauce, creamed vegetables, baked beans, pickles, pork and beans, frozen vegetables, French fries, potatoes (I guess the Irish have to starve), sharp cheddar cheese, canned peas and green beans, tuna, salmon and fish filets( all healthy here), bagels, white and wild rice ( another healthy choice), taco shells, almonds, rice, goat and soy milk, (healthy again), brown eggs (my favorite), some infant food, anything in bulk and ketchup, herbs and spices. Having food with no flavor will make you eat less.
What does that leave to eat? Spaghetti, beans, rice are inexpensive choices. The average person gets 125.00 a month on SNAP. Missouri is banning steak. Kansas is banning them from using the EBT card to go to the movies, a pool or anything fun and limits ATM withdrawals to 25.00 a day. Most electric bills are more than that.
What is up with people? Don’t they realize that the majority of SNAP recipients are disabled, veterans, children, elderly widows, single parents with jobs. Imagine the nightmare for the clerks trying to determine what is okay and what is not okay to ring up. I am in the grocery line long enough as it is. Then, the shame of calling a manager because someone on food stamps has some beans and are they the right beans. Holding them up for everyone to see.
I have clients with mental and developmental challenges. They would just not shop and would be confused. The anxiety of getting the wrong food would cause a panic attack.
I get it don’t be poor in Wisconsin. Well governor how is the job situation and the cost of living. I could stretch my 125.00 on beans, rice, spaghetti and sack of potatoes and frozen veggies and tuna. Now I guess you have to eat soup and cereal, full of sugar and sodium. So much for the healthy options.
It is poor shaming. Call it what it is. We want you so ashamed to be poor that you won’t be poor anymore. How easy that is? I will just stop being poor. My employer will raise my wage so I can eat baked beans. Yeah!
It sounds stupid to me too.
psychanne 