I’ve spent a good deal of time talking about the stereotype of the “fat poor”. You know the right-wing slur: if we’re so broke, how come so many of us are overweight? It’s just another way of claiming that being poor is our own damn fault and has NOTHING to do with, like, an income distribution system heavily shewed toward the top. In an article in the Lifestyle section (“Lifestyle”, for chrissake) of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Phuong Cat Le writes that decent food is often out of reach of the poor price-wise, especially if they’re on food stamps.
A researcher compared food prices in Seattle’s Rainier Valley and Queen Anne neighborhoods and found that a family of four living on the maximum allowable amount of food stamps can barely afford the basics here.
Jamillah Jordan, a fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center in Washington, D.C., shopped for groceries — apples, potatoes, bagels, corn flakes, macaroni, canned peaches, ground turkey and other items — and discovered what those on limited incomes know well: Even the basics cost families a little more than food stamp benefits allow.
“Nutrition is important, but it’s really a matter of economics,” said Jordan, who has been working on the Grocery Gap Project with Solid Ground, a Seattle non-profit. “People were telling us, ‘If I can’t afford a nutritious diet, I’m not going to buy it’ … If people simply can’t afford that, what does that do to their health?”
What you’d think: it hurts. I am not on food stamps but I don’t make very much above the current minimum wage and even though I live alone except for the cats (two, and they’re cheap enough), trying to eat well consistently is almost impossible. If I take home, say, $200/wk on average, my rent – one of the cheapest places I could find – takes $150 of that. That leaves only $50/wk for everything else. I often shop for absolute minimums of basic stuff, just barely enough to get me through the week, and I still spend about $40 of that $50.
To come in under the wire, I have to buy the cheapest of everything I can find, and “cheap” usually means unhealthy, mass-processed food full of starch and sugar. It’s because of this that despite the fact that I often only eat two meals a day (and they’re not large meals, anything but), try to cut the amount of starch and bulk I consume, and exercise constantly, I’m still some 25lbs overweight.
Part of that excess weight is a direct result of being poor. It’s the way the body operates: when you can’t eat regularly and there are long spaces between meals – say, 12 hours, which is not uncommon in my case – the body thinks it’s about to starve and creates more fat with the calories it gets. Smaller meals spread through the whole day is better but it’s a luxury that today’s work schedules often don’t allow. I know people who work at the local Wal-Mart, for example, who may not get a break for 6 or 7 hours, and when they do it’s for 10 mins, barely time to gulp down a sandwich before they have to get back on the floor.
On top of that is a legacy of tricks played on the welfare system for the past 40 years by its conservative opponents. In the case of food stamps, Jordan explains how they figure what’s “enough” – and their figuring doesn’t include prices.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture sets food stamp benefits for a half-million people in this state — and 26 million nationwide — by pricing items in its Thrifty Food Plan, a basket of food intended to provide a nutritious diet at a low cost. Benefits change monthly based on inflation.
***
Someone who doesn’t receive the maximum food stamp benefit can’t afford to eat healthfully in Seattle, Jordan said. A family of four could receive a maximum monthly benefit of $525.60 in food stamps, but the reality is most don’t, she said. The average household benefit was $183.38 month in Washington last year, below the national average of $213.91.
Jordan says the Thrifty Food Plan allowance is based on “unrealistic criteria” and doesn’t take into account regional differences in food costs. (emphasis added)
Many conservatives assume in their criticism that all the families on food stamps are getting the maximum amount the law allows but they’re not. In Washington, the average is less than half the maximum, and there are states where that average is even lower. I can barely feed myself on $180/mnth, I can’t imagine how a family of 4 can live on it. And bear in mind, if a family on food stamps does something to increase its income to cover the difference – say, Mom takes a part-time job for an extra $40-50/wk – that amount is subtracted from the stamps or may even make her ineligible to be in the program any more. Talk about work-disincentives. You can be – and probably will be – penalized for going to work.
The original welfare set-up included things like Step Programs, which continued a level of support even after you got a job. You weren’t simply cut off. There was a realization that there was still a lot of financial instability – debts, rising housing costs, illness – arising from long-time poverty that meant you would be on the edge of going down again for months or, in worst-case scenarios, years. There was even a Step Program that helped a parent who wanted to go to college to better her chances of getting a good-paying job by continuing her rent and food subsidies as long as she was in school.
But it wasn’t long before conservative Republicans were howling that that was “too much”, and they combined with Blue Dog Democrats to re-write the law so that if a woman with kids went to college, she lost all her govt help.
A large part of the War on the Poor has always been around food. Apparently that hasn’t changed.
