"Food Stamps" -VS- Obesity

Let me first say that I'm sorry it's been so long since I have posted a rant. It's just my editor has been busy working for people that actually pay her.

.

.

A little while ago, I was in the grocery store doing my weekly food shopping when I saw something that I’ve seen more than just a few times. I’m not sure why, but this time it just struck a nerve. I was at the checkout with a cart full of stuff. Because there’s nothing to do in line except read the headlines about Brad and Angelina wanting to adopt a small African nation, or Brittany Spears winning the Noble Prize in physics, or someone finding the face of Jesus in a raisin, I started watching the lady in front of me take the stuff out of her cart and put it on the conveyer belt. The woman had three children with her, and based on their sizes, I wasn’t surprised by what I saw…a dozen donuts, three bags of chips, a six pack of Yoo Hoo, a gallon of chocolate milk, a gallon of cheap ice cream, about 15 XXL Hungry Man TV dinners, two boxes of frosted flake cereal, a large bag of candy, three boxes of microwave popcorn with “extra butter flavor,” a box of Twinkies and four 2-liter bottles of diet soda.

My shock came as I stood there rolling my eyes and pondering childhood diabetes: the woman, whose obvious concern was her children’s nutritional welfare, pulled out her EBT card to pay for her “food.”

(An EBT card is North Carolina’s version of the Utah Horizon card. The EBT—or Electronic Benefits Transfer card—is the identification card for the government’s Food Stamp Program.)

Before I start ranting let me say this: I completely understand the need for food security programs, especially in economic times like these. My issue is not that she was using one of these cards—it was what she was buying with it.

The problem of obesity has become an epidemic. America is the fattest nation in the world. Childhood obesity is at an all-time high and it just keeps growing. (Word play intended.) Heart disease, obstructive sleep apnea, and high blood pressure are also climbing at alarming rates. In the past few years, the government has launched programs aimed at combating the epidemic of obesity. Yet you can still buy crap food if you’re on food stamps. Why is not the Food Stamp Program set up the same way the government’s WIC (Women, Infants, Children) program is?

WIC is a government program to give food and healthcare referrals for low-income women who are pregnant, have just given birth, or have small children under the age of five. A woman on WIC can only get food that has nutritional value and had been approved by the plan organizers. It should be this same way with the Food Stamp Program.

Now, once again, don’t get me wrong: if someone on the Food Stamp Program wants to get crap food, that’s fine with me. Just let them spent their own money to get it. The Food Stamp Program is funded by tax dollars from hard-working Americans and they want their money to be spent nutritionally improving low-income families, not contributing to the nation’s growing fat-ass problem. After all, chances are that a family on a Food Stamp Program might also be on a government healthcare program that is also funded by tax dollars from hard-working Americans (Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP). And if that is the case, it would be a bunch of bulls**t that not only are those hard-working Americans paying for food that is contributing to the obesity problem but also the healthcare that will be used to treat the health issues resulting from said obesity!

Once again, proof that the system is broken.