Chicagoist: Schakowsky Living on Food Stamps, Raising Awareness

guest

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:48:37 -0600

There are different reasons why people are on food stamps. I totally agree with the fact that some people abuse it, but what about the people that don't. I do work, but I don't make enough money. I go to school at night and then go and pick up my daughter after. I am struggling to make it better for me and her. If "we" can be more aggresive on the whole deadbeat parent issue. I think we would have less food stamp cases.

Jenn

Sat, 19 May 2007 09:44:22 -0600

I believe this was important because it actually created a national discussion on this. I have to say to those commenters who attempt to dismiss the effort, that for example, how many of you actually go to a food pantry to ask any food stamp recepient? As someone who has lived in poverty, and has lived in working poor communities all her life, I have attempted to discuss the issue in the past with people who are more fortunate. Too many simply have never had the experience of the financial realities of poverty, some even are unaware of what it is like to live on the wages that far too many poor American citizens are trying to survive on. I admire the representatives who have done this, and would like to see the media actually cover what it is like for poor Americans, especially given their past support for the outsourcing of American jobs and their spreading of the lie "jobs Americans won't do".

astonished

Fri, 18 May 2007 21:13:14 -0600

this is the first time - ever - that i'm agreeing with kevin. (but just a little.)

living fine

Fri, 18 May 2007 17:36:35 -0600

Wow, I only spend half of that. My grocery bill has never been over $50/month, and as far as variety, I vary a few things each trip while getting a few other staple items. This is also by choice; I'm not truly impoverished to the point that I'm frugal out of necessity. $94.05/month sounds like a luxury to me. Personally, I don't see much room for complaints when it's free aid, and an acceptable amount.

spook

Fri, 18 May 2007 10:11:53 -0600

Thunder: that previous comment "[38] Posted by: spook | May 17, 2007 11:22 PM" from "spook" wasn't mine! I hope who ever posted it under my nom de guerre did so by accident. As you know I leave denigrating the poor to others

thundercougarfalconbird

Thu, 17 May 2007 23:31:18 -0600

@spook: That was my Dominick's for 18 months when I first moved here. And they DO teach budgeting and financial skills in public schools. Its a mandate in the state of Illinois. At least that's the excuse they gave me for that lame class where we learned what a 1040 EZ form was and shown how credit cards work. Without it, I wasn't allowed to graduate.

spook

Thu, 17 May 2007 23:22:04 -0600

There aren't many people taking advantage of the system? Apparently you haven't been to the Dominick's near Cabrini. Chicago's largest center for food stamp and high end cognac purchases. Poor people are poor for a reason, the biggest one being that they're stupid when it comes to financial decisions. Literacy training (for those who need it), followed by basic budgeting skills, would be beneficial to teach in public schools here.

Kevin

Thu, 17 May 2007 22:51:33 -0600

let em starve: I agree with you. When can we cut off Exxon, ADM and Halliburton? In all seriousness, I used to work in a grocery store. Yeah, it's frustrating to see people come in and use food stamps for steak and strawberries. But who knows what their circumstances are? Maybe they are supplementing that with staples from a food bank. I'd rather know that people are being helped by a program, even if others are scamming it, than knowing that nobody is scamming it and people are going hungry. There will always be someone that games the system. If Congress were really serious about fixing this program, they would just move everyone over WIC - so that you had to buy food that was designated as being nutritious and good for you, rather than just any old thing. You may call me a dreamer, but I'm not the only one....

let em stave

Thu, 17 May 2007 21:37:02 -0600

hey Chuck I do work at Starbucks and am in school. yes working my way through school and not on food stamps. what do you do? Who the hell is the ross guy.

Chuck

Thu, 17 May 2007 17:43:13 -0600

"let em starve", or, as he's better known around these parts, "ross", may be coy with his job description. But we can tell you he sure ain't writing from a Starbucks.

