SNAP benefits ( gentally)

dogs4thewin · Monday at 11:04 AM

with the whole mess with SNAP benefits should there be anything food wise that cannot be purchased? How strict should it be?

I feel that no soft drinks nor pure junk food cookies, snack cakes ECT should be able to be purchased I do not believe, as I have seen at least one person say that everything boxed and certainly not everything canned should be off limits which if we really wanted to get super strict about junk food they would be.

Maria Billingsley · Monday at 11:06 AM

dogs4thewin said:
with the whole mess with SNAP benefits should there be anything food wise that cannot be purchased? How strict should it be?

I feel that no soft drinks nor pure junk food cookies, snack cakes ECT should be able to be purchased I do not believe, as I have seen at least one person say that everything boxed and certainly not everything canned should be off limits which if we really wanted to get super strict about junk food they would be.

Im affraid that would be impossible to enforce when checking out at the store.

dogs4thewin · Monday at 11:10 AM

Maria Billingsley said:
Im affraid that would be impossible to enforce when checking out at the store.

nope if they ring up everything and the person is only using EBT they could tell them that could not be purchased with EBT same as they would if a person tried to buy booze with an EBT card.

I have seen people for non-EBT reasons have orders rung up as seperate it can be done.

JosephZ · Monday at 11:18 AM

dogs4thewin said:
I feel that no soft drinks nor pure junk food cookies, snack cakes ECT should be able to be purchased

Imagine you’re a kid at school and it's lunchtime. Your friends are all eating cookies and doughnuts that their mom packed in their lunch. Meanwhile, you’re stuck with carrot sticks and apple slices because your mom can't buy treats with SNAP. How would you feel in that situation? Would it make you feel sad? Humiliated? Denying low-income families the ability to buy junk food with SNAP goes beyond looking at only the health benefits of doing so.

Belk · Monday at 11:21 AM

dogs4thewin said:
with the whole mess with SNAP benefits should there be anything food wise that cannot be purchased? How strict should it be?

I feel that no soft drinks nor pure junk food cookies, snack cakes ECT should be able to be purchased I do not believe, as I have seen at least one person say that everything boxed and certainly not everything canned should be off limits which if we really wanted to get super strict about junk food they would be.

Why are you so desperate to micromanage other peoples lives?

Paulos23 · Monday at 11:21 AM

dogs4thewin said:
with the whole mess with SNAP benefits should there be anything food wise that cannot be purchased? How strict should it be?

I feel that no soft drinks nor pure junk food cookies, snack cakes ECT should be able to be purchased I do not believe, as I have seen at least one person say that everything boxed and certainly not everything canned should be off limits which if we really wanted to get super strict about junk food they would be.

Have you seen the prices for "healthy" food? Sometimes you have to substitute "junk" food to make the budget.

There is also nothing wrong with a few treats. Removing treats from SNAP will not make it healthly.

dogs4thewin · Monday at 11:23 AM

JosephZ said:
Imagine you’re a kid at school and it's lunchtime. Your friends are all eating cookies and doughnuts that their mom packed in their lunch. Meanwhile, you’re stuck with carrot sticks and apple slices because your mom can't buy treats with SNAP. How would you feel in that situation? Would it make you feel sad? Humiliated? Denying low-income families the ability to buy junk food with SNAP goes beyond looking at only the health benefits of doing so.

nope the fact is that the S and N are meant to limit SNAP people do not seem to understand that or either they do not like being limited when someone else is paying for their food. If you wish to buy junk food fine but do so with your part of the food budget. If not, then wait until you can and are paying for your own food. Now, I do not believe that schools should serve different food to kids who do not have money on their lunch accounts for that reason, but when it comes to packed lunches nope buy it with your own money or do not buy it. ( and I am saying that as someone who keeps treats in the house.

dogs4thewin · Monday at 11:27 AM

Belk said:
Why are you so desperate to micromanage other peoples lives?

because if you are buying things with someone else's money whether it be the government, charity or even a private person they should have the right to say what you can and cannot buy with the money they are providing what you do with YOUR money is your business but when you tell someone I need money for Y Z purpose they have the right to know how you spend it

dogs4thewin · Monday at 11:32 AM

Paulos23 said:
Have you seen the prices for "healthy" food? Sometimes you have to substitute "junk" food to make the budget.

There is also nothing wrong with a few treats. Removing treats from SNAP will not make it healthly.

again, if you wish to buy treats do so with YOUR portion of your food budget or if you are getting money from a PERSON who is buying you those treats and knows it fine, but not with money you are claiming to need for food. Again as someone who keeps treats in the house I do not NEED treats I may WANT them but I do not need them weight aside

As to the prices of "healthy" food that is part of why I do not support banning the purchase of anything and everything in a box or can with SNAP.

Desk trauma · Monday at 11:35 AM

Clearly there needs to be a requirement that people using an EBT card have to grovel and beg at the point of sale.

Belk · Monday at 11:45 AM

dogs4thewin said:
because if you are buying things with someone else's money whether it be the government, charity or even a private person they should have the right to say what you can and cannot buy with the money they are providing what you do with YOUR money is your business but when you tell someone I need money for Y Z purpose they have the right to know how you spend it

Umittigated claptrap.

First off, that does not answer the question of why you are trying to control others through taxes. That is simply your justification for why you think you SHOULD be able to.

