These numbers about food stamps should tell us just how well the economy is doing and the ineffectiveness of certain government mandated programs;
• The number of people on food stamps in South Dakota has jumped 75 percent in the past five years.
• 1 in 8 in South Dakota is on the program
• In 2009, the latest year numbers were available, food stamp participants in this state spent $111.2 million.
• C-Stores make up a more then a 1/3 of food stamp vendors (36%)
Like I have said in the past, people who need food stamps should get them, but there needs to be certain restrictions, IMO;
The high number of convenience stores in SNAP alarms public health advocates. “There’s not a lot of good, healthy food in convenience stores,” Brownell said.
In an era of rising obesity rates, some argue that restrictions should be placed on what people can buy with their EBT cards. Without restrictions, participants often eat foods that lead to health problems, which then lead to higher costs in government-run health care plans.
“It doesn’t seem to me that government should buy things that make people sick and then clean up the mess later,” said Kelly Brownell, director of the Yale University Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.
This is a perfect example of restrictions. I’m not saying that vendors like C-Stores cannot participate, I’m just saying certain products should not be available for purchase with food stamps. We live in a modern society that relies on barcodes, it is very easy to block out certain items from purchase with food stamps. This is not rocket science.
But Jeff Lenard, spokes-man for the National Association of Convenience Stores, disputes the idea that conveniences stores are a source only for snack foods and pop.
LMFAO! Yeah, because every time I am in line behind someone paying with a EBT card at a C-store, they are buying fresh fruit, milk, bread and eggs . . . In fact I have never once seen anybody buy anything healthy from a C-Store with an EBT card. I think the closest was a guy buying chocolate milk. And even if they were buying healthy food, it costs a lot more to purchase it from a C-Store then from a grocer. It makes zero sense to allow people to buy unhealthy, expensive food with government money, but hey, the Pentagon buys expensive shit we don’t need all the time.
I am all for convenience when it comes to the EBT card, especially for the elderly and handicapped, but seriously folks, this system needs to be fixed, not just to save taxpayers money, but to provide healthy food to people who are using it. I think everyone should go to bed on a full stomach in one of the richest countries in the world, but there is a better way to achieve that goal.