Is eating healthy on food stamps possible?

Goal179

I think it can be done but I say this with the caveat that I don't know what a typical family receives for food stamps. I am basing my opinion based on the fact that I have a tight grocery budget for a family of four and I do pretty well with eating healthy. But I really look for deals and I don't have any restrictions on where I can shop because it's my money. I used to think this couldn't be done, but I have since changed my opinion. If they are allowed to shop at places like Aldi, Trader Joe's, and Dollar Store, then I think it could be done. I also think the following is important:

1) We have to educate about what is "healthy" and what isn't. Sometimes, you may not be able to afford to eat perfectly, but you can make healthier choices.
2) We have to make sure that stores like Trader Joes and Aldi will accept food stamps. I am not sure if they do, but they need to in order to open this market up for lower income folks or folks on government assistance.
3) As the demand for cleaner, less refined food increases, more manufaturers will produce these type of products thus making them more widely available at more competitive prices
4) Eating healthy is a comittment. You have to plan ahead and have a plan in place for the week before you go shopping. That makes shopping on a tight budget even more difficult. It takes time to be able to do that.
5) More cooking has to be done at home. The only way to compete with the cost of McDonald's is to cook a meal at home that can feed 3-4 people for a similiar price. By the way, last time I checked, McDonald's was expensive as heck. WHen did they raise their prices so high?

rml_16

If they are allowed to shop at places like Aldi, Trader Joe's, and Dollar Store, then I think it could be done.

There are no restrictions on the where (other than businesses that simply don't take food stamps, but those are rare). The only restrictions are on WHAT they can buy. They can't buy a rotisserie chicken, for example, or use them in restaurants.

Goal179

No kidding! You can get 10 pounds of potatoes for the cost of one bag of chips.

Now to get the convenience stores in poor areas to stock 10 pound bags of potatoes. Or any produce. They would if food stamps weren't a subsidy to packaged food industries.

Convenience stores are not where you are supposed to be buying your groceries. Who does that, honestly? Even my folks in the rural areas will truck the long journey to Walmart for their grocery stores. Convenience stores are for convenience, and that's that.

Since a number of replies are full of anecdotes (food stamps and a new iPhone!), I'll reply with an anecdote of my own. I taught for three years in the South Bronx. My school's neighborhood had a handful of bodegas and one "grocery" store, which had little produce, little meat (almost entirely processed and/or low nutrient value), and several aisles of the worst types of packaged food you could find. Unemployed parents could spend the hours traveling to a decent grocery store and back while their kids were in school. The parents who were on food stamps and working minimum wage jobs (spoiler alert: you can't live in NYC on minimum wage), had no time to manage the shopping commute. Add in health education or lack thereof, the dangers of shopping at night far from home, childcare while you try to do the shopping, and having a clean place to store the ten pounds of potatoes where rats and roaches can't get them, and you have real obstacles to eating well.

I get that we want to simply write those off as excuses, but when I think of the number of times I ordered a pizza because I just didn't have it in me to load my small kids into the car after school and drag them to the grocery store, with none of the above added challenges, I have to consider that it's more complicated than it would appear on paper for poor families.

I completely understand what you are saying.....I live on Long Island and thankfully I am living with family cuz for a single mother of 2 who works Im lucky if I can keep my "head above water" so yes I have to depend on these govt programs. No not forever but for the time being yes I have to.....When I had my good paying job I didnt need it but with alot of ppl they lost good paying jobs all over the country and places like NYC they dont always got the best shopping areas. My family comes from Brooklyn and I remember more convience stores being on every corner then the better food grocery stores.....so yes taking into consideration all of the inconviences its always easier to walk to the corner store to pick up a few things til you get to a better grocery store. Especially venturing out in the Bronx at night time

WOW! Good points. I never thought about the storage issues (rats, roaches) It really is a complicated issue.

tiggerhammon

A family of 2 is not getting $700 unless maybe California has super high guidelines like that. I was a single, non-working (homeless) mother at one point and time. I had three kids and never received over $500 for my family of 4. I was thankful for every penny I got but I'm sick of people making outrageous claims like this about food stamps.

Everyone I know on food stamps gets a large amount of money ($900 for a family of 4 and $700 for a family of 2 - two of the families I know)

I would say Heck Yes! It most certainly is possible to eat healthy with that kind of food "budget."

wow where do you live??? im in California and I get 475 for a family of five!!!!!!