name withheld

Thu, 17 May 2007 17:06:42 -0600

To answer the question about the Link Card vs. Food Stamps . . . in Illinois (and probably most other states) they used to give food stamps that were like cash in that they came in denominations of $1, $5, $10, and $20 that could be used at the grocery store on food and only food. Each month, the recipient had to go to the currency exchange (I don't know why there) and pick up their food stamps. Probably 10 years ago now, the State of IL (and probably other states) moved from these "Food Stamps" to the Link Card, which is used like a debit card at the grocery store and is automatically creditted each month with the recipients' food stamps. So in my mom's case, each month she gets $95 added to her Link Card. And I suppose that the purchases are tracked in some database and the State knows when she uses her card and if she has an available balance at the end of the month (trust me, she never does). Food Stamps are dependent upon your income and the size of your household. My mom lives on less than $600 a month in disabililty (that has to cover all of her expenses, including toilet paper, heat, electricity, her rent, and co-payments on all of her medicines) and because she's so "rich" (that's serious sarcasm) the government reduced her $100 or so each month in food stamps to $95 per month in February. DD: I challenge you to live on $95 per month for food (remember, you can't eat anything that's already in your freezer or pantry) and buy much more than crap. Produce and meat are a luxury when that's all you've got and it's got to last 30-31 days.

thundercougarfalconbird

Thu, 17 May 2007 16:59:46 -0600

I'm still too busy laughing at Big Z's post to point out that spook spelled "steak" wrong. But he's right, the people who really need help feeding their families far outnumber the people who "take advantage" of the system. To do away with something actually helping people because of a couple of rotten apples is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

spook

Thu, 17 May 2007 16:52:11 -0600

"I love going to the grocery story to watch some piece of crap buy his/her groceries with food stamps, then bust out a $50 for a bottle of Grey Goose and 12 pack of Heineken." Hey "Gettin My Goose On!" what's it like to tell a bold faced lie at the expense of poor folks? Just because Ronald Reagan lied about "the women who brought stake with food stamps and drove away in a Cadillac" dosen't mean that you have to lie as well

let'em starve

Thu, 17 May 2007 16:22:57 -0600

I work at Starbucks...

sparky

Thu, 17 May 2007 16:12:49 -0600

Let em starve: what do you do for a living?

thundercougarfalconbird

Thu, 17 May 2007 16:12:46 -0600

+100,000 to Big Z

Big Z

Thu, 17 May 2007 16:08:04 -0600

The issue here isn't food stamps or politicians. There will always be social classes as long as the current system is in place. We need a system where everything is divided evenly. We need a system were all are equals in every meaning of the word. We need a system where I can write sentences that seemingly go on forever and people don't care about proper punctuation within the sentence and the working man is not put down to feed the rich of this country including bill gates steven colbert and matt millen and most of all we need a system where the minnesota vikings have a chance at making the playoffs.

navin

Thu, 17 May 2007 15:58:38 -0600

It's uncanny how the 'social darwinism' types rage about tax money going to help any people but they never complain when it goes to giant corporations in the form of corporate welfare. Capitalism for the poor, socialism for the rich.

Jeff

Thu, 17 May 2007 15:16:42 -0600

let em starve: I see you know how to start and end a sentence, but have you ever heard of using a comma?

DD

Thu, 17 May 2007 14:48:13 -0600

The Congresswoman should come down from the North Shore and volunteer to work for a few days a Jewel in the city...this way she can see the crap people actually buy with their food stamp cards...

let em starve

Thu, 17 May 2007 14:19:54 -0600

It's no wonder none of you ever get ahead you don't mind paying taxes and more taxes because you have such a conscious and worry so much about everyone else. If everyone would just take care of #1 their selves, #2 their family and #3 their close friends or extended family you all wouldn’t be so worried about the future. You are probably same people that give 10 percent of you income to the Church which is just another business. You talk about corruption in Chicago what about the Catholic Cult I mean Church. Nothing more corrupt than that big rich business. Most people on food stamps don’t really need food stamps they are just sucking off the system. I am not saying everyone. I give to the food bank in Chicago. I think that is great and I think people that need food should have to go to these places to get the food that is totally non government funded but most of the food stamp people are too damn proud because they are just using the system.

for frodo

Thu, 17 May 2007 14:00:37 -0600

Frodo's right. When I was hungry and it wasn't even elevenzees, Frodo gave me lots of nourishment. You should not be so selfish and learn to do the same.

