MNPublius endorsed Representative Jeremy Kalin is taking the Minnesota Food Stamp Challenge, and he’s blogging about it at their website (it’s also crossposted at, his own blog, and at Minnesota Campaign Report), the food stamp challenge is when Minnesotans try to live off of approximately three dollars a day in food.
While I’m sure this would be an opportune time to point out that of all of the legislators who are taking this challenge; Representative Kalin, Representative Hosch, Representative Murphy, Representative Madore, Representative Norton, and Senator Lourey, are DFL’ers, I’ll leave that alone for now.
Representative Kalin details the joys of shopping on 21$ a week.
I shopped at the Cub Foods in Cambridge, on my way home. Unfortunately, I was quite hungry at this point - not a good idea with a very limited budget. At first, I had an easy time putting together a full basket: Romaine lettuce @ 1.29, white bread @ 1.69, rice @ 1.13 and beans @ .97, tortillas @ .99… Protein. Carbs. Greens. Good to go for several meals, at just over 6 bucks…
I added 21 oz. of spaghetti noodles for 1.00, and generic sauce for 1.59. Some peas and corn in a can for a total of .88 and I had a heavy basket for about 10 bucks. On to some meat-y protein. I grabbed two cans of tuna for 98 cents and a pound of ground beef for 2.50 (a splurge, I know, but I need real meat during these 5 days)…
I got to the register, and found myself about 65 cents over budget. I handed back the fresh lettuce. I now regret it. The fresh lettuce would go so much farther for taste and crispness than would the canned corn and peas. Bad move.
Now, what does all of this have to do with Minnesota? (I’m trying to bring this full circle, more than just saying “Oh, look, here’s a Minnesota legislator doing something!”) Not many people know this, but the annual budget for food stamps is almost wholly contained in the Ag bill winding its way through committee. And who is on that committee? Why Tim Walz is! And Colin Peterson is the Chair of the Committee!
Contact Reps. Walz and Peterson here, and tell them that they should help America’s farmers help America’s poor by increasing the Food Stamp subsidy.
And finally, just to bring even more back on home, the permanent Food Stamp program was the work of Hubert Humphrey and Orville Freeman (former Governor of Minnesota and influential Secretary of Agriculture under Kennedy, father of Mike, and considered by many to be Humphrey’s capo) and a Congresswoman from Missouri in 1964. This concludes your history lesson for the day.
I still think private individuals & organizations do a much better job of taking care of people in need than the government does.
Food shelf usage is going up rapidly but so is the amount of giving to these entities. Why not go back to the days when neighbors take care of neighbors instead of relying on an inefficient government to “fix” everything?
I know personally hunger has been our families #1 charity as all 4 of us volunteered hours at Feed My Starving Children & Loaves & Fishes in North Minneapolis last year. In addition, we donated over $5k to 3 different hunger charities which was matched dollar for dollar by my employer. Surely the impact of our time & $10k in giving would be more than if the government took an extra $5k from me in taxes to support more food stamps.
I second A Nony Moose’s comments even though over all the food stamp program isn’t (at least by comparison) a big government boondoggle. Had the good representative shopped at a Wal Mart Supercenter, he would have gotten more for his money. A recent article in the Washington Post showed that Wal Mart saves consumers over $200 billion a year. The entire federal foodstamp program is $33 billion a year. Why do liberals bash Wal Mart so much?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/27/AR2006082700553.html
The whole food stamp program is a pitiful joke. What’s the point of giving people 3 bucks a day to survive? I think that society has a responsibility to take care of their own, but come on now.
I definately respect your giving, Nony. I wish there were a lot more people inspired to do the same. I just don’t really see that issue being discussed anywhere in the media. People are not really being inspired to give. What I see is a lot of effort by some to take away and give to those who already have plenty, and that seems to inspire people to want more for themselves.