Filed under: Nutrition, Poverty, War on the Poor
I tottaly agree with thr writer of this article. Too bad our government doesn’t reconize these things. I am to on food stamps and it’s not enough at all. My daughter is overweight and i want to buy her healthy food but I can’t afford to. Also like the article said, you should eat throught the day. Hard to do that when you don’t have food like that. We eat when we can find something to make. Its very hard. And its usually something starchy and prossesd. I know when I want to go to school, I may lose my help too. Thanks for listening.
Stop whining.
Eat less? Exercise? Use your head. No matter what you put in, good exercise will burn it, especially for a young person like your daughter.
The government wasn’t designed to provide our subsistence. It was designed to give us the opportunity to achieve it on our own and protect the right to do so.
That’s right, Sean. You tell em. The govt was designed to protect the rights of corporations, not people: their right to pay starvation wages, their right to be subsidized for activities they could pay on their own, their right to rake in gigantic profits on the backs of their employees and customers. Responsibility is a one-way street. The poor need to be responsible for everything, the corporations for nothing. That’s what the govt is there to protect.
Blow it out your ass, Sean.
Never did I say that the government should assist corporations or that it is right. It is wrong, just as aiding individuals is wrong.
But giving the government more power through more ‘responsibility’ will not fix the problem in the long run.
Your sarcasm is tremendous Mick. When does the comedy blog come out?
You’re welcome. I don’t know if it helps to know this, but you’re not alone. We all need to start making more noise before people start actually starving to death.
You are SO right! I try to eat “healthy” (I still have to have my cheeseburgers every once and a while) but the prices of food are getting out of control! I absolutely believe that there is a correlation between economic levels and the ability to eat healthy.
tiffabee.wordpress.com
It is very hrd to eat healthy if poor. obesity is not just caused by overeaqting. many people gai alot of weight from meds like psych meds. You don’t have to eat alot to bloat up like a baloon when taking these. I told my dr. I don’t eat that well and he told me to stop eating. junk. well he can pay for my food! Im on ssi and can’t afford or do much.
I agree wholeheartedly! I found this article while doing a Google search for “how to eat healthy on food stamps”… because, while I am not currently on food stamps, I am about to apply for them next week. I have a barely above minimum wage job, and support my 81-year old father who lives with me. We spend (on average) about 75-100 a week on groceries. We’d spend less if we ate crap. I am 100 pounds overweight, and it stems from years of having to “eat poor…” Now due to health concerns, I am trying desperately to lose weight, but have noticed in the past two weeks that grocery prices have nearly DOUBLED in many of the items that we purchase. I already shop at the cheapest place I can find (Walmart, mostly), clip coupons, and buy generic. I don’t know what else I can do. I have been out of work since May – our savings is now gone, and we are only drawing my father’s Social Security and very small pension from his job. By the time I pay the mortgage and electric bill, as well as water and phone…the money is GONE. None left over at ALL with which to purchase food. So – I am going to apply for food stamps on Monday morning and basically BEG for some help. Of course, I guess in doing so I can kiss the 33 pounds that I DID manage to lose over the Summer good-bye. (sigh) No way will we be able to afford fresh fruits and vegetables, or whole grains.
I did a google search “eating healthy when your broke” and found this. Me and my husband just applied for food stamps since his hours were cut and we’re barely making it. Before that we were hitting up the dollar menus at fast food joints daily..hmm $1 double cheeseburger or a $7 salad. I prefer the later but my wallet wont allow it. Obviously the more money you make the less amount of foodstamps you receive. Its hard not to feel ashamed especially in Cali when everyone and their brothers are soaking up the system and were borderline bankrupt as it is. But I am much more ashamed of my ever increasing waste line so what choice do I have? Being low income means less options, and the only options readily available are empty calorie foods with ZERO nutritional value. WE have to be the ones to make the change because these multi-billion dollar grossing hamburger slingers are going nowhere anytime soon my friends,
“We all need to start making more noise before people start actually starving to death.” -Mick
I almost did starve to death in college. Literally. No Joke. I had to ration Ramen Noodles at one point, four $.10 packages per day. After I’d moved up in the world, I was able to afford plain spaghetti noodles with salt and sometimes parmesan cheese. That was it. Sometimes I didn’t cook them and ate them dry for something different. My doctor thought I was anorexic because because I was underweight and I couldn’t seem to make him believe that I was just extremely poor. I was an art student, so any extra money I had went to rent and supplies for my classes. It was awful and no one wanted to help. I looked homeless because I hadn’t purchased new clothes in three years.