Ferdy

Thu, 17 May 2007 13:57:30 -0600

Don't feed the troll. That's what his food stamps are for.

vise77

Thu, 17 May 2007 13:50:46 -0600

It's nice to see Social Darwinism still has at least one fan, even after the SD-inspired disasters of the 20th Century. I guess not everyone got the message that SD has pretty much been discredited--really, it has. Tell me, all you SD backers, why so many intellectuals died during, say WWII, and how the mass bombings and killings of that conflict in any way followed the "logic" of Social Darwanism. I think you are better off studying game and chaos theory to add to your views of SD, and, as well, studying more history. Finally, a wider view of genetics and actual biological evolution (where accident and chaos do at least have minor roles) seems to be in order. Seriously, is this person really so stupid, or just pretending to be so? By the way, I look forward to you checking back in, say, 30 or 40 years to tell us how you are doing financially and phsyically. Certainly you will require no help, just as you required no help so far in terms of education, health care, transportation, etc.

Gettin My Goose On!

Thu, 17 May 2007 13:50:39 -0600

I love going to the grocery story to watch some piece of crap buy his/her groceries with food stamps, then bust out a $50 for a bottle of Grey Goose and 12 pack of Heineken. People caught doing this should forfeit their right to government food stamps, housing, and whatever else they are stealing of the backs of honest workers. Taxes could be half of what they are today if the government looked out for people who benefit society, as opposed to these losers who do nothing for anyone.

thundercougarfalconbird

Thu, 17 May 2007 13:44:16 -0600

Hell, even some small businesses and farms get tax breaks and subsidies. It all depends on what you define as "welfare" or "aid". And where would anyone be without financial aid for college? My point is, everyone gets help sometime and at some point in their lives from someone else. Even these "social darwinist" types... And in college, I did pretty well on a bologna and bread diet. But I doubt I could afford the extravagance of ketchup if I was on food stamps.

name withheld

Thu, 17 May 2007 13:28:34 -0600

Let em starve: I guess my mom's 2 masters degrees mean she's pretty stupid and uneducated. Even educated, highly intelligent (and bright, since you distinguish between smart and bright) people can have horrible things happen to them in life. Oh, wait, I guess that doesn't happen in the polyanna fantasy world you live in. Did you know that with food stamps you cannot buy toilet paper or laundry detergent? Women can't buy personal hygeine products either. Diapers can't be bought using food stamps. You can only buy food. And the Congressmen are right, it's nearly impossible to purchase fresh produce because it goes bad so quickly. As for protein, ground beef is usually the cheapest, which isn't exactly the healthiest. Let em starve, I challenge you to try to live on $3.16 per day. You probably spend more than that at Starbucks. Also, when you're living on $3.16 per day (which is $95 per month like my mom), make sure you're not using anything that's currently in your frig or pantry. You don't get spices either.

Jacob Tomaw

Thu, 17 May 2007 13:24:53 -0600

Food Stamps is an assistance program, not a replacement program. It is intended to be a supplement to the money you are earning from a job or in the case of the disabled private or public insurance, like Medicare. Is food stamps the same as the Link Card program in Illinois or is that another assistance program? Can one qualify for both?

navin

Thu, 17 May 2007 13:15:11 -0600

It's survival of the fittest, smartest and brightest. And yet a troll like you is still breathing. Congrats on having generous parents! Hopefully you won't require any help or goodwill from anybody else during your life.

Frodo Baggins

Thu, 17 May 2007 12:38:13 -0600

I stay up late at nights remembering when I brought the Ring of Power into the land of Mordor. What was amazing to me was the further I traveled from the Shire and hobbits, the more difficult it became for me to identify with problems that seemed so crucial only months before in the Shire. On returning home after destroying Sauron, I could see that this was a world in which I could no longer live. I did not identify myself as a 'Shire Hobbit', and life seemed as monotonous as a balrog is ugly. People looked at me to lead, but their daily problems were rather mundane and unimportant. The only place where life would now make sense was the undying lands, which I sailed to with a wizard and scores of elves. Think about my story and apply it to Laura's article, I think you will be intrigued.

let em starve

Thu, 17 May 2007 12:32:50 -0600

yes there are some exceptions to everything but so many paople always blame someone else and expect society and government to take care of them and be the end all for everyone's problems. It's survival of the fittest, smartest and brightest.

