The other day I was shopping at a large market and I saw the woman ahead of me pull out her "Bridge Card", which, in my state, is a card (looks like a credit card) which gives you access to the government program called "food stamps", or SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It is our government's program to help feed those whose income falls below a certain level. It is not a generous program, I think the average per person is $134 a month. Many get less.
The woman with the food stamp card was wearing her work uniform, light blue hospital "scrubs", with her name and the name of the clinic she worked at. She had a wedding ring (no diamond). Her cart consisted of chicken wings, cheap hamburger, bulk peanut butter, cheap bread, store brand tomato soup and stuff like that. A little girl was by her side.
She is the face of American food stamps. Married, working, with children. White, if it matters, and I think it does, because many people think mostly black people get food stamps.
I'm going to guess she worked as hard as I did when I was working, and harder physically. The hardest work I ever did was play basketball with my kids (I was a school social worker). The working poor generally work on their feet, washing floors, scrubbing toilets, carrying things and so forth. "If there's time to lean, there's time to clean" said a poster at McDonald's when my friend Don worked there.
More people, per capita, get food stamps in Idaho than they do in California.
More people, per capita, get food stamps in the rural south than in the urban north.
Food stamp recipients tend to be people who are older, or disabled, or are children.
And these are the people that Paul Ryan, the possible next Vice-President of the US, wants to take food away from.
I don't know how this seems to people from other countries. I don't know if it is comprehensible to people from other countries. And I am starting to feel like I am blathering. Which I am.
Please let this not be, that a country where people can pay $22.95 a pound for beef tenderloin steaks will not give assistance to people who work all day and need help buying hotdogs at $1.99 a pound.
I sure hope it doesn't get worse. Being European I've grown up with a socialist way of thinking; those who have more help those who have less. Our entire welfare system (healthcare, educational support, support for the poor and so on) are build on the principle that everyone deserves a chance to rise up to a 'higher class' and a minimum way of living.
ReplyDeleteI'll be done with my studies soon. In all likelyhood I'll end up unemployed for a while, but I'm not worried because I know there's a safety net to catch me before I hit the ground.
It's not perfect, nothing is. But it works pretty well and keeps most people from ending up on the street and sick.
Just to let you know I did read but did so on Multiply and left a big enough comment on there so I won't do the same here, lol.
ReplyDeleteI hope it doesn't get worse! I do know that it takes more money to eat healthy and if you have little, then you often do without what you need. I counseled a girl once who was a teen in school. She said, "But we have little money and grandma can buy me a whole thing of little debbie cakes that will last all week. The fruit might go bad the next day." I never forgot that.
ReplyDeleteWow, Cinn, that is quite a statement from that kid. On a bunch of levels.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, every country has its inequalities as regards many aspects, inclusively those related to people who are short of food. At this moment, Portugal has implemented a program to minimize the side-effects of the serious economic crisis that has been sweeping the country. The program seems to be working pretty well. A Food Bank as been getting more and more foodstuffs day by day.However, in my modest opinion, I believe there will be always problems, whatever efforts governments and/or privileged people may do in favour of those of who have little or even nothing.
ReplyDeleteAs some of you may be aware of, Spain has the highest rate of unemployment in all of Europe, and yes there are people who would have nothing to put in their mouths if it weren't for the Food Bank, Catholic church and what food they are able to salvage from the rubbish we and supermarkets throw out. It's sad, but I've heard people rumaging in our rubbish bins at night. I'm thinking things haven't been so bad in Spain since the Civil War, which Hemingway so romanticized.
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