After I’d landed a “real job” and left college, I had enough for real food like cereal and fruit, and it was seriously culture shock. For a few months, I would still come home from grocery shopping with pasta just because I wasn’t used to buying food. I then gained way more weight than I needed to be healthy because I just ate and ate and ate and now I’m trying to work off the excitement I’d enjoyed when I could buy real food.
Sorry for the rant. Our whole system is just SO messed up. It really is. I know a woman who is on food stamps and all she buys is junk food, cookies, chips, soda… It just baffles me that they’re allowed to buy junk with foodstamps. Why can’t they make those things illegal to buy and mandate HEALTHY food options. Our government would save so much money on health care if it would just look at the source of the problem: You are what you eat. Instead of trying to cut back food stamp spending, they should pump a little more into it. Imagine the millions they would save on health care costs if they would only spend a little more on FOOD.
I’m not trying to be rude at all… I was on food stamps at one point in my life when I needed a helping hand. But if someone is on food stamps and is paying a cell phone bill, an internet bill, a cable bill… any of those NON necessities… they have absolutely NO RIGHT to complain about not getting healthy food. Food stamps are there to help, not be the entire source of income for your food unless you are seriously disabled or something.
I don’t know how many times I’ve seen people swipe a food stamp card with pretty new solar nails and nice pretty professionally pedicured toes and the latest hairstyle and brand name clothes. Pisses me off that my tax dollars pay for them to eat.
Also, people CAN eat healthy on limited incomes….I’m proof of that. My whole family suffers from a chronic debilitating bacterial tickborn tisease and co-infections. Only my husband is able to work right now and we have three kids…all of us needing serious medical treatment. a 6 yr old with Fibromyalgia and joint pain and behavior issues, an 8 yr old with joint pain and neurological disorders, a teenager with severe muscle twitching and bone pain and me with seizures along with everything else. We aren’t on disability, we are not on food stamps. We are not OWED anything and we spend $500 a month on insurance that doesn’t cover chronic Lyme disease.
I use the library for internet, I’m not too proud to shop at thrift stores and walmart and I’ve never in my life owned a cell phone. We don’t have cable and I paint my own nails when I want to feel pretty. It’s HARD but it can be done! You don’t have to have meat at every meal… or every day… or EVER really. And you can eat FAR less than the average person and be quite healthy if you eat the right foods. If you can’t afford to go to college and eat something besides Ramen noodles… then go to school somewhere part time and work part time or full time. There are ways around everything like that… and I’m not downing anyone who is on assistance that needs it. I’ve been there. If you don’t want to get a job because you might lose your food stamps… you shouldn’t be on food stamps!
I wish that people that DO make it work on food stamps would share a bit about HOW they make it work. That would really be the most helpful thing. I don’t have food stamps, but I’ve lived on very limited budgets well, forever. The thing is, cheap junk food actually makes you hungrier. If you have any room at all and can grow food, or if your community has a community garden, that’s really the way to go to get veggies. The soluble fiber and nutrients in veggies (eat the skin!) is way good for you and keeps you feeling full. Some local markets can have really good deals on veggies too if you can get there. Frozen better than canned, but canned isn’t the end of the world. I do eggs for breakfast, brown rice, beans, and 4 cups cucumbers for lunch, a piece of fruit in the afternoon, and 4 more cups of veggies(variety), dark green salad, and a piece of chicken for dinner. I usually only do the chicken a few days a week. Sometimes I use frozen shrimp or a hard boiled egg in my salad instead. Like I said, I’m not on food stamps, but this actually works out to be pretty reasonable for me if I plan in out and buy things that are on sale, etc. Pay attention to the per serving and per unit price of things too. Also, TELL people that you are broke. It may sound strange, but you can “glean” a ton of food by taking leftovers and having other people share their leftovers with you. People that have money waste a lot of food, and they’re usually willing to share it with you…especially couples who don’t have kids who end up making more food than they need on a regular basis.
Well after reading this I felt it was necessary to leave my comment. I’m not sure what Dawn’s on about, maybe she doesn’t have it as bad as others regardless of the lyme disease deal. Some of us actually are going to school and do need the internet or a phone, they aren’t really NON necessities if you have them for a reason. Some people can do telemarketing for a few extra pennies, or other reasons. Some people go to college online for plenty of reasons, or have papers they can download and library hours don’t cut it, plus sharing with other people. My local library only has 4 computers. You guessed it, four! They’re always taken up by kids playing the bubble popping games, or a word game. They don’t have any software to handle school documents either, like photoshop, and they are very old. So it is a necessity if you are going to school under certain terms. If you didn’t have to compose a work of art, i would say, just a paper, okay that’s a library thing.