As far as what Government and what it does well, or does not do well, I don’t exactly see our Government doing well on it’s war on terror, yet some people don’t seem to care if it’s disfunctional or not, and Billions of dollars are going down a big, black hole. Think of the good that money could do to help America take care of it’s own.
The number of people coming to Food Banks is in part due to job losses, Seniors trying to stretch their food budgets, atruggling familes with children, etc.
Much is going in to better educate EBT recipients in spending their food dollars wisely to get the most for the money if they want some assistance. Having worked in the grocery Cashier/Customer Service/Manager/Trainer, I had seen abuses of this program. It’s not easy to feed a family of 5 for less than $100 a week with just only the needed basics and no extras.
It’s just me and my husband now and I spend that much per week on necessaties.
In the decade after LBJ introduced and passed the Great Society program (which included the beginning of the war on poverty) national poverty rates fell from 25% to 11%. The historical average prior to the War on Poverty was between 20 and 25% and ever since it has remained well below 20% (usually around 10%).
I completely respect your sentiment Nony. And I would even agree with you that Americans are amazingly generous givers and that certainly deserves applause. However, the fact of the matter is that these government programs drastically reduce poverty. Government spending can never replace private charity, but it is still a necessary supplement. 25% poverty levels before these programs were initiated and 11% after; it would be morally reprehensible to eliminate these programs and go back to 25%.
Well stated Matt!!!
Now, with gas prices hovering around the $3 range, and the price of milk expected to potentially reach $5 a gallon by September, our meager budgets are stretching even further. We need to do something to alleviate the burden on not just working families, but all families. How to do that is the trick!
I sometimes get out of the grocery store for less than $21/week, sometimes much less than that.
It can be done if you cut out all of the junk people buy.
Matt,
Has the definition of poverty been adjusted evenly throughout the years? I ask because government agencies have a tendency to “work” definitions so programs appear successful. Also what percentage of those people receiving assistance are raised above the poverty line by it? Don’t most claim that even with all available government assistance a person or family would still be below the poverty line? These are real questions by the way not smart-assed ones.
As someone who at one point in his life relied on food stamps to help purchase food, despite working a full-time job, some of the comments in this thread require a response.
First, “cut out all the junk”. Food stamps cannot, repeat cannot, be used for junk food like Doritos, Fritos, Ho Hos, or Pringles.
Next “shop at a Wal Mart Supercenter”. Sorry, but some of us do not live anywhere even remotely close to a Wal Mart, Target, or even K-Mart. We depend upon and prefer to support our locally-owned supermarkets. So maybe we are unable to shop for those low, low prices. But it is kind of unfair to criticize people for geography.
Third, while food shelves have tried to keep up, there have been chronic shortages in rural areas.
As one poster noted, gas is hovering at $3 a gallon. Not only does this affect people’s ability to drive, but it increases the cost of food due to transportation costs, diminishing the purchasing power of the stamps.
Finally, one poster tried to make the argument that government should not try to “fix” everything. Again, food stamps are intended to be a supplement, just like WIC, for people who despite their best efforts (which for some includes working more than one job) are having difficulty making ends meet.
The food stamp program has done wonders to help people of all stripes, single, married w/kids, etc. to make sure they do not go hungry. By most objective accounts, despite the occasional story about a shopkeeper letting a customer buy smokes with their food stamps, this program is hardly a boondoggle.
MRW,
I agree with your sentiments completely. I think the food stamp program is a relative success. You can improve the program by being stronger against fraud and by not being stupid when giving benefits. The reason I say they need to stop being stupid is because I know some people who only get like $20 a month in food stamps. What is that going to do for a person? While others, like one of my distant relatives who admits to having children to stay on welfare (and no that is not a joke), get more food stamp benefits than they probably should.
My comment about Wal Mart Supercenters still stands. Wal Mart saves consumers over $200 billion a year. That’s more than the food stamp program. I just don’t understand why liberals hate Wal Mart when they actually save people a ton of money.
Chris —
Could it be because those savings come at a cost of a higher than average proportion of WalMart employees underpaid, on state and federal health care systems, and on welfare rolls?
