Oh SNAP!!! (Food Know-It-All)

Everyone's attitude about the food stamp program, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) can stink. It offers nutrition assistance to millions of eligible, low-income individuals and families and provides economic benefits to communities.

No matter whether a person is on them or not the shameful stigma looms. Even though it helps feed 1:8 adults & 1:4 children, too many of them think the use of SNAP is a confession of failure. In my opinion, it is because of how we are all educated about the program.  Those that are on it are not properly educated on how to use their stamps. Those that are not on them are educated with biased information based on stereotypes.

Lawmakers love to argue to abolish the SNAP program. They use cases like these articles Tax dollars withdrawn at liquor stores, strip clubs, or Steak and lobster? Not with food stamps, says lawmaker. The media put out mug shots of the various people who misuse the system. Oh and let us not forget the documentaries of food deserts that are within impoverished areas.

Have you ever seen a sign like this? It is probably because you were shopping at or passing by one. Can you tell me if you know anyone who is on SNAP who shops at a farmer's market? Have you ever asked somebody on SNAP if they knew they could shop at fresh produce markets? I have. The answer I got was nobody says it but the addresses are in the info pack they received when they get on the program. It's like there is money in basic informing, misinformation, & fear but none in the education of the program. But how did it happen?

Let me introduce you to the "Welfare Queen" story. The term "welfare queen" became a catchphrase during the political dialogue of the 1980s and 1990s. The most well-known person to use this moniker was Ronald Reagan.

Starting with his 1976 presidential campaign, Reagan gave America a sunny "Morning in America" optimism, but the "Welfare Queen," an infamous character description "There's a woman in Chicago," Reagan said, according to an article in the now-defunct Washington Star. "She has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards. ... She's got Medicaid, getting food stamps and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income alone is over $150,000."

Now Reagan never gave the Welfare Queen a face, but he didn't need to. From the 1970s onwards, women became the leading face of poverty. The media's image of poverty also shifted from focusing on the difficulty of Appalachian farmers and the factory closings in the 1960s to images of poor residents in urban areas. By 1973, in magazine pictures depicting welfare recipients, 75% featured African Americans even though African Americans made up only 35% of welfare recipients and only 12.8% of the US population.

Then on August 8, 1974, Linda Taylor filed a police report claiming that she had been robbed of $14,000 in "cash, jewelry, and furs". Chicago Detective Jack Sherwin, who took the report, recognized her from a similar, previous report and suspected her of insurance fraud. Upon investigating her, Sherwin discovered Taylor was wanted on welfare fraud charges in Michigan  Reporting on welfare fraud began during the early 1960s, appearing in general-interest magazines such as Readers Digest but this "interest" now had a real face.

Linda Taylor was born around 1926 in Summit, Alabama, under the name Martha Louise White. She denied being her. According to United States Census records she also could've been Martha Miller, born in Tennessee sometime between 1925 and 1927 to Joe and Lidy Miller. In either case, she was identified as being White, with a possible percentage of Native American ancestry. Throughout her life, she presented herself as being of various racial and ethnic identities, including Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Jewish. She represented herself as being of many different ages, too. 

One government official stated in 1974 that "it appears she can be any age she wishes, from the early 20s to the early 50s". She was arrested at the end of August 1974 for possible extradition to Michigan. Released on bond, she fled the state and was a fugitive until October 9, 1974, when she was caught in Tucson, Arizona. She was ultimately charged with committing $8,000 in fraud and having four aliases. She was convicted of illegally having 23 welfare checks using two identities She was sentenced to two to six years in prison. During the same decade, Taylor was additionally investigated for murder, kidnapping, and baby trafficking. Taylor died of a heart attack on April 18, 2002, at Ingalls Memorial Hospital outside Chicago Her remains were cremated.

Thank to Linda Taylor's fraudulent dealings & "unknown" racial makeup and the media coverage of poverty, our narrated lessons on welfare & food stamps have been passed down for at least 40+ years. But it is not the only story that has to be told. I have covered a few politicians, chefs, and actors doing the Food Stamp Challenge, HERE & HERE. And though it's easy for me to be judgmentally weirded out by someone using their benefits on an $80 cake & disturbingly laugh at somebody being able to use their SNAP card to get a lap dance, I would rather hear about the affluent try to understand by taking the Food Stamp Challenge. I would rather go to a farmer's market and see a family trying to feed their kids fresher foods than hear the "trendy" compare apples to oranges. I rather see the addresses & schedules of those markets and places providing fresh food education to the impoverished on my social media timelines instead of the faces of welfare fraud. Eating healthy is not a rich person's privilege. No one can teach me that and I refuse to pass on that lesson. I want to pass on awareness.

