{"id":62848,"date":"2011-09-13T21:43:42","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T01:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/62848\/would-fries-food-stamps\/"},"modified":"2011-09-13T21:43:42","modified_gmt":"2011-09-14T01:43:42","slug":"would-fries-food-stamps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/62848\/would-fries-food-stamps\/","title":{"rendered":"“Would you like fries with your food stamps?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It was recently reported in the news that some fast food chains like KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell would like to have the right to accept food stamps. Up until now, most states only allowed food stamps to be used to purchase unprepared foods. Now the question of whether or not food stamp benefits should be able to be used for fast food is debatable for several reasons.<\/font><\/p>\n

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First off, prepared food generally costs more than basic groceries do\u2026.in some cases.\u00a0 I don\u2019t find anything wrong with expecting a person who is receiving assistance to use it wisely and in a perfect world where people always appreciate the help they are given, this should be done automatically. But as we all know, this world is far from perfect so setting some guidelines like this I believe is a fair thing to ask. Another issue is the quality of fast food and the long term affects it can have on a person\u2019s health and then in turn the enduring future healthcare costs of people who indulge just a bit too much with it.<\/font><\/p>\n

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But when you are broke and money is tight, very often, your thoughts are for your immediate survival and what it will take for you to make it through another day RIGHT NOW. When you are in a situation like that, being concerned about your long term health is much like worrying about putting money in your 401K for your retirement when you don\u2019t even know if you will be able to make the rent this month or having money to feed your children dinner tonight. In that same frame of reasoning, like it or not, fast food is still FOOD by definition and while it might be bad for you, it can still sustain a person and nourish them and sadly enough, there are some occasions when a fast food meal will cost a person much less than some healthier food choices will.<\/font><\/p>\n

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I once saw a woman being interviewed on TV about the food choices she made for her family. She and her husband were barely earning enough money to make ends meet and on most days, their dinner consisted of buying some burgers off the Dollar Menu to feed themselves and their two kids. When asked why they were making such poor food choices for their family, they said that a burger fills their kids and only costs $1 while a bunch of broccoli costs over $2. Financially, it just made more sense for them to feed their hunger with cheaper food that was bad for them simply because healthier food alternatives cost much more. You know something\u2026\u2026they were right! I don\u2019t know if any of you comparison shop as much as I do but it is a very sad fact that any kind of specialized foods, meaning low fat, low sugar or sugar free, low sodium or sodium free or diet in general, costs significantly more than their less healthy counterparts and when you are on a very VERY tight budget, every penny counts. Believe me. Let me give you some examples from my local grocery store:<\/font><\/p>\n

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1 can of Campbells Tomato soup : \u00a0The regular costs about $1 per can, but can also be found on sale sometimes for about 60 cents a can. Their \u201cHealthy Request\u201d version, made with sea salt and lower in sodium, costs about $1.89 a can and I NEVER find it on sale anywhere.<\/font><\/p>\n

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Kraft American Cheese Singles: An average 12.oz\u00a0 package with 16 slices costs $2.99.\u00a0 Kraft\u2019s Fat Free American Cheese singles offers 16 slices, but is only 10.7 oz., and costs a whopping $4.99.<\/font><\/p>\n

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Hershey Chocolate Syrup \u2013 A regular bottle is 24 oz. and costs $3.29 while it\u2019s lower calorie alternative costs the same\u2026..but it\u2019s about half the size bottle.<\/font><\/p>\n

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Jello Instant Chocolate pudding \u2013 A box of the regular costs about $1 while a box of the Sugar Free alternative costs about $1.59.<\/font><\/p>\n

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Burger King \u2013 One regular hamburger costs $1.09 while their Veggie Burger alternative costs $2.99.<\/font><\/p>\n

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And yes, a broccoli bunch DOES costs $1.99 so the fast food burger IS a cheaper choice.<\/font><\/p>\n

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So what does all this say? Who can we really say is at fault here?\u00a0 The poor person who is just doing their best to get by and feed themselves and their family? A food industry who gives these same poor people little or no choice or alternative but to feed their family crap because it\u2019s all they can afford? An industry that preaches healthy eating yet makes little or no effort help \u00a0people practice what it preaches? For a country where obesity, high blood pressure, cancer and diabetes are at epidemic proportions, shouldn\u2019t a better effort be made to make healthy food alternatives more readily available and affordable for those who can barely get by financially as it is? Wouldn\u2019t it save the government money in the long run because if people ate better, chances are health costs would go down overall?<\/font><\/p>\n

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It all seems so obvious, yet even the most obvious things can remain unseen by those who refuse to even care or bother to look.<\/font><\/p>\n

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It was recently reported in the news that some fast food chains like KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell would like to have the right to accept food stamps. Up until now, most states only allowed food stamps to be used to purchase unprepared foods. Now the question of whether or not food stamp benefits […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,28,10,19,2],"tags":[4249,4250,4251,499],"class_list":["post-62848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-health","category-life","category-lifestyles","category-other","tag-fat-food","tag-food-stamps","tag-government-aid","tag-poor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}