Fast Food Chains Getting Into the Food Stamp Act

This is welfare. Who in their right mind thinks that people on welfare should be eating in fast food restaurants? In my opinion, the food stamp program should be abolished. Get in your welfare-provided car, drive down to the office, and get your bags of beans, flour, and rice, some powdered milk, some gubmint cheese and peanut butter, and go home and COOK some food for your illegitimate kids. You’ve got plenty of time on your hands, since you don’t work.

It kind of irks me to see people buying steak and lobster at the grocery store with their card, when I work for a living and can’t afford that. I also couldn’t afford to support the hordes of kids that these broodmares are putting out. It’s got to stop, and now would be a good time.

Fast food chains have a high mark-up on their products. All we are doing is giving tax-payer money to these corporations. Surely our anti-fatfood Prez. and his wife cannot be advocating this subsidy to specific corporations while at the same time spending MORE taxpayer dollars to TAKE AWAY similiar lunches from school children and mandatorily teach them about the value of veggies!

Foodstamps for fast food!!??? Why??? They should not even be able to use them to buy chips and other junk food, but now they are gonna let them use it for fast food?! Unbelievable.

I have food stamps and think this is crazy. If I could afford to go to these places, I wouldn’t need food stamps. They won’t let me buy a prepared chicken at the grocery store, but they would let me go get a Big Mac? That makes total sense!

WHAT THE HELLLLLL!!!!
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH…THIS IS WRONG.LIKE IT HAS BEEN SAID..YOU CANT WORK..NOW YOU CANT COOK..LAZY AMERICANS GET A JOB AT THE FAST FOOD PLACE IF YOU WANT FAST FOOD..EAT OUT THE DAMN TRASH CANS BUT FOOD STAMPS ARE FOR THE NEEDY…QUIT USING THEM TO PURCHASE MILK AND RETURNING IT AT THE LOCAL STORE SO YOU CAN BUY CIGS…GET A JOB..WRONG WRONG WRONG

I’m sorry Abra. I didn’t mean to put @ your name.

Since half of the country is unemployed and on food stamps, i see nothing wrong with buying fast food with food stamps. I use to go into Mcdonalds and the lines would be long, now i just walk up to the counter. No one has any money these days & stamps for gas is good, cant find a job without gas in the car. Only people against food stamps are those that cant get approved & those that are working and cant get them. You would have to be crazy not to want free food……

The use of Welfare benefits at fast food restaurants is eyebrow raising; however, if you look at the cost of food from the grocery stores on some meals you can save money to choose fast food. It is sad that food with little nutritional value and bad for a person health is more affordable than healthy foods. People make statements to get rid of welfare as they condemn the recipients from obtaining money from the government. What most people fail to realize welfare recipients are not banking the money for personal gain. In most cases, the money is used to sustain life. To get rid of welfare would create a financial problem for many of the small business that depends on the welfare benefits money being spent. The reality is welfare is money that goes back into the greater economy. No one is getting rich off of welfare or really having a good life on it. The benefits are minimum at best. There are social economic dynamics that creates cycle of people who get trapped in that lifestyle but these people have social, psychological, and economic issues that keep them out of the mainstream. Before you make blanket statements review all the factors involved. Unfortunately, fast food is not as bad as a choice of food for what the welfare recipients receive from local grocery stores when it comes to poor nutrition which impacts us as we have to pay for the healthcare for the poor nutrition available for these individuals.

yes some people make statements without using there brain first. i worked for the welfare office and was still eligable for their benefits! people think before you judge. people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

Why not use food stamps for junk food/fast food-at 7/11 they buy red bull etc. so why not,what a joke.

GREAT!!!! Sounds like a BRILLIANT Democratic idea….MORE oBESITY…more FREE healthcare hard-working Americans hace to pay for!!!! UGH….Hurry up 2012….he is KILLING us ALL!!!

ATTENTION !!!!! Only Homeless Welfare recepiants can purchase food at Restaurants not regular welfare recipients!! Some people are hurting and hungry GOD HELP US. So now you know , its for people who have no Access to a stove and refrigerator. Homeless people remember them

I can honestly say that allowing the food stamps to be used on fast food is ridiculous but to say that everyone on food stamps must have loads of children and don’t work is even more ridiculous and shows just how little you really know about that whole system. It takes alot of work and documentation to even be considered let alone approved. I am a single mom of twin toddlers and I work my butt off full-time just to make enough in a month to provide what is needed let alone be able to provide food for my girls. I can honestly say that if I didn’t have the help of the food stamps I would probably be starving right about now because my children always have and always will come first in anything that I do.