Ok, I heard the concerns & requests. You guys like a food recipe when you learn. Request Granted!!! Since I mentioned farmer's & fresh produce markets a lot in this post, I will share with you something I tell All my clients. "When in doubt, make a Salad". There is a salad for every occasion. A Garden Salad is gluten-free, salt-free, fat-free, dairy free & best of all inexpensive (LoL Thought I was going to say, Free.). So, here is a recipe for the basic garden salad.

Basic Garden Salad
Ingredients
• 2 tomatoes (diced)
• 1 onion (diced)
• 1 cucumber (sliced)
• 1⁄2 head lettuce (such as iceberg, romaine) (cut up)
Directions
1. Combine all ingredients and serve.

I promise to have recipes in all Food-It-All posts from this one forward.

As Always, Talking to You in Adult Terms

A New Series: Food Know-It-All

I might have mentioned it before but I didn't originally go to college to work in nutrition. I was a Nursing major. I wanted to be a School Nurse. I've never told the whole story on why I changed my major. Yes, This is an Exclusive. When I changed it, I was upset & confused with so many people, I decided to shut my mouth and finish my degree. Yes, I said upset. My Great Aunt, L, a retired county nurse is still not truly happy.

One Christmas break, I was at an exhausted crossroad. Nursing School was frying my brain. I was passing but that was just it, Passing. This was my 3rd semester and the exhaustion and grades, I felt, were not equal. So, I decided to casually look at changing my major. First, I looked over my graded nursing papers & tests. My strengths were Education & Nutrition. That was good because all my hard work would not go to waste. I looked at Health Education. That was not going to work for me because that meant I would end up teaching a limited curriculum based on government standards. Then I looked at Nutrition. Then my clinical case study I did my 1st semester of Nursing school started screaming at me. A 5 year old little boy who was admitted to the hospital for gastroenteritis (stomach flu) was my patient. What? In the hospital for stomach flu? Well, the child was anorexic. And when a child doesn't eat, it happens. The little boy didn't eat, not even in the hospital. I remember almost weeping during the clinical because it reminded me of a extremely picky eater in my own family. That person eventually overcame his issues but could that little boy do so? I never found out. Well, my mind wandered about why we feel & think about the things we eat. I thought about all kinds of stereotypes & mindsets. I thought about regulations & rules. I was so overwhelmed with wanting to learn about these thoughts. So, I decided to change my major to Nutrition, right then. But good things did came from Nursing school. All those hours manifested an associate's degree in Health Care Science, the very day I changed degrees. In the world of the many. many faces of Nutrition, that associate's helps employers & clients see my nutritional focus.

Nutrition then opened up a vast world for me. Me being a willing to be constantly educated and a slight Know-It-All, I kinda dove straight in. I've come out why some interesting topics, info, & questions over the years. And that is what this series will be about. How did some food related stereotypes come about? What's the history about some the food industry norms? Is the America responsible for it's own bad food issues? Some of the topics will be:

Kid's Menus

Chicken & Watermelon Stereotypes

Turkey & Thanksgiving

Chinese Food & Animals Stereotypes

Food Deserts

Food Stamp Opinions

So, be prepared to to take more peaks in the food mind of OUTSPOKEN_DIVA. I promise not get you lost in the maze. Hopefully, I will cause some dialogues & teach along the way. And you know you opinions will be welcomed.

As Always, Talking to You in Adult Terms

So, Did Gwyneth Paltrow Really Fail the Food Stamp Challenge

This post is written by the Kelly Royce Williams portion of OUTSPOKEN_DIVA personality. Please refer to the post HERE for further information about Kelly Royce.

Oh, America and her Food Stamps! Some feel she can live without them. Some say fighting to keep her on them. Some people are on the fence and are trying to understand how the system works and maybe fix the system. A few of those trying to understand the system take the Food Stamp Challenge.
Food stamp or SNAP challenge is a trend in the United States popularized by religious groups, community activists, and food pantries, in which a family of means chooses to purchase food using only the monetary equivalent of what a family that size would receive in the US federal government Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), colloquially called food stamps.[1] In 2012, this amounted to US$133.41 per person per month or $4.39 per day.
CNN reporter Sean Callebs did an experiment where he spent the month of February 2009 eating only as much food as what a person could get with the maximum possible amount of food stamps. Since he was living in New Orleans, Louisiana, this amounted to $176. At the end of the experiment, he said that he had eaten pretty well and that the biggest drawback was a social one, not a nutritional one because he could not go out to eat at restaurants with friends.
In June 2013, Donny Ferguson, the communications director for Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), attempted to counter the popular opinion that food stamp funds were not enough to survive on. He spent $27.68 without a shopping list or coupons or discounts and argued that at such rates, the government could afford cuts to the SNAP program as deep as 12%. He further argued that savings could be made by buying vegetables instead of rice and beans, advanced planning, and pooling of resources with a larger family stipend. Ferguson failed the challenge when he went 14% over budget. The items he purchased were highly processed, high in sugar and sodium, and included no fresh fruits or vegetables. Thank You, Wikipedia
While some criticize those that are trying to understand the system by calling them elitists, OUTSPOKEN_DIVA tips her hat to those who are trying to help fix the system. There is even a blog post (called Putting Your Fork in Someone Else's Plate) of me giving praise for even trying.

