trkingmomoe's picture

    Setting a Place at the Table

    By trkingmomoe on Tue, 10/29/2013 - 3:06am |

    A couple of weeks ago on a Saturday, I was in the check out line at a local store. Just ahead of me was a lady checking out only she was over her budget and was having items taken off the bill. It took a while but I was not in a hurry. Shopping is just about the only thing I do to get out of the house these days, so I don't rush through it. After she got her over spending adjusted, she discovered she had left her EBT card at home. I could see her embarrassment in her face as she apologized. She said she would come back in a few minutes. There was tears in her eyes as she left the store. So all of us were switched to another register and I asked the young man checking me out if he thought she would come back. He said yes because she was a regular customer. Her tears of shame bothered me all day. In my head I had visions of her being a single mom that is over worked and tired. I think it is time that our politicians stop shaming people for being in need of SNAP and do something to remove that need.

    The first of November the 2009 stimulus is ending and SNAP program will see a decrease in monthly allowances. For a family of 4 that means a month's worth of milk if the kids drink 2 gallons a week. For the lady who found herself over her allowance, this is a real challenge trying to stretch her budget. Truth is that the average food basket of groceries have gone up since 2009. Bread, ground beef and cereal to name a few off the top of my head. On top of that the Republican controlled House wants to cut food assistance and has been dragging their collective feet on a farm bill. They will be meeting on Wednesday to try to hammer out a deal. The House Republicans want to cut about $40 billion dollars over 10 years and the Senate wants to cut $4.5 billion dollars over the same period. Moreover it is hypocritical of the House after shutting down the government costing the country a blow to the economy. If they don't come to any agreement by January 1, the 1949 law will expire milk price supports and the price of milk will double. We are already seeing price jumps in beef because of the early snow storm in North Dakota and price increase in products made from grain because of heat and drought in some areas.

    The farmers have been keeping pressure on Congress with K Street to make sure their interests are on the table. The poor don't seem to have a place at the table. We need to recognize that good nutrition is a human right not a bargaining chip. Children benefit the most from SNAP because half of them live in poverty. We need to worry about the children we have now. The future of this country lies within the children we nurture now, not some future fictitious debt or tax rate.  The 2014 election is our chance to set a place at the table for these kids by working to defeat the tea bag Republicans.

    Here is Labor Dept chart on recent food costs per pound:

    http://www.bls.gov/ro3/apmw.htm

    Here is some further reading on the Farm Bill:

    http://www.nbcnews.com/business/food-stamp-benefits-going-down-holidays-8C11418632

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/10/28/farm-bill-conference-committee/3289135/

    http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/10/28/why-you-should-care-about-the-farm-bill

    Comments

    I have seen similar episodes at my grocer's; the smart clerks just get on the PA and a new check out line is opened up; almost immediately and this keeps down the shame factor.

    The clerk can do a lot to keep down that shame factor and our clerks are pretty good at that.

    The SNAP problems are all over for me, thank God but I have also seen the situation where a credit card did not go through at any number of stores.

    Old habits die hard but I still add prices in my head (beside poundage since I cash and carry hahaaha) and that is never a bad habit.


    by Richard Day on Tue, 10/29/2013 - 1:46pm

    When I first set up housekeeping, I would carry a small note book in my purse to keep track of prices and add up what was in my shopping basket.  Later I had a small calculator to add with and now I can use my smart phone to add if my money is close.  Most of the time, I am like you and just add it up in my head by rounding off amounts.  I stick to basic food items because I save by cooking from scratch.  Years ago I didn't see as many people have trouble at the check out like I do today.  Mostly then it was over a coupon or picking up the wrong sale item.  Now I see debit card, WIX and SNAP problems every time I go to a grocery store.  There is more people now who are depending on SNAP and WIX.  We really need to raise wages not reducing the amount of money in the program.   


    by trkingmomoe on Tue, 10/29/2013 - 4:14pm

    I have also seen the situation where a credit card did not go through at any number of stores.

    OK I gotta rant.

    Everyone needs to know that shame about this is silly, really something from the past.

    Anyone who travels frequently and, I would venture, most check out clerks at any store that services more than 20 regular customers, knows that the %*!x&@#! credit card companies constantly deny lots of credit card transactions now every single minute allover the country, having nothing to do with the cardholder's finances, but only because the purchase is "irregular" for that cardholder.

