Interesting Article on WCYB news yesterday

**centennialdawg** · July 16th, 2008, 08:04 PM

I saw an article on WCYB yesterday that just sent me to fuming. It was about people receiving EBT benefits and how it was hard for them to make "ends meet" because they weren't getting any increase in benefits to offset the rising cost in food.

HELLO!!!!!!!!!! I am on a fixed income, don't make but 1300 a month and I don't receive any assistance at all! A lot of others on fixed income don't receive any "extra" benefits either. The cost of food and fuel has effected me just as much. At least those people get their food for free. I don't. Thought about writing them and letting them know how I feel about that.

**imported_elp6n** · July 16th, 2008, 08:09 PM

That must be the same one my coworker was telling us about today. She said some mother receiving Food Stamps (EBT) was complaining that her benefits hadn't been increased - she couldn't buy enough pop for her kids to last the month and they had to drink KoolAid instead....... (Not sure where to begin - so many things wrong with that statement)

The rest of us work or have otherwise earned income and our incomes aren't adjusted to reflect inflation either. We deal with it.

A parent with a few kids to feed could at least get a p/t job and still receive food stamp benefits.

**centennialdawg** · July 16th, 2008, 08:43 PM

Yep, that's it. It really set me off. Don't get me wrong, if they need assistance, that is fine. But to complain about not being able to buy pop on EBT is stupid. It's hard for me to pay my electric.

**MikeJones** · July 16th, 2008, 08:53 PM

Buying pop isnt needing assistance. THey should take [censored] liek that off of there. My neighbors ate steak almost everyday till they moved. Dont guess thats changed.

**imported_elp6n** · July 16th, 2008, 09:16 PM

I was a cashier at the WalMart in Christiansburg years ago - and the sad truth was it didn't take long for you to learn to spot a food stamp purchase from 5 aisles away simply from how their shopping carts were filled and what they were filled with.

Granted there were some that were quite responsible with their purchases - I commend those folks - they made their assistance work and last, but I can't say that was the majority.

One young lady (maybe 19) came in and had a cart full of what we called party food. Many bags of chips, many containers of dip, sodas, junkie stuff in general. And she one single-serve container of baby food. She had an infant on her hip. I will never forget that one.

More than once I had ladies that had me separate the stamps out for them (before the days of the EBT card) because their salon manicures were too long to separate pieces of paper. You guys may not know how much a manicure like that costs, but it can run in the 3 digits a month - especially the kind I saw.

I hate being so bitter about it, but my experiences working with it have made me that way. I wish it wasn't the case.

**centennialdawg** · July 16th, 2008, 09:22 PM

The thing about the article that burned me up was that the woman was complaining basically about not getting enough free food.

**imported_ut1** · July 16th, 2008, 09:24 PM

Having worked in a supermarket for twenty of my first thirty years, and for the postal service for the last 23, there's hardly anything you can tell me about the abuse of the system. What really gets me is the deduction I see from my paycheck each payday that goes to some family other than mine! Don't get me wrong, I think people need help, but they need a "hand-up", not a "hand-out".

**centennialdawg** · July 16th, 2008, 09:36 PM

Well, The point I am trying to get across is "what about the people on a fixed income like me who don't get any assistance at all. I have to buy my food and pay my bills with what I get, not what is given to me free.