EBT dollars at work

[EightFingers]

Saw someone today buy a canned mocha drink with an EBT card at the Safeway gas store.
Really?

[punalvr]

So why should it be your business???
They are free to spend it anyway they want to.
They know their limits, and it is just a mocha drink allowed for his/hers EbT.
Don't be a grouch.
Jesus!


punalvr

[Lee M-S]

I always understood EBT to be a lifeline to keep people from starving to death.
This is something everybody should have a say on; it's not only our tax dollars, it's our community.
If the community doesn't discuss it, who will decide what's right and wrong?

><(((*< ... ><(("< ... ><('< ... >o>

[Aaron S]

I don't believe its judgemental to call out individuals using their taxpayer funded EBT cards to buy products, such as steak, lobster, or shrimp. The most irritating abuse is when individuals have someone else use their EBT card and cash out difference. These abuses make everyone using a EBT card look bad.

Dakine, do you think these abuses of the EBT program are appropriate?

[shockwave rider]

The vast majority of people with EBT are employed (60% nationally) most of the rest are children and seniors, these are people with low wage jobs whose paychecks are too small to cover all their fixed expenses like rent and utilities and still buy food. It is essentially corporate welfare allowing employers to pay very low wages knowing the government will fill the gap.

Would everyone be less judgmental if the person was buying that mocha so they could stay awake at their next shift for one of the several part time jobs they hold? I have clients who work 3 or 4 part time jobs, still have EBT, and are only one unexpected expense like a car repair from homelessness. Working multiple part time jobs is brutal, schedules rarely match up and you can end up working shifts at all 3 virtually back to back. I did it for a year and it almost killed me, I would work a 4 or 5 hour shift, hop on a bus across town, work a different short shift at my second job, then kill an hour or two when all I wanted was sleep, and then off to my third job that was an 8 hour shift, but only 2 days a week. I did most of my eating and sleeping on the bus, didn't have a single day off in over 6 months, and judgmental jerks like you used to hassle me for buying Mountain Dew at the convenience store so I could stay awake at work.

No one knows the whole story, jumping to negative snap conclusions about someone you only see in a grocery store line for 5 minutes says more about you than it does about them.

[Unclemel]

I agree wholeheartedly with Shockwave Rider.

The item in question is on the approved list for EBT benefits......

BTW......so is steak and lobster.

If it really irks you so much, push for legislative reform. Make that your passion
instead of deriding someone for using their benefit card to obtain something that
it was designed for.

[alaskyn66]

Go Google how much the US gives other countries..
Then go Google corporate welfare..
?.. and your complaint is about a cup of coffee...really..?
..What would King Kamehameha do..

[Mr nice guy]

quote:

---

Originally posted by EightFingers

Saw someone today buy a canned mocha drink with an EBT card at the Safeway gas store.
Really?

---

It is my undersanding that EBT can be used to purchase anything with a nutrition panel on it (along with some other things).

[Punatic007]

The abuse of the EBT in Puna is horrendous. One person after another in line with entitlement issues and no regard for the hard work of others that went into obtaining their "free" food. Generational EBT and welfare is a disgrace that continually pumps out people of low character.

[robguz]

As a state Hawaii has one of the lowest rates of participation in the food stamps program among those who are actually eligible for it. This keeps hundreds of millions of dollars out of our local economy because of it. We should be encouraging everyone eligible for SNAP in Hawaii to apply for it and use it.