Now…. Dawn doesn’t get it, that when you start a job, you lose all your stamps, when stamps pay a more reliable amount for food than a crappy job you could get laid off of anytime, if you don’t want to get a job because you’re on them, then you shouldn’t be on them? What? Where is the logic?
I have been told the same thing by a potential donor. Just because we’re on stamps doesn’t mean we’re dumb, and I feel angry at the people who get their nails done and dress like paris hilton whilst being on stamps. I have never seen this in my area. However, maybe think of it in a different way. Suppose she didn’t pay for them? Maybe she has a friend that is training to be a nail tech, maybe she STOLE [gasp, that's what people do sometimes!] the clothing. Back on the dumb thing though. It depends, really on what the situation is.
I am going to be 18 in two weeks, and I moved out (got kicked) because I married my husband. I knew I was going to be on stamps, but the situation was enough to make me choose being poor, to get away from hoarding my food from obese parents and being shut in my tiny room all day.
We applied for food stamps when we moved out. At this point he was still on training pay, which was great, we got 1,500 a month. We only got about 100 bucks in stamps. It was okay, because we had leftover money to buy whatever food, fruits, veggies, juices… etc. Now, I totally wish there was a place around here whose rent is 150, but ours is 505. So, take 505 from 1.5, leaves 1,000. That’s okay, good enough to buy toilet paper, towels, garbage bags, those necessities. THEN he got off training pay. BAM. Went down to 800 a month when he wasn’t doing many mechanical hours. When he DID do mech hours, he got paid LESS. Figure that. The pay was suposed to be 13.5 an hour, but he got 9.45. Then his glasses broke, and we thought hey, why not get insurance, because he was going to be ineligible for medicaid, turning 21 in a few months. So he got insurance. not only did they not pay enough to even rectify getting it, it sucked $200 a check from us. So now we all the sudden make 600 a month. Went to the food stamps guy, and we get 170 now. Now tell me that isn’t slightly tough? 600 a month. 505 rent. Don’t even get me started on my 120 electric/heat bill because my complex doesn’t pay heat. I get charged extra when we use hot water, so no showers for us more than twice a month! I don’t have any money for “luxuries” like dawn and these accusers say! Luckily I am going to college, and my internet is being paid because it’s an online only school. It’s not a luxury, ma’am it is part of my education. We don’t pay for anything except rent, renters insurance and the heat/electric. Those things are things we can barely afford as well, but don’t go telling me to cut those off! Those aren’t things you CAN! It’s getting into the cold season again here, and I sit here with my blankets wrapped around shivering, because where is the money going to come from to pay this ridiculously long paper filled with surcharges and delivery chargers and optimization charges?
This is why we need stamps. They ARE the only source of food income. We as in, the US, we need more help in this economy. As far as my input directly on the stamps, the author is completely right. What Kait said would be hard to do in my situation, and I’m sure a lot of others too. When on stamps, you have to buy the cheapest dinners there are. This means a lot of soup for me. I still have braces, and it limits what I can gnaw into, especially after an adjustment. 170 a month for two people when it’s the only food income you’ve got, you can’t just buy fruits and veggies, you have to buy cheap things like peanut butter and jelly, soup, sardines, pop is cheaper than juice here. Milk is the most expensive, but we drink a lot of it. cereal, ramen, anything on sale, like pizza subs, when they’re 10 for 5 bucks. frozen dinners for a dollar, etc. You can’t buy lean cuisine, it’s too expensive, you’d get more bang for your buck if you buy the cheap stuff. chips and salsa, mac n cheese, crackers, things like that. We’ve tried fruit and veggies on this, but it doesn’t work, it goes bad too fast, and it turns into a waste of money. Our fridge has two settings, freeze everything, or let it melt. Frosty veggies aren’t good. We can’t grow veggies in an apartment, they throw down pesticides, and other nasties, and mow the lawn every other day. Especially with all the dogs around, they’d eat them, and our side gets hardly any sunlight. It sounds like a great idea, if I lived in a house or trailer.
Kait, your other idea about gleaning food from people doesn’t work if your only friends are teenagers that are dealing with the same food problem, or you have parents who eat all of their food and leave no leftovers.
One last thing before I cut this monster of a comment off. Yes, it does make you fat. I am now 70 pounds overweight because you can only buy a small amount of cheap food, or a smaller amount of “good” food. I only eat once a day, too. I’m too depressed to exercise, and it doesn’t ever help anyway. That’s another thing to add. The cheap, starchy, processed food we have to buy makes us lethargic, and getting fatter makes us depressed, thus unhappy and too tired to exercise.
~Luna
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