Sean
I am sorry, but I have seen PLENTY of people but junk with food stamps. I have never seen someone turned away or told they cannot buy junk with food stamps.
I don’t know about the junk food issue, it’s been quite awhile since my wife and I had them. We needed them though, and would’ve literally starved without that assistance. Those were the rice and beans days. About Wal-Mart, I will not spend one thin dime at a Wal-Mart. I buy my groceries in my local grocery store, where I can say hello to the owner and ask him how his kid is doing. I can give him a little good natured grief about the price of things and we can go about our day. I buy my hardware from my local hardware store where I can say hello to the owner and ask him how his daughter is doing. We went to her wedding last summer and no, she’s not pregnant yet. I haven’t been to a Walton family event yet. Maybe when Wal-mart unionizes and starts paying it’s employees a decent wage and provides some benefits, I’ll change my opinion.
Like Richard, it has been a while since I used them also. It was pre-card swipe days, when the stamps came in packets of different dollar demoninations. The cashier would ring up all your items, then hit a button to see what the food stamp total was. Then you paid the difference.
I’ll digress slightly here also to note that since I recently had to go on a restricted diet for health reasons, I found out quickly that eating healthy got a lot more spendy. The cheaper foods are often the ones with lower nutritional values. This can certainly effect those who purchasing of food items is limited due to financial reasons.
For those who are curious, here is a link to the USDA web site that outlines the food stamp guidelines.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/faqs.htm
It is kind of off-putting when people voluntarily assume the role of the disadvantaged for a day; such as the case of rep Morrow who checked himself into a nursing home for 24 hours, or Mr. Kalin who will now “feel the pain” of the hungry buy buying $3 of food a day. It is like blindfolding yourself for a half hour and then claim to know what it means to be blind.
Unlike the nursing home resident, or the poor person, Morrow and Kalin can not opt out. A blind man can not take off a blindfold.
It would be better if Mr. Morrow assumed the role of a nurse assistant for a day rather than a patient. After visiting the home, he is now for increases to the nurses salary. This after voting against an increase proposed by Rep. Finstad a few weeks ago. Had he listened to these folks during session instead of his floor whip, he might have voted to increase the COLA from 2% to 5% instead of voting along party lines against increasing the nursing home COLA.
Does Mr. Kalin intend to continue with his $3/day per diem through the next session, or will he take the $76/ day for food money given to House members? I hope he donates $73/day to a foodshelf. That totals $2,190/month that Mr. Kalin could use to feed several hungry families.
That might make me think these guys are for the cause and not just embarrasing themselves with degrading publicity stunts.
“I am sorry, but I have seen PLENTY of people but junk with food stamps. I have never seen someone turned away or told they cannot buy junk with food stamps.
gopgal - please do your patriotic duty and report this fraud to the authorities.
I have had to rely on food stamps, as my disabled son’s care has severely gotten in the way of my self-employment time. He and I get the princely sum of $3.15 a meal, or less. Trying to buy hypoallergenic food for him (he has allergies to wheat, whey, and soy protein) is a real challenge, and trying to come up with lunches he can take to day camp or school is an even bigger challenge.
A serious issue for those of us relying on this support is the paperwork. I wonder if the Representative is dealing with that issue as well? In our county the staff routinely does not complete paperwork review until after the date on which the state automatically sends out denial notices. I never know if my denial is based on my failure to provide information (which I generally send a week before it is due) or their failure to review it!
I have kept a roof over our heads by renting out half of my duplex, and legitimate expenses that were required to repair it by the city Inspections department were denied as legitimate, you got it, resulting in my being disqualified for this month. This despite my having to spend more (via credit) than I took in on the rental unit. But the future cashflow will at least keep us from ending up on the street, I hope. Fortunately I found some really good deals on enriched Rice Milk last month so my son will probably not run out until about 3/4 through this month, as that is not generally stocked in food shelves.