Secondly it IS their money. Many of them are tax payers.

Third, this idea that because you give the money you get to attach conditions are only for your money. The idea that you get to direct government funds does not work in most contexts. We don't go to taxpayers to weigh in on buying weapons or DOJ priorities.

RocksInMyHead · Monday at 11:48 AM

Maria Billingsley said:
Im affraid that would be impossible to enforce when checking out at the store.

The enforcement part wouldn't actually be that difficult. There are similar systems in place for HSA/Flex Spending accounts at drug stores. If you swipe your HSA card first, it'll cover the items that are eligible and leave you with the remainder to pay by a different method.

dogs4thewin · Monday at 11:51 AM

Belk said:
Umittigated claptrap.

First off, that does not answer the question of why you are trying to control others through taxes. That is simply your justification for why you think you SHOULD be able to.

Secondly it IS their money. Many of them are tax payers.

Third, this idea that because you give the money you get to attach conditions are only for your money. The idea that you get to direct government funds does not work in most contexts. We don't go to taxpayers to weigh in on buying weapons or DOJ priorities.

yes ,they ARE ta payers, however they are requesting money out of a larger pot because they claim they cannot afford and very basic thing (food). if you are getting money for food ten it needs to ACTUALLY be what is in the name of SNAP and junk food is not it. What do the SNA stand for, yet people do not seem to treat it as such by the way the same applies to section 8 and even social security ( neither of which are the topic of this thread.

Belk · Monday at 12:03 PM

dogs4thewin said:
yes ,they ARE ta payers, however they are requesting money out of a larger pot because they claim they cannot afford and very basic thing (food). if you are getting money for food ten it needs to ACTUALLY be what is in the name of SNAP and junk food is not it. What do the SNA stand for, yet people do not seem to treat it as such by the way the same applies to section 8 and even social security ( neither of which are the topic of this thread.

Yeah, that it has an acronym is not a reason. This looks like nothing more then excuses to control others actions to what you find appropriate. It is the same urge that gets us "work requirements" that waste more money then it saves.

Oompa Loompa · Monday at 12:04 PM

dogs4thewin said:
with the whole mess with SNAP benefits should there be anything food wise that cannot be purchased? How strict should it be?

I feel that no soft drinks nor pure junk food cookies, snack cakes ECT should be able to be purchased. I do not believe that, as I have seen at least one person say that everything boxed and certainly not everything canned should be off limits, which, if we really wanted to get super strict about junk food, they would be.

I think a good rule would be that if I wouldn't buy it for my kids, a parent shouldn't be able to use my tax money to buy it for theirs.

Always in His Presence · Monday at 12:05 PM

How about, since you cannot get SNAP benefits without and ID - require all purchases to show that very same ID when using the card?

JosephZ · Monday at 12:05 PM

dogs4thewin said:
yes ,they ARE ta payers, however they are requesting money out of a larger pot because they claim they cannot afford and very basic thing (food). if you are getting money for food ten it needs to ACTUALLY be what is in the name of SNAP and junk food is not it. What do the SNA stand for, yet people do not seem to treat it as such by the way the same applies to section 8 and even social security ( neither of which are the topic of this thread.

According to this report published in 2016, it turns out low-income people receiving SNAP benefits use them to buy groceries in much the same way non-SNAP families spend their own money at the grocery store.

SNAP families spend 23 cents on junk food and sodas per dollar, and non-SNAP families spend 20 cents on junk food and sodas per dollar. Just a 3 cent difference.

Maria Billingsley · Monday at 12:07 PM

dogs4thewin said:
nope if they ring up everything and the person is only using EBT they could tell them that could not be purchased with EBT same as they would if a person tried to buy booze with an EBT card.

I have seen people for non-EBT reasons have orders rung up as seperate it can be done.

And self check? Lets be reasonable here. No checker is going to do that.

Maria Billingsley · Monday at 12:09 PM

RocksInMyHead said:
The enforcement part wouldn't actually be that difficult. There are similar systems in place for HSA/Flex Spending accounts at drug stores. If you swipe your HSA card first, it'll cover the items that are eligible and leave you with the remainder to pay by a different method.

That would work !

iluvatar5150 · Monday at 12:20 PM

Maria Billingsley said:
Im affraid that would be impossible to enforce when checking out at the store.

That depends on what you mean by "enforce".

If you mean that it would be impossible for the cashier to filter which items are or not eligible for SNAP, that's incorrect. If the cashier were expected to manually filter everything (as was the case when I processed WIC orders 25 years ago), then yes, that would be unfeasible. But that's not what would happen. What would happen is the same thing that happens now, everywhere at stores that sell both food and non-food items: SKU's are coded in the database as being SNAP-eligible and when the EBT card is used, the POS system polls the database to see which items on the list are eligible, and applies the funds only to those items. What's left shows up as a remaining balance to be paid by some other means.

If you mean that it would be impossible to determine which items should be eligible in the first place, then I'm inclined to agree. I've explained this here before multiple times, but the definition of "junk food" is not clear at all. Sure, on one end of the spectrum you have carrots and on the other end you have Twinkies, but there's a ton of stuff in the middle that's very, very muddled.

If you want one example of how muddled things are, define for me the difference between a candy bar and a granola bar. I won't hold my breath.

SNAP benefits ( gentally)

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