Ferdy

Thu, 17 May 2007 12:24:54 -0600

Let em starve - People become disabled for a lot of reasons at various times in their lives. People are thrown out of work by the people with good jobs and can't find other employment because they didn't receive a good enough education in our shitty schools and couldn't afford college. People have their spouses walk out on them, fail to pay child support, and fall into poverty with children to feed. I suppose we should just let these children suffer because their father or mother decided to conceive and then abandon them. Birth control should have started with you, you heartless, simplistic jerk.

let em starve

Thu, 17 May 2007 12:16:21 -0600

Perhaps so many people shouldn't re produce.

let em starve

Thu, 17 May 2007 12:04:08 -0600

Perhaps so many people shouldn't re produce.

name withheld

Thu, 17 May 2007 11:02:35 -0600

Let em starve: I guess you're just a better person than I ever will be. May I rot in Hell because I don't have enough money to 100% financially support my disabled mom. I don't let my mom starve and I already said I help her when I can. I apologize to you for the fact that I'm not rolling in disposable income. People like you don't get it.

let em starve

Thu, 17 May 2007 10:44:32 -0600

I am sorry for you mom but hey if everyone that has family members or friends in need we wouldn't need government programs to help them out. I would never let a family member or friend of mine starve if they were in need. On the other hand if they were able to work and were just lazy or a deadbeat I won't help them until they helped themselves.

name withheld

Thu, 17 May 2007 10:28:59 -0600

Let Them Starve: I can't even begin to tell you how much venom I have for your comment. I hope that it was supposed to be funny, but somehow I doubt it. My mom is on public assistance now and she lives on $95 in food stamps per month. And this is 2007. In fact, in February, her food stamps WENT DOWN from a little over $100 per month. But I guess somebody's got to pay for this war. She is disabled and completely unable to work. I help her out when I can, but that's not always possible. My point here is that the public aid system in this country is an abomination and we should all be embarrassed at how we treat the less fortunate. Before you get all high and mighty, let me tell you that my mom is highly intelligent and until a few years ago very hard working. The circumstances of what happened and how she became disabled aren't important. All I can say is that I pray it never happens to anyone you know and love. My mom would love to be able to go back to work, but the current system for public aid won't allow her to even try without penalizing her. Ya, THAT makes sense. Surprisingly, I heard about this food stamp "experiment" on Fox News. I didn't think they cared about social issues, but I was proven wrong. I only pray that the members of Congress realize how the current structure of our public aid system and food stamp program does nothing but beat people down and they work to restructure it into a program we can all be proud of and one that truly helps people.

Ferdy

Thu, 17 May 2007 10:10:46 -0600

Laura - Obviously I don't agree. I remember when Jane Byrne moved into Cabrini Green. Now they don't exist anymore and those who were housed there are probably homeless (thanks Mayor for making the ceiling for "affordable" housing $75,000). Nothing came of her stunt and it didn't save the buildings or create better housing. The low participation in the Food Stamp stunt, I predict, will be similarly ineffectual. Schakowsky, who is my rep, is already liberal and didn't need to do this. The pols who did (maybe) don't really give a damn. My two cents. Let em starve - Why don't you get back to work before you need food stamps, you lazy bum.

let em starve

Thu, 17 May 2007 10:00:58 -0600

The whole Food Stamp program should be abolished. Let'em starve if they don't want to work.

vise77

Thu, 17 May 2007 09:47:53 -0600

The politicians have the comforting thought that they have bank accounts; they soon will eat well again; that they do not have to live from check to check; that they actually have good prospects for the future. They don't have the stress of wondering how they would pay for the next medical bill, the next coat, etc. This reminds me of W. Jacobson pretending to be homeless. Why not just work to improve the situation for struggling people instead of wasting time on this stunt? Is the PR value really worth it? I mean, I'm pretty much laughing at it. And, they didn't understand until now that being poor can be difficult? What a bunch of tools.

laura

Thu, 17 May 2007 09:44:16 -0600

Ferdy - a ridiculous stunt, but one that I think has value. Morgan Spurlock did a similar thing on Oprah last year. The fact that the Food Stamp Program actually exists in the state that it does is a testament to the fact that more stunts of this type are needed. I think if you ask a lot of people what they think/know about food stamps, you would discover a total lack of ignorance about what the Food Stamp Program actually provides.

Julene

Thu, 17 May 2007 09:32:18 -0600

Great idea to try and force the reality of policies on those who create them. I find it shocking that only 3 representatives participated.

Ferdy

Thu, 17 May 2007 09:29:48 -0600

Does it really take a stunt like this for people to understand that nobody can be decently fed on food stamps? I wouldn't waste my time reading an overfed politician's blog on how hard it is. Just ask a person at a food pantry what it's like. Dumb!

joe m500

Thu, 17 May 2007 09:29:02 -0600

I bet Stroger ate well at dinner last night!