    It's done by computers, algorithms or something, they just cut you off out of the blue because the charge is bigger or smaller than what you usually buy, or you are buying somewhere you don't usually go, or too many purchases in a row within in a hour, or a shady vendor, or whatever the geeks decide to program into the computer this week.

    In the current wonderful world of consumer credit, what everyone really needs to know is that credit cards no longer offer you purchasing power in an emergency and safety of never being without funds, but they are, rather, taken away from you the minute a software robot suspects someone other than you is using them. And I mean all of them! These robots talk to each other in short order. Visa and Mastercard and Discover and AmEx and Mobil can lock you out of your credit in short order!

    It's actually maddening if you travel now and plan to use credit to buy things, you must must must call every credit card company in advance now and tell them where you will be going and when you are coming back, like they are your parents. (Many even have a travel advisory option on their voice mail system.) Or they WILL cut you off when you are the the middle of rural Alabama at 10pm with no gas and no food, just because you used a credit card to buy a coffee and sandwich at a 7/11 outside the Birmingham airport after you picked up the rental car. If you don't call 'em within an hour or so to turn off the %*!x&@#! bot or whatever it is that's going to cut you off next, the next time you try to use the plastic guys, you may find them all locked up! Embarrassment is the least of your problems then.

    I've been cut off a mere 80 miles from my home more than once even though I drive to that area more than once a year.  Once I was even cut off within a chain drug store 3 blocks from my home--I picked up my prescription and paid for it at the pharmacy counter, then I spent a half hour picking up toiletries and other needs and when I tried to use the same card at the front counter, it was denied, even those it still had an open line of credit like $10K on it!

    (When I got home, that company's phone line guy really really got an earful from me and his manager too, I just kept saying "what the hell use is your card to me if I can never be sure a purchase will be approved?" They kept answer "it's for your own safety that we do this, the card could be stolen." And I said "bullshit, it's for your safety, not mine, I know the laws on this." Them: "our computer does this, ma'am, if the purchase is suspicious, our apologies that it has to be that way" Me: "well, your computer is stupid, please turn it off on my account or I will not be using your card again." And once again "what the hell use is your card if I have to call every time I want to use it and verify that it is me?")

    Every time this has happened to me, the check out clerks shrug and say it happens all the time and ask to try another card until one works. They are used to seeing this and no one should have any shame about it. They not only don't know why your credit card or EBT card isn't working, they don't care why it's not working, it's just another part of their job to see this happen all the time to all kinds of people of every class.


    by artappraiser on Tue, 10/29/2013 - 6:47pm

    My diary is about SNAP and the farm bill.  Is there shame? Yes, ever since Regan called people who qualified for Food Stamps "Welfare Queens," there is public shame. Republicans have been beating that drum ever since. I have heard the nasty comments from people in line behind some one using a EBT card or WIX coupons.  I have even heard nasty remarks about purchasing a child's birthday cake using a EBT card. It was probably the only thing that parent could do to make a nice birthday.   People who live in poverty don't travel much unless it is to visit family.  That usually means a bus ticket, packed lunch and enough cash to see you through the trip.  Being food insecure is a hard path to walk in.  


    by trkingmomoe on Tue, 10/29/2013 - 7:52pm

    I know these things. People shouldn't be ashamed of using EBT or SNAP. I know from the store signs that many people in my neighborhood do and there is little shame in it here and I think that is good, all payers are equal. I know many of them don't have access to cars and I know how hard it is for them to get food and get it home, especially when they have full time jobs. I don't always have access to a car, can't afford to, that is something that has had to be cut, and I know what that does to one's life and how much more difficult it is to live on a tight budget without one. (Throw in when there are little kids that have to be brought along when going out to do anything and I don't know how people do it sometimes.)

    I believe the change from "stamps" to cards started out for that very reason, to make the transaction look like anyone else's, so you can't judge, so there is no shame. I told the story I did because I do think it's wrong to judge anyone's situation from how they pay in a grocery store checkout line. Because you can't know the real situation. Someone using credit to pay may also be food insecure (diapers for example, are a difficult expense for many which are not covered by "food stamps".) Sorry if me going in that direction upset you. To be clear: I think there should be no shame in using EBT or SNAP. Just as there should be no shame in getting Earned Income Credit on your income tax.


    by artappraiser on Tue, 10/29/2013 - 8:19pm

    I just wish these southern republicans would behave themselves in grocery lines.  We do need to keep an eye on what is going on with the farm bill.  If Democrats give too much away with SNAP that may lead to a lousy Grand Bargain cuts in SS and Medicare. SNAP is needed to keep stimulus in the economy.  By the way 30% of the county's homelessness is in Florida and the SNAP program use has doubled in the country since 2007. The numbers of users has not dropped even with a recovery.  There has been no recovery for the bottom quarter of our society's economy. I was just trying to keep the thread on topic. 


    by trkingmomoe on Tue, 10/29/2013 - 8:46pm

    I love this story for so many reasons.