OK seriously? I was born in an OLD log cabin where you could literally feel the wind blowing through the logs. My dad died when I was 5 months old & my mother had me, and 2 little boys to raise alone. We had a cistern that caught rain water, we had an outhouse, we raised a garden in the summer & canned that food for consumption in the winter. We heated with wood that WE cut & hauled, & we had goats for milk, oil lamps & candles for light, & never, EVER got welfare or food stamps. We ate rabbits & sqirrels, but never missed a meal. My point is….we FOUND a way.
Then as an adult my husband left me with our newborn baby, a huge mountain of debt with collectors nearly leaving US homeless, and no family available to help me out. I did not get welfare or foodstamps then either. I have always found a job. They may not have paid what I wanted to get paid, and may have had horrible working conditions & atrocious hours….but I did it, and anyone else can do it too…..if they try hard enough. The REAL problem is that nobody wants to even try when they can have everything HANDED TO THEM!!!! It is ridiculous. $64billion dollars in food stamps last year alone, and that’s just ONE gov’t assistance program. Yeah, I wonder WHY this country is in financial crisis????? If we don’t contact our elected officials about these atrocities, they will continue to get worse. It needs to STOP.

Why is Papa Murphy’s considered a fast food chain? Depending on what you order and bake at home, their pizzas can be quite nutritious and cost-effective.

Restaurants should not be able to accept food stamps. This is corporate welfare. In fact, food stamps should be for the basics: Fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt), and basic meat, poultry, and fish (fresh or frozen). I used to work at a grocery store and with people who use WIC, there are only certain things that they could buy. It should be the same way with food stamps. I know there are worthy recipients who if they did not receive food stamps, they would go hungry. However, they will get more bang for their buck using it at the supermarket or even the corner store.

I’m willing to help poor people, but they have to do their part. If you have a bunch of tattoos, expensive hairstyles (e.g. weave, color), a smart phone, or go to the salon to get manicures and pedicures, you need not be on food stamps. If you buy the latest Jordans for your child or a new backpack every year (even if the backpack they had was fine), you don’t need to be on food stamps. If you’re out at the club, paying for drinks and a cover charge, you don’t need to be on food stamps. If you have a 40 inch flatscreen TV, you need not be on food stamps.

I would like to say that being able to buy fast food with food stamps is rediculous! I live in AZ, and had food stamps for almost a year before the federal dolloars were cut from the program, which is when they implemented the new rules here which makes me unelligible because I don’t have children and I go to school full time. That is whack and I am very upset about this. When they learned I started going to college fulltime actually is when they said I am no longer eligible. Now, somedays I have to figure out how I am supposed to survive on a pack of M&M’s a day. It is sad but true. College is something that I did to better myself and make something of myself in hopes that one day I can make a family and be able to provide for them too. So, what little help I did get from any resource (in this case the government) is gone. Thanks, now the government has given a whole new meaning to the term “starving college student”.

and why dont you people feed yourself the essentials like meat, and vegetables. Well see how far your money goes on that. Chicken is like $2.00 a LB and tomatoes are like $4.00 a LB the reason why food stamp recipients are buying junk food is because its CHEAPER!!!!!!! As said before the state doesn’t give you enough money to live “luxuriously” as you may say they do!!!!

I’m 22, work full time, and on food stamps with no kids.

I have my own apartment and pay all my bills, alone. I also have dietary restrictions (allergic to dairy) thus my groceries do cost more to find items without milk products in them. I also maintain a healthy diet to keep my weight under control. Not everyone on FS buys junk. I do buy some chips, diet soda, and gum, and the occasional Oreo cookie (dairy free chocolate fix!). I have every single right to buy a little junk like everyone else. However, I stock whole grain bread, brown rices, dark greens, lean meats, etc and cook at home.

Being able to buy fast food is pretty crazy, but the companies are trying to get as much money as possible. I’m against it, but I do think people who cannot prepare meals or keep their food on them (homeless for example) should be allowed to. Is it healthy? No, absolutely not. But what are you going to do if you’re in that situation?

