Current Events > Trump admin wants to partially replace food stamps with food deliveries

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/12/news/economy/food-stamps-box-blue-apron/index.html

Think of it as Blue Apron for food stamp recipients.

That's how Budget Director Mick Mulvaney described the Trump administration's proposal to replace nearly half of poor Americans' monthly cash benefits with a box of food. It would affect households that receive at least $90 a month in food stamps, or roughly 38 million people.

"USDA America's Harvest Box is a bold, innovative approach to providing nutritious food to people who need assistance feeding themselves and their families -- and all of it is homegrown by American farmers and producers," said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in a statement. "It maintains the same level of food value as SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] participants currently receive, provides states flexibility in administering the program, and is responsible to the taxpayers."

Part of the president's fiscal 2019 budget blueprint, the idea immediately sparked concerns and questions among consumer advocates and food retailers. They feared it would upend a much-needed benefit for more than 80% of those in the program.

Here's how it would work:

Instead of receiving all their food stamp funds, households would get a box of food that the government describes as nutritious and 100% grown and produced in the U.S. The so-called USDA America's Harvest Box would contain items such as shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans, canned meat, poultry or fish, and canned fruits and vegetables. The box would be valued at about half of the SNAP recipient's monthly benefit. The remainder of their benefits would be given to them on electronic benefit cards, as before.

The administration didn't detail exactly how families would receive the food boxes, saying states could distribute them through existing infrastructure, partnerships or directly to residences through delivery services.

The proposal would save nearly $130 billion over 10 years, as well as improve the nutritional value of the program and reduce the potential for fraud, according to the administration.

Consumer advocates, however, questioned whether the federal government could save that much money by purchasing and distributing food on its own. Also, they were concerned that families would not know what food they would get in advance nor have any choice regarding what they receive. Plus, it could be difficult for families to pick up the box, especially if they don't have a car.

"It's a risky scheme that threatens families' ability to put food on the table," said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

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Party of small government.
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The plan will only be opposed because it's Trump proposing it. Recall the Democrats moaning that poor people don't have access to nutritious food during the Obama administration. Well, now Trump wants to do something about that, and the result? More moaning.
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Tag
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r4X0r posted...

The plan will only be opposed because it's Trump proposing it. Recall the Democrats moaning that poor people don't have access to nutritious food during the Obama administration. Well, now Trump wants to do something about that, and the result? More moaning.

lww99 posted...

Party of small government.

Proved right before I could even make the post. Damn I'm on point.

Canned food isn't nutritious.

r4X0r posted...

The plan will only be opposed because it's Trump proposing it.

I can't imagine why Trump specifically would provoke doubt regarding a food distribution plan
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/us/fema-contract-puerto-rico.html
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Didn't he kill meals on wheels?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVza_AnhQ3E

Smdh ungrateful liberals not appreciating their cost effective, nutritious food box!
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If done right, that proposal might not be that bad actually, but I it definitely needs to be done right

_Rinku_ posted...

r4X0r posted...

The plan will only be opposed because it's Trump proposing it. Recall the Democrats moaning that poor people don't have access to nutritious food during the Obama administration. Well, now Trump wants to do something about that, and the result? More moaning.

lww99 posted...

Party of small government.

Proved right before I could even make the post. Damn I'm on point.

Canned food isn't nutritious.

Reading the post helps.

U.S. The so-called USDA America's Harvest Box would contain items such as shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans, canned meat, poultry or fish, and canned fruits and vegetables.

Like I said, people will oppose it simply because Trump proposed it.
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Antifar posted...

r4X0r posted...

The plan will only be opposed because it's Trump proposing it.

I can't imagine why Trump specifically would provoke doubt regarding a food distribution plan
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/us/fema-contract-puerto-rico.html

That's down to federal rules giving preference to minority owned companies. A pure case of liberal policy playing politics with people's lives, but somehow that's Donald Trump's fault too.
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lww99 posted...

Party of small government.

This is actually helpful though.
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r4X0r posted...

That's down to federal rules giving preference to minority owned companies

Lol interesting implications here
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NinjaBreakfast posted...

r4X0r posted...

That's down to federal rules giving preference to minority owned companies

Lol interesting implications here

Lol not really, just the facts.

"For this huge task, FEMA tapped Tiffany Brown, an Atlanta entrepreneur with no experience in large-scale disaster relief and at least five canceled government contracts in her past."
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r4X0r posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

r4X0r posted...

The plan will only be opposed because it's Trump proposing it. Recall the Democrats moaning that poor people don't have access to nutritious food during the Obama administration. Well, now Trump wants to do something about that, and the result? More moaning.

lww99 posted...

Party of small government.

Proved right before I could even make the post. Damn I'm on point.

Canned food isn't nutritious.

Reading the post helps.

U.S. The so-called USDA America's Harvest Box would contain items such as shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans, canned meat, poultry or fish, and canned fruits and vegetables.

Like I said, people will oppose it simply because Trump proposed it.

Did you read the post? It says right there that nearly half of it would be canned.