    We live in the 'real world' and then we live in the computer age or the virtual world.

    THEY, whoever they are, control everything.

    I know we are still as a nation manufacturing pennies for ten times their value and we put codes on paper money and we attempt to control fraud with regard to that paper money.

    But plastic is everything.

    I mean I get just under $1200/month and my bank (Wells Fargo) gets me into 4 different accounts? and for what reason?

    The Feds demand that they charge me nothing for the privilege of banking with me and you can see the regs keeping WF from charging me everytime I use the ATM or the grocers or the local drug store. So many rules. I mean I cannot use any other ATM other than WF but I mean that is where I get my money and it is 6 blocks away. Where else am I going to go except when the machine is down?

    If plastic is everything, which it will be, what are the alternatives?

    We have very little crime up here in the middle of nowhere.

    I guess, if I were pissed off and 20 years of age I might stand by our ATM in the nighttime with a hoody and prey upon 'users', but there are video apparatuses and forty bucks aint gonna help anyone over the 'long run' hahahahahah.

    I think of all these sci-fi movies and all humanity has to deal with is 'credits'.

    We have reached that tier I guess?

    So if the 'machine' says no, it might be a good idea to have ten other pieces of 'plastic' with ten different 'codes' and a bunch of pennies, I guess?

    THE END

     

     


    by Richard Day on Wed, 10/30/2013 - 5:23am

    This is a great blog Momoe, really great. I wasn't able to respond, I really hate what happened to the lady in your grocery line. I don't think most people fully understand poverty and the struggle to get enough food and the correct nutrition, it's really disturbing. It does really irk me to no end that Congresspeople are so wiling to further penalize the lives of people who are struggling to get by day to day. 

     

    Thanks for this blog Momoe, and also.. the picture up there, did you make that? It looks great!


    by tmccarthy0 on Wed, 10/30/2013 - 9:29pm

    Thank you.  Yes I made the fish.  It is orange glazed baked fish.  Recipe is over at Word press blog.  If you saw my diary from last week you get to see how poorly many of the poor eat.  $1.75 a meal isn't much.  


    by trkingmomoe on Thu, 10/31/2013 - 4:50am

    She is pretty good at this, isn't she. haahah

    Check out her blog.

    I cannot figure out this picture thing without wiki.

    At any rate Momoe does this stuff all the time!


    by Richard Day on Thu, 10/31/2013 - 5:00pm

    Thanks for bringing the food problem to light again.  How can they even think of cutting food stamps?  It's as if they love the idea of the worst kind of low cruelty.  I don't know what else would motivate them.

    Maybe we should send all those damned politicians copies of your diaries.  They like to isolate themselves in all the places where they'll never have to come in contact with poor people hurting because of their own actions.  We may have to smoke them out if we want to get anywhere with this.


    by Ramona on Wed, 10/30/2013 - 11:01pm

    Steve Sutherland FL-2 is a head of the charge to cut SNAP in the farm bill.  Gwen Graham is running against him.  She is the daughter of the former Gov,/Senator Bob Grahm of Florida.  We hope to have him gone in 2014.  I found this on you tube from a couple of months ago.  At least this one he is not holding up a bible,  He usually peppers his statements with religious references.  

    His district has some of the poorest people in the state.  I know I spent my share of time in that part of the state.  There is plenty of food desserts in the rural areas.  Infant mortality rate is high also because of lack of health care. His facts are fairy tails.  I don't know where he found those figures. Most likely from the Heritage Foundation.  USDA and Labor Dept. keeps good tract of who is on Assistance. Most of the people who qualify for SNAP are working poor who hold down jobs.  Most households that get food stamps has some one working but have children, a disabled person or a elderly person. 

     


    by trkingmomoe on Thu, 10/31/2013 - 5:38am

    In Defense of Food Stamps
    A successful poverty program is being unfairly criticized. Here are the facts
    By William A. Galston,  Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 5, 2013

    We are entering a divisive debate on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), popularly known as food stamps. Unless facts drive the debate, it will be destructive as well.

    Here are the basic facts [....]


    by artappraiser on Wed, 11/06/2013 - 2:30pm

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