I live in Missouri. I am a single parent in school full-time with an autistic son and we only get $215 a month.

I live in NY another high cost of living state just like CA and im lucky I can get 500 for a family of 3 but now its down below 450 a month so even to me hearing 900 for a family of 4 sounded like a false claim as well....Ill tell you one thing being on FS has taught me how to budget very well probably even better if I wasnt on it

So, I realized I did simply state what I had been told by others without any proof at all of it being fact. I absolutely hate being called a liar and I did state something I did not know for 100% to be true.
These numbers were what I was told.
So, after asking all 3 of these families what they were receiving in food stamps I learned that the numbers they were all telling me was not in food stamps alone. But, each of them, it is a total of food stamps+TANF benefits.
I also asked my husband's friends wife - who works at Deparment of Workforce Services here and is daily dealing with determining ones benefits. She said my friends getting these high amounts is rare but not unheard of. If they truly have 0 income and qualify for the maximum benefits then they would be getting this amount. But, only if they are actively proving they are seeking employment and even then this high of benefits would be temporary.
So, I learned that one of my friends for sure is cheating the system because she works under the table and receives child support under the table, claiming to have 0 income. This is the only way she would qualify for the amount she has.
So - it isn't just in food stamps - it is a combination of benefits. And, it isn't an every case scenario. Benefits like this are only given to families with extreme 0 income scenarios. And, in my state, numbers like this are not common - but COMPLETELY possible and do happen!
The usual amount of food stamps given to a family of 4 in this state is $450.

jennegan1

A family of 2 is not getting $700 unless maybe California has super high guidelines like that. I was a single, non-working (homeless) mother at one point and time. I had three kids and never received over $500 for my family of 4. I was thankful for every penny I got but I'm sick of people making outrageous claims like this about food stamps.

Everyone I know on food stamps gets a large amount of money ($900 for a family of 4 and $700 for a family of 2 - two of the families I know)

I would say Heck Yes! It most certainly is possible to eat healthy with that kind of food "budget."

wow where do you live??? im in California and I get 475 for a family of five!!!!!!

I live in Missouri. I am a single parent in school full-time with an autistic son and we only get $215 a month.

I live in NY another high cost of living state just like CA and im lucky I can get 500 for a family of 3 but now its down below 450 a month so even to me hearing 900 for a family of 4 sounded like a false claim as well....Ill tell you one thing being on FS has taught me how to budget very well probably even better if I wasnt on it

So, I realized I did simply state what I had been told by others without any proof at all of it being fact. I absolutely hate being called a liar and I did state something I did not know for 100% to be true.
These numbers were what I was told.
So, after asking all 3 of these families what they were receiving in food stamps I learned that the numbers they were all telling me was not in food stamps alone. But, each of them, it is a total of food stamps+TANF benefits.
I also asked my husband's friends wife - who works at Deparment of Workforce Services here and is daily dealing with determining ones benefits. She said my friends getting these high amounts is rare but not unheard of. If they truly have 0 income and qualify for the maximum benefits then they would be getting this amount. But, only if they are actively proving they are seeking employment and even then this high of benefits would be temporary.
So, I learned that one of my friends for sure is cheating the system because she works under the table and receives child support under the table, claiming to have 0 income. This is the only way she would qualify for the amount she has.
So - it isn't just in food stamps - it is a combination of benefits. And, it isn't an every case scenario. Benefits like this are only given to families with extreme 0 income scenarios. And, in my state, numbers like this are not common - but COMPLETELY possible and do happen!
The usual amount of food stamps given to a family of 4 in this state is $450.

Im sorry if I offended you....its just I know how it goes in my state but yes a combination of food stamps and state assistance that amount sounds more reasonable of the 900 dollars....I was like just for FS alone thats sounds too high with out any other type of income being accounted in for that.....I didnt exactly call you a liar it just sounded false for 900 alone in just FS for a family of 4......Again sorry if i offended you in any way that wasnt my intetion

illuvatree

Buy in bulk. Keep a stash of stuff you can just boil and flavor, like quinoa, lentils, cous cous (the small kind and the pearl kind), and also frozen veggies. It's actually cheaper if you just have that stash in the long term, even if in the short term it doesn't seem like it.