Fast Food Stamps

Some fast food restaurants are lobbying to get a piece of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program pie. Most people are more familiar with SNAP being referred to as food stamps.

Their argument is that some disabled or homeless people cannot buy groceries and cook for themselves. They say they are trying to combat hunger among the poorest of the poor. They even argue that fast food is better than no food, which is the most disturbing and distorting of all the arguments I’ve heard.

First, the facts. Those who are disabled and unable to shop and cook for themselves already have a mechanism to use their food stamp allowances in restaurants.

Homeless shelters that cater to families have provisions for the family to use their food stamps to purchase food for the shelter to cook, and in some cases, access to kitchen areas for families to cook for themselves.

Other shelters, as well as half-way houses for felons, recovering addicts and those needing group supportive living, use the food stamps of the residents to feed those receiving shelter and services in their facilities.

In other words, the argument that there are populations who cannot use the food stamps for which they qualify in grocery stores is at best ridiculous and specious.

This argument is designed to pull at the heart strings of the general public, who will then pressure their elected representatives to support this initiative. I’m not sure which idea is worse, the public weighing in without facts or politicians being that ignorant of the laws they are sworn to uphold.

Actually, the most disturbing idea of all is politicians caving in to these hysterical, unsubstantiated and blatantly false arguments to pander for votes. And secure lobbyist dollars.

Are there instances where families are trying to exist where they have no access to cooking facilities? Of course. But we don’t and can’t make the rules to cover the exception. The system is and must be set up to cover the majority, or the system comes crashing down.

This entire issue is nothing more a few corporations attempting to add to their bottom line.

As of October 2010, a staggering 43.2 million people receive SNAP benefits. That is a huge and growing portion of the population, or in the eyes of these businesses, an untapped consumer market.

Now let’s talk about the purpose and design of SNAP. The name pretty much says it all – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The formula basics are predicated on the equation that 30 percent of household expenditures are on food.

The very poorest households receive more dollars, to attempt to equalize the available dollars to be spent on food. The base line to qualify is at or below 130 percent of the poverty line, though there are provisions for those receiving unemployment and other forms of temporary aid such as short term disability. The rules disallowing single adults with no dependents have been suspended in most states due to the current economic crisis.

All of which is another way of saying there is a lot of money going to a lot of people to spend on food. But not fast food.

Fast food corporations are feeling the pinch of the economic squeeze, and their response is to pass along the pain to the taxpayer. To add insult to injury, they are pretending their motivation is concern over the growing hunger problem in America.

There really is no argument to the fact that most fast food is nutritionally deficit at best, when not flat out unhealthy. There is also no argument to the fact that people can and do use food stamps in grocery stores for equally unhealthy choices.

But, there is absolutely no valid argument to the fact that eating out in a restaurant, fast food or not, is not a right. It is a convenience and a luxury. Like all conveniences and luxuries, it is not something everyone can afford.

On Sept. 18, 2001, I was laid off from my job. There were simply no other jobs to be had. The entire country was frozen, waiting to see what would happen next. I did finally find a job that December, but I existed on unemployment compensation and food stamps for those months.

I had no savings to speak of, literally less than one month’s bills in the bank. Those were scary times, and I feel for the hundreds of thousands of families across the country currently living through that nightmare.

Because of this experience, I know firsthand that it is not only possible, it was much easier than I expected to feed my family on food stamps. Like most people, I had heard the horror stories of not being able to buy enough food for the month on the allowance I was given. Granted, it meant changes in the way I cooked and what I bought, but we did not go hungry.

Potato chips, cookies and snack cakes, prime cuts of meat, the best vegetables and out of season fruit were among the first things struck from the weekly grocery list. I went back to the way of cooking I was taught by my mother and grandmother.

When I wanted to make chicken soup, I started with a chicken. Add some rice and vegetables and you have a balanced, nutritious and filling meal.

Take some of the chicken meat, shred it in some barbecue sauce, add a side of potatoes, and you have another meal.

One chicken created two dinners, and enough leftovers from both for a couple lunches. True, it is much easier to open a can or pop a tray in the microwave, but those meals are nutritionally inferior as well as less tasty than food made from scratch. And much, much more expensive.

So, while there were no steaks in my house and we ate more canned and frozen vegetables than I prefer, we ate well enough.

What we didn’t eat was fast food, or in any restaurants, for that matter. It simply was not in the budget. Do I want to go back to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my son’s lunch box every day? Was I happy not being able to take my son to the golden arches when I didn’t feel like cooking? Did I feel I had a right to these things? No, no and Hell No!

We need to pay very careful attention to our elected officials on this issue, and woe to any local politician dumb enough or evil enough to support this initiative. We, the voters, your constituents, are tired of being insulted by your obvious low opinion of our collective intelligence.

Show me where ordering a No. 1 with cheese and a large Coke, paid for with tax dollars, is a constitutionally protected right. Until then, do not insult your constituents by supporting this latest instance of corporate malfeasance.