Weigh in - State lawmaker wants to ban people from using food stamps to buy junk food

It costs us one way or the other White Dove. When we all get sick from the health issues from obesity no matter where our money comes from it costs us all

The problem is you can't dictate how people eat. No one told me how to eat and they shoulda. For real. Queen of bad food choices.

Being Poor is depressing enough...Food is one of the few things poor people got. Leave them alone.

Also:

1. Junk food is usually cheaper than healthy options, which would make a ban on using food stamps for junk food doubly harsh.

2. Many poor people live in "food islands" where supermarkets are far away, and the only local places to buy food are fast food outlets and small shops that sell only candy and soda.

Well, the food is on my dime so maybe??? Then again, what would be considered junk food? Anything processed, i.e. mac & cheese, little debbie cakes, white bread? Who decides what is junk food?

Cooking whole foods from scratch is not expensive and much more healthy than cheap convenience foods that fill your body with no nutritional value. What help is that "really" to the impoverished? SNAP benefits even cover seeds to grow your own vegetables. I grow and preserve food myself. I even pressure can meats when I find a great deals. This is how the poor survived before SNAP and food stamps and they were much healthier.

I do this not because I am on SNAP, but I'm notoriously cheap and hate the mystery ingredients of convenience foods.

What an incredibly blessed life you must live to have the time and resources to be able to grow and preserve your own food. Do not forget that many in need; 1) Their states may not have the same laws the include plant seeds as yours does 2) There is a good chance that they live in an apartment (meaning there is nowhere to grow that food) 3) They could be working 12 hour shifts and not have the energy to come home and harvest produce or pressure can meats

I know as a single mother to a 4 year old daughter who is simultaneously going to school full time and working, if you were to suggest to me that I grow and preserve my own food, I would laugh at you in your face.

i agree with you. i live in an apartment complex in downtown so i don't grow my own food. alot of the people here get commodities thru the salvation army or local food bank and after the surgery i chose not to get them anymore because all that was in them was carbs and sugar. but there is a farmers market across the street from me which is a great place to get fresh produce.

You make like it's a big deal to do all of this because you never learned about it..

Pressure canning is easy. You cold pack meat, season if you want and process for 90 minutes. You could make six meals worth for you and your daughter in that time, which is much healthier than processed foods.

Gardens do not need an acre of land either. A $1 bucket of dirt in a sunbeam can grow vegetables. Being in a bucket, the only time involved from there is a watering. If there is no sunbeam, farmers markets are there. You can ask for uglies, which are blemished. I can buy an entire case of ugly tomatoes for $6-8, which gives me at least 6 quarts of tomatoes...cheaper than Wal-Mart, fresh with no preservatives.

My only blessing is imagination, willingness to compromise, and a drive to find a better way from what I learned growing up. Step off of your hamster wheel for a moment and look around. It would do you and your daughter some good to pause once in a while for new perspective.

You speak the absolute TRUTH! TBH, I am just too LAZY, to grow my own stuff. I have such great memories, of growing/canning, with my Granny. I sometimes feel guilty, for not doing things like that, with my own 7 year old granddaughter...

You've given me something to think about! My thumbs are as far from green, as you can get, but. like you said, I can BUY, the veggies, and still have the canning experience, etc. We have a great Farmer's Market, usually weekly, here, in my little town. I didn't know about asking for "uglies" - thanks for the tip!