A program that is going to give more value and nutrition to the people who need it all while saving the taxpayers billions of dollars?

Sounds gre......

Wait....Trump is behind this? Fuck him and this "plan". Literally nazi Germany with a dictator controlling what we eat!
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People really have no understanding of nutrition. Canned fruits and veggies do jack for you.

Besides that, this would be a complete logistical nightmare to try and plan. Once you look past the surface, this proposal falls apart on itself
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Lol canned meat. Yummy.

I honestly dont see this going well

1. What happens if someone steals your package? You SOL until the next delivery?
2. Is the government going to make these meal kits ourselves or go to the private sector 3. Whats the nutrition guidelines.
4. Will there be diversity in the type of meals provided
5. What about allergies/religious
6. Will this save money or cost the government more money?
7. Will they be tracking the nutrition of these receivers to see if it helped or hurt them?

DyingPancake posted...

A program that is going to give more value and nutrition to the people who need it all while saving the taxpayers billions of dollars?

Sounds gre......

Wait....Trump is behind this? Fuck him and this "plan". Literally nazi Germany with a dictator controlling what we eat!

How, specifically, does it save tax payers billions of dollars?

This would be more expensive and probably work worse than the current program in place
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_Rinku_ posted...

r4X0r posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

r4X0r posted...

The plan will only be opposed because it's Trump proposing it. Recall the Democrats moaning that poor people don't have access to nutritious food during the Obama administration. Well, now Trump wants to do something about that, and the result? More moaning.

lww99 posted...

Party of small government.

Proved right before I could even make the post. Damn I'm on point.

Canned food isn't nutritious.

Reading the post helps.

U.S. The so-called USDA America's Harvest Box would contain items such as shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans, canned meat, poultry or fish, and canned fruits and vegetables.

Like I said, people will oppose it simply because Trump proposed it.

Did you read the post? It says right there that nearly half of it would be canned.

It'll be fine. They won't eat the cans
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Sounds pretty anti freedom.

What's wrong with letting people making their own choices?
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I'm guessing the savings come from the poor quality. Canned goods are quite cheap in grocery stores as well
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I'm actually for this. I remember being poor and having food delivered to my house. We got milk, orange juice, cereal, hot dogs, oatmeal and a ton of good shit.
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So basically Michelle Obama's plan all over again, except this time it's bad.
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I seem to recall advocating exactly this on several occasions.

r4X0r posted...

U.S. The so-called USDA America's Harvest Box would contain items such as shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans, canned meat, poultry or fish, and canned fruits and vegetables.

I wonder just how long it'll be before a grey-market emerges.

Tmaster148 posted...

Sounds pretty anti freedom.

What's wrong with letting people making their own choices?

If you're enough of a societal failure that your survival is dependent on confiscating your livelihood from someone else, you've pretty much already proven yourself to be largely incapable of making choices.

r4X0r posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

r4X0r posted...

The plan will only be opposed because it's Trump proposing it. Recall the Democrats moaning that poor people don't have access to nutritious food during the Obama administration. Well, now Trump wants to do something about that, and the result? More moaning.

lww99 posted...

Party of small government.

Proved right before I could even make the post. Damn I'm on point.

Canned food isn't nutritious.

Reading the post helps.

U.S. The so-called USDA America's Harvest Box would contain items such as shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans, canned meat, poultry or fish, and canned fruits and vegetables.

Like I said, people will oppose it simply because Trump proposed it.

No, I oppose it because this will make things far more complicated logistically and reduces freedom. With typical snap benefits the free market effectively takes care of the food distribution.
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Veggeta_EDGE posted...

I'm actually for this. I remember being poor and having food delivered to my house. We got milk, orange juice, cereal, hot dogs, oatmeal and a ton of good shit.

I'm guessing that food stamp recipients buy canned food and other great value deals at Walmart to maximize the amount of food that can be purchased with 90$ or so in food stamps a month. This looks like it would severely restrict people from "cheaping out" to provide enough food to feed the whole family (not just essentials, but deserts like ice cream and what not).

edit -- ok, some of it will be canned, but will it be the cheaper Walmart brands or the more expensive campbells and such? And where's the junk food?

i mean all they really have to do is make sure they are providing ample amounts of food per the cost and making sure they aren't sending anything with allergens to the wrong people

since they're saying they can use existing infrastructure and partnerships, people could even see this as a good idea for a company; you're making sure the people who don't have enough are getting proper ingredients and foods to maintain health, and all you do is keep paperwork of allergens and packages. if anything, doesn't this promote a good message, or am I just looking at it in to innocent of a light?
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Ammonitida posted...

Veggeta_EDGE posted...

I'm actually for this. I remember being poor and having food delivered to my house. We got milk, orange juice, cereal, hot dogs, oatmeal and a ton of good shit.