I get food stamps to help support my family, but I also work to pay my bills. I feel that this is just a way for businesses to benefit from the people who are too lazy to cook and do anything with themselves to go blow their money on McDonalds etc, to quick feed their children and themselves. A smart plot by the businesses but this I believe will terribly increase obesity in Adults and especially children because most of the families living off of the government to survive don’t know how to raise their children anyways, and will not feed them healthy foods you can get at a grocery store. The Food Stamps I get I try to eat very healthy and feed my daughter healthy foods and I need the food stamp help because right now I just can’t afford all the food and pay all the bills alone. I was raised well and proud of it, and I do not abuse the system, but I am still embarrassed to go to the store with a food stamp card. It is because of people that abuse it and you can almost tell exactly who they are just by how they look and act. I just believe all in all about food stamps is that they should interview their customers a little more closely and do home inspections, follow receipts on where the money is spent (as in make the consumer report every monthly spending amount to where and what items, and pay attention to how they live their lives as if they even try to do things themselves and work their way towards getting out of the system atleast instead off popping out multiple children and infesting like roaches while the government supports their children that wil not even be raised as anything else but more mooches off the government, I believe this will eliminate the problem. The people that deserve the help will be sorted from the losers who choose to be happy with themselves as the lowest of low. Homeless people need the fast food chains to open their doors to them because I agree with the woman above stating this in her comment. Homeless people do not have access to stoves and very few microwaves I’m sure. Homeless shelters may provide one or two microwaves, but still no stoves, so it may be a good idea for the homeless but not for the people who’s job title is “Welfare Mooch.” I believe this leads back to the monitoring I mentioned. Once monitored, these people will either have nothing to hide from because they are not abusing the system, they will change if they want to keep help with food and housing, or they will fail and lose their priviledges. Let this be the way to sort them out. Plus this will open up more jobs as inspectors so it will benefit the employment rate as well. I have seen people work hard for their money and still need help with food stamps. I am one of them. And I believe unless you are completely unable to work, which disabled is B.S. because there are plenty of jobs you can do working on the phone, even from home, then you still need to try while getting help from the government. It’s a helping hand to help you live, show some class and respect.

I dont think it really matters what people can use there food stamps for because they get x amount a month and when they spend x amount there gone and no mater what they are spending them on they are still paid for by taxes and in all reality food stamp create jobs, there a company that makes the cards, there a company that makes the card readers, hell if more people are able to spend money the the demand for people to take that money goes up like at a fast food place if there are more costumers there will be more staff and if the costumers continue to grow the store will or they will open a new one so by spending food stamps people are creating jobs

Why idoes it matter so much what type of food people can buy with their ebt cards? Since everyone is complaining about our tax money, let’s not forget the government also used that money (and a lot of it) to bail out big businesses who were in the hole, not to mention fund an expensive war. The food stamp program is just a small percentage of where our money is going. Those of you who have jobs and don’t need foodstamps, count yourselves lucky. Some people actually need the help and the way this economy is going, more and more people are going to need help. I don’t use foodstamps since I’m fortunate enough not to need it but I have no problem with those who actually need it.

I am 22, disabled, in school full-time and receive no help from my parents.

I love working, but I can’t where I am in life right now. Instead, I live on $160 a month and $200 in foodstamps. That’s all I get. I don’t by crap and I would NEVER buy Fastfood, even if it were an option in my state. I hard a hard time even coming up with the money for tampons, let alone anything else. Do not make the mistake of assuming everyone who gets aid lives a good, luxury, lazy life.

Food Stamps are no longer aimed as assistance of the poor. It is to generate income for corporate farmers and corporations. More corporate welfare than anything else

I am on foodstamps, and yes up until recently I was homeless with 3 children. I can tell you from experience, that getting a hot meal was not easy. Where we were the soup kitchen was there mon- friday. But come sat and sunday you were on your own. So do not tell me if you that claim noone on foodstamps deserves a hot meal.. DO NOT sit there and say if your little ones were crying because they were hungry you would not use it. I do however agree there is a way to make it stretch more. These are you run of the meal “value” menu places. It is not like they are being told they can go to a 5 star sit down. You all that have never had to depend on the help sit there so self righteous. Just remember everyone of you are 1 paycheck away from being in our situation at anytime.
So many of you judge and know nothing about each person’s situation. When your chilld cries because they are hungry, tell me you won’t take advantage. I can agree that it should be restricted to HOT Foods at the grocery store. COme on they taste fresher and they go further.
but you all are just as wrong for judging. I hope none of you are ever in that situation, but if you are I hope noone is as cold and heartless as you all are, because it is hard getting up when you have so many willing to keep you down.

For the majority of people who commented – did you miss the “homeless” and “disabled” part of the article. If there is no kitchen in which to cook, or the recipients are physically unable to cook, what do you propose as an alternative?