Warning: What follows may be perceived controversial and somewhat political. Read at own risk.
My family and I currently receive Food Assistance from the state of Florida government. 3 years ago, I had a full time job working as a staff member for a major public university. I had what most would perceive as a good job. I made 35,000 a year and our family had full medical benefits. 35,000 is not that much anymore. My wife and I were doing all we could to make ends meet. We were scraping by and it wasn't going to get better. We were on WIC so that the kids could have milk and cereal and basic staples. It was tough. Together we made the decision that I would return to graduate school to pursue higher education to improve our standing. This was going to require sacrifices. We were going to go into debt in the short term to hopefully be better off in the long run. I graduate this coming May and while we're not sure where we will be in a year, we are sure that we made the right decision. When we looked at what we needed to do to make graduate school financially possible it became obvious fairly quickly that if we wanted our children to eat while I was in school, Food Assistance would be necessary.
Recently a family member who I deeply care about shared a picture on a popular social networking site. The captions in the picture spoke out against those who are on the S.N.A.P. (commonly known as food stamps) program. The picture showed a sign at a zoo asking zoo goers to not feed the animals so that they would not become reliant on this form of feeding. It then compared those on food assistance to the animals, saying that we would become reliant on this assistance as the animals become reliant on the food.
I have several issues with this picture/caption combo.
1) People are not animals. To associate people on Food assistance with animals in rude at best, and from what I understand, not in a Christian or a humanistic way of thinking in any way.
2) One in Seven Americans are currently on some form of Food Assistance (Either SNAP or the more popular WIC). Yes, this number is extremely high. Yes, I agree that this is concerning that so many are reliant on this assistance. With that number of people, there is a good chance that each of us know several families on this assistance. If we were all aware that our friends whom we think highly of were those we were demonizing, perhaps we would all think a little longer about what we say about those one food assistance.
3) People on food assistance are not proud to be on food assistance. My wife has an acquaintance who went on a political rant demonizing those on food assistance. Obviously, this person has no idea that our family is on the food assistance program. Without any intent to do so, this person made my wife feel awful about herself. Those of us who are on food assistance are not proud that we are reliant on this help. Most of us are embarrassed by it. We do not go around advertising that we are on food assistance, instead we are quietly grateful that our children have food every day.
3) There is a stigma that those on food assistance are simply free loading on the government and do not do their part to provide for their own families. For the most part, nothing could be further from the truth. SNAP gives each person on it the equivalent of slightly more than 5 dollars per day to eat. Have you ever tried to eat on 5 dollars a day? It is possible.
Most people using this type of assistance are working as hard as they can to make ends meet, and it simply isn't happening. The food assistance program is meant to be a short term help. My wife spends many hours reapplying for assistance every 6 months. We look forward to the day when we do not qualify, meaning that we are able to feed our children ourselves, without government assistance. We are working hard to get to that day. In the meantime, please don't assume we are simply free loading, trying to get anything we can for free.
With all this being said, please, I urge each of you, have a little compassion. Realize that you know people who are on food assistance. Realize that they aren't happy about this. Try to be sensitive in what you say. Please, I urge you. We feel awful enough as it is.
Thank you.