I'm guessing that food stamp recipients buy canned food and other great value deals at Walmart to maximize the amount of food that can be purchased with 90$ or so in food stamps a month. This looks like it would severely restrict people from "cheaping out" to provide enough food to feed the whole family (not just essentials, but deserts like ice cream and what not).

if you're on food stamps you shouldn't be getting desserts like ice cream and whatnot.
edit: that was rather ignorant of me, I only thought about what I would do if I was in that situation, not the situations of others.
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I think it's a good idea but only if the people on the foodstamps can choose what is in their box from a list. They can edit their delivery list from their iPhone 10.
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Doom_Art posted...

This would be more expensive and probably work worse than the current program in place

Also, they'll almost certainly get less food. So.

There's the fact him and his cronies have referred to such benefits as entitlements that need to be fixed. I don't trust him not to make it ineffective and then canceled when it doesn't work as a step in outright canceling all such benefits.
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Ammonitida posted...

Veggeta_EDGE posted...

I'm actually for this. I remember being poor and having food delivered to my house. We got milk, orange juice, cereal, hot dogs, oatmeal and a ton of good shit.

I'm guessing that food stamp recipients buy canned food and other great value deals at Walmart to maximize the amount of food that can be purchased with 90$ or so in food stamps a month. This looks like it would severely restrict people from "cheaping out" to provide enough food to feed the whole family (not just essentials, but deserts like ice cream and what not).

edit -- ok, some of it will be canned, but will it be the cheaper Walmart brands or the more expensive campbells and such? And where's the junk food?

Some? It looks like anything perishable will be canned....
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Ammonitida posted...

edit -- ok, some of it will be canned, but will it be the cheaper Walmart brands or the more expensive campbells and such?

If it's at all like the "commodities" of the past, even more generic than that.
http://www.cheesewiki.com/system/images/2948/medium/GovernmentSurplusCheeseBox-757415.jpg?1268294549

Questionmarktarius posted...

If you're enough of a societal failure that your survival is dependent on confiscating your livelihood from someone else, you've pretty much already proven yourself to be largely incapable of making choices.

All these words strung together and not a single even partially accurate statement to be found.
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This one girl I use to know use to sell her food stamps or wic card for weed. I'm all for helping the poor too.
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the government is too bloated, too incompetent and too wasteful to do anything useful

also I think they should be tasked with creating and managing an infrastructure for delivering food to every SNAP recipient, and that food delivery will be better and cheaper than letting them take an EBT card to a local grocery store and shop for themselves
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Asherlee10 posted...

Does anyone know if there are any stats on how often someone with 'food stamps' sells them at a lower cost for cash?

SNAP collects fraud data on this very specific, exact as you wrote, action

https://www.fns.usda.gov/fraud/what-snap-fraud

SNAP fraud is when SNAP benefits are exchanged for cash. This is called trafficking and it is against the law.

The trafficking rate in SNAP has dropped dramatically. Due to increased oversight and improvements to program management by USDA, the trafficking rate has fallen significantly over the last two decades, from about 4 cents on the dollar in 1993 to about 1 cent in 2006-08 (most recent data available).

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Veggeta_EDGE posted...

This one girl I use to know use to sell her food stamps or wic card for weed. I'm all for helping the poor too.

That's probably how this is going to end up, yes.
Someone in the back of a "Checks Cashed" place paying fifty cents on the dollar for a box of cans.

I want to know who they'll be buying these for items from...
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I think it's a good idea. But I could see people thinking it's a good way to mass poison the poor as well
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It's not a terrible idea
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emblem boy posted...

I want to know who they'll be buying these for items from...

Considering foodstamps/commodities/government-cheese itself was started as a backdoor agriculture subsidy...

...ConAgra, obviously.

Asherlee10 posted...

So, it doesn't seem like such a large problem that's it's worth tackling, unless I'm not understanding correctly.

you are understanding correctly. as i posted in another thread:

Darkman124 posted...

much like drug testing for welfare benefits, the net cost is much higher than any savings; the motivation is making a subset of the population feel like they're getting to punish those lucky duckies. compulsory work for the unemployed is a similar concept.

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Darkman124 posted...

Asherlee10 posted...

Does anyone know if there are any stats on how often someone with 'food stamps' sells them at a lower cost for cash?

SNAP collects fraud data on this very specific, exact as you wrote, action

https://www.fns.usda.gov/fraud/what-snap-fraud

SNAP fraud is when SNAP benefits are exchanged for cash. This is called trafficking and it is against the law.

The trafficking rate in SNAP has dropped dramatically. Due to increased oversight and improvements to program management by USDA, the trafficking rate has fallen significantly over the last two decades, from about 4 cents on the dollar in 1993 to about 1 cent in 2006-08 (most recent data available).

Is that accounting for people who violate the terms of SNAP benefits by also gifting food to others outside their household?

I actually know a few people who tried to donate food to food banks when they could even though they were receiving SNAP benefits. :/ Still more than I hear most well off people donating.
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Asherlee10 posted...

Does anyone know if there are any stats on how often someone with 'food stamps' sells them at a lower cost for cash?

Seeing as things like that are against the law and therefore probably not admitted unless people are caught, probably no.

TURTLE BOY SPORTS, kid.
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