The latest person of influence to try to understand is Gwyneth Paltrow. She was challenged by Chef Mario Batali. Last week when it was announced that she was doing so I posted on Twitter that I do this blog and I am No Liar.

I looked at Paltrow's food buy and knew she was not going to be able to feed her family 7 days of a week on that. Paltrow is Not Jesus. But it was going to be interesting to see what she came up with. I believe that some fresh foods could be bought with food stamps. It is all about being educated about food pricing in my opinion. I think if not just food stamp recipients but all the American public was taught that it is cheaper to buy

a Bag of apples and cook them down to make applesauce instead of buying a processed squeezable product.

I think that if we all were taught Convenience costs are higher in making fajitas from preseason frozen than from fresh chicken.

All because I still remember when I was a preteen seeing someone buy an $80 cake for a 1-year-old's birthday party with stamps. I am still weirded out by that. Cake mix & frosting are so much cheaper.

I have to say though Paltrow didn't get to feed her family for a week on that bounty, what she did make looks very tasty. I especially like the black bean taquitos. The recipes are on her website. I actually don't think she failed completely. I will say she was wrong for eating at the Victoria Beckham event. That was clearly cheating. But she succeeded in showing it can't exactly be done. Her experience should show that the system is flawed. $29 (she spent under $25) a week for a family of 3-4 is not realistic. The food prices are rising and nutritional assistance benefits are not rising with them. It is easy to criticize and banish a flawed system instead of teaching and fixing it. But the elitists & lawmakers that sit and complain instead of experience and raise awareness are just as flawed.

Crazy that someone with the star power of Gwyneth Paltrow has so many of us talking about food stamps. Crazier to know if you think our system is flawed, take a look at the ramen noodles, doughnuts, and Kool-Aid the US sends to its territory, The Marshall Island (Here is the link). The craziest part is Mainstream Media will be onto something else within a blink of an eye.
*sigh*
Fix the System!!!

As Always, Talking to You in Adult Terms

Putting Your Fork in Someone Else's Plate

Okay, the title of this blog need work. Sounds unsanitary! Oh well! Earlier this year Chef & TV Host Mario Batali and his family and recently Newark Mayor Cory Booked lived on Food Stamps for a week. They did it to get an understanding of how it is to live on them. Though there are many critics, I think what they did is very courageous.

I've never personally lived on Food Stamps. I've done papers on the Food Stamps Program.  I have eaten food bought by Food Stamps. I have paid for the toiletries and medications of a few people who have lived on Food Stamps. I have hugged and dried the tears of someone who is on Food Stamps.

I was furious when there were cities such as New York considered ending the Food Stamp program. Ending the Food Stamp Program is horrible. If anything the Food Stamps program needs to be regulated. I've seen people buy birthday and wedding cakes with Food Stamps. I keep hearing there are places where Soda, Alcohol, and Tobacco can be bought. So I understand the frowning at the dysfunction. But before leaders eliminate it have they tried to fix it? No, because they don't have a clue on how they understand it. Can't fix what you don't understand. But instead of being educated, you just do away with it. Wow, that seems like a productive attitude.

Leaders that have a "Do Away with It" attitude act like All of those on Food Stamps Want to be on Food Stamps. I'm not saying "The Career Food Stamp Recipient" is a myth. It's Just not the only picture about those who receive Food Stamps. The number of abusers of the system is low. Even some of the abusers abuse out of desperation. I said I have paid for the non-food items for some on Food Stamps. Everybody does not have people that can buy toilet tissue or soap for them to help them out. Some people have people who will do it but at a cost. So many feel they have to "sell" their stamps for cash. Remember this is to buy food. Where is the money to buy non-food items, go to non-food places, or pay the non-food bills? This is not Cash. It doesn't pay for everything in life.

Again I applaud Mario Batali, Cory Booker, and other leaders that are trying to understand. The saying says Put your Foot in Someone Else's Shoe and I bet it will Pinch. Put your Fork on Someone Else's Plate and I bet the Food will Taste Different.

My Thoughts! What are Yours???