Well Im on SNAP and just recently had to find a computer to use to fill out my SNap benefits app. . I Called my worker and she said that they were not using paper apps anymore. I have a old beat up 89 oldsmobile that I cant even drive, cause other issues im not going into on this topic. . But what about those free phones the gov. Giving out to any and all with a snap or ssi acct. O yea and I googled once recently, about something about the foodstamp programs projected future cause someone said these programs are suppose to crash in a few years. . From my research, I would say that the availiabilty of food itself will run out far before. .. O btw the reason why i say this is because there sum sectioned ammendment about taxes payed to the fs program that will cannot be voted out..no matter if there 200 or 2 billion you will still be taxed for the foodstamps. . I DO agree with alot of what yal say about only buying off brand products. . Personaly I dnt shop at walmart PERIOD. . i shop at Macs they get all their produce from local farms and try my damndest to buy all the Louisiana products that I can. .

@Aphasia: Aint nobody here gonna know abt Macs but us Louisiana folks...got one right down the road lol

Nope never heard of Mac's lol

O, well I dnt get out much. . Lol but people need to research what they buy esp. On the program. . I went to mac's today and got my wic and got the best sausage in the world MANDA. . yummy. . Makin red beans and rice a with all Louisiana products . Wink* wink*

@Briteeyes: This is actually the one near my house lol Click here.

oh that's cool u found a pic of it :-)

Fascinating debate this . As an unbiased and unattached observer i must say that if this program of subsidised/free food for the poor and needy people enables them to actually buy nourishing food and sustain themselves and their children , thats a fantastic achievement . Even if there are some who abuse the system , if this thing actually enables needy people get two square meals a day and not starve to death it needs to be continued wholeheartedly even at the cost of some abuse and wastage .
i'm saying this keeping in mind my countrys efforts to feed its destitute masses . India is the home of more then half the malnourished children population of the entire planet . Governments has been striving to provide free or subsidised foodgrains to the poor for decades . And i'm talking here of only wheat and rice and not steak and coka cola . And kind of hunger and poverty we have here is something you americans cant even begin to imagin . This program has been an abysmal failure .

India is the largest producer of foodgrains , every year hundreds of tons of foodgrains spoil due to lack of adequate storage facilities and monsoon . Its rotting in government godowns and its unable to distribute . Hundreds of children die every year or get sick by eating mid day meal provided in the government run schools . 22 kids all less then 10 died a few days ago . Helping poor and needy is the biggest get rich quick industry here but only its the rich that get richer ie the government people . Now should we stop this pathetic and superficial effort and leave the poor entirely on their own fate ? I would say no !
if they dont even have this they will die . And the world will be a worse place for that .
as a society and as human beings we cant stop making efforts even if it means creating an inefficient and crass underclass . If you wanna weed out the rotten do it by all means but dont throw away the baby with the bathwater .

@Singhpk that is a very insightful contribution to the topic thanks for your commenting,, I appreciated reading. .

....""" Fraudulent Food Stamp Nation
May 06, 2013
A 30-something graduate from the University
of Chicago turned part-time blogger boldly
declared, “I’m sort of a foodie, and I’m not
going to do the ‘living off ramen’ thing.” He’d
just finished “roasted rabbit with butter,
tarragon and sweet potatoes.” His friend, a
30-year old art school graduate
acknowledged, “I’m eating better than I ever
have before.”
The accounts come from the left-leaning
Salon, which published the friends’ food
journey under the provocative headline:
Hipsters on food stamps.
That was in March 2010, when 44.5 million
people were part of the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP). Now, more than
47.7 million are receiving food stamps.
Recently, Ohio was targeted for participation
in a new federal program to curb abuse in the
food stamp program. Last year, according to
The Courier (Findlay, Ohio), the state auditor
“became aware of scams involving electronic
benefit cards and people selling them, then
seeking another one by claiming it was lost.”
In 2011, 17,000 food stamp recipients in Ohio
received 10 or more reissued cards. The fear,
of course, is that those cards were not lost,
but rather sold.
A November 2012 article from The Evening
Times (Little Falls, New York) reveals just how
quickly the cost of food stamp fraud
accumulates. The local Welfare Fraud Task
Force Team arrested nine individuals for
amassing $107,512.04 in “unentitled
benefits.” Two of the individuals, a husband
and wife, “failed to report income on their
applications” and “received $13,465 in food
stamp benefits” during “the time period of
March 2009 to April 2012.”
It is not just individuals gaming the system
though. Three days after Barack Obama was
reelected as president, The Enterprise
(Brockton, Massachusetts) reported five local
stores were accused of making illegal food
stamp transactions. The stores were operating
a cash-for-food stamps exchange. The
Enterprise explained, if a food stamp recipient
“wanted $50 cash, the store owner would
swipe the card for $100, which would be
credited to the store, and then give the
customer the cash in exchange.”
If it sounds like small ball, it’s not. Last April,
Eunice News (Louisiana) reported on brothers
who own a pair of convenience stores and
“defrauded the food stamp program out of
$2.7 million and allowed customers to
exchange their food stamps for alcohol,
tobacco products, and cash.” While that may
not seem like a lot by Washington standards,
it would take a family of three at the current
poverty level nearly 140 years to earn that
much money.
Despite the alarming frequency of news
reports, the United States Department of
Agriculture insists fraud accounts for only 1%
of the total cost of the food stamp program.
Since the program costs nearly $80 billion,
that is nearly $800 million a year in fraud.
That’s enough to buy nearly 4,500 single
family homes.
Of course, none of this accounts for the
hipsters, who were heaping “Thai yellow curry
with coconut milk and lemongrass, Chinese
gourd sautéed in hot chile sauce and sweet
clementine juice” onto their plates, “all of it
courtesy of government assistance.”
It is difficult, if not impossible, to calculate the
exact degree of abuse. A Bush-era document
says more than one-quarter of all benefits go
toward food items not considered “basic.” It’s
unclear if coconut milk and lemongrass would
be considered basic, but if that ratio holds
true today, the abuse far outweighs the fraud.
That’s $20 billion in taxpayer money going for
things like chips and soda, and maybe sweet
clementine juice.
Now, don’t expect to see news coverage of the
Food Stamp Bill. When such waste, fraud and
abuse is embedded into the program, it
should come as no surprise many lawmakers
who vote to reauthorize the food stamp
program won’t be calling it the Food Stamp
Reauthorization Act of 2013. Instead,
lawmakers and the media will simply call it a
farm bill.""".....