Can you get Food Stamps?

[underpants]

This only takes a few minutes. I knew we didn't but I wanted to find out what would be necessary to get Food Stamps (this also includes TANF-->"welfare" and Daycare and heating support and WIC and some others)

It directed me to a Virginia DSS site with a calculator



http://65.216.150.143/fns/


Basically for a family of 3
$0 savings
least valuable car $2,000
Monthly earned income $2,000
Unearned income $0
pay for our own heat and utilities


Here is the really SCARY part
By the end of this year (2008) 1 in 11 (28 MILLION) people will be in that situation or worse.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/us/31foodstamps.html?_r=1

[gateley]

1. I read it's already 1/10 in Ohio,

and 1/8 in Michigan.

Someone wrote that Food Stamps will be the bread lines of 2008.

[underpants]

4. Check LBN

Sam's club is limiting rice purchases and CostCo has seen a spike in food staples (less meat)

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Does Virginia require a certain number of work hours before providing services?

[underpants]

3. I saw something about it but this was a quick "you could be eligible" calculation

I would suspect that Va. demands lots of work but I am not sure of the details

BTW- Food STamps is not TANF. I think most people on Food Stamps work. I know that at least 25% of TANF recipients work.

[fight4my3sons]

5. We already do.

My husband works 20 hrs overtime every week and we still qualify. Overqualified and underpaid :(
He has an interview for a different job in a week and a half. Wish him luck.
We get about $142 a month for a family of five. We are thankful for the extra help we receive.

[Bozita]

9. Good vibes and best wishes on the way for you and your family.

[BonnieJW]

11. Good wishes for better times.

Stay together through it all. It will get better.

[Rosemary2205]

6. What good will food stamps be?

According to some DUers there won't be any food. (snark)

In all seriousness. I qualify in Georgia. I am fighting having to go that route because it's just embarrassing to sit there and have some social worker pick over every single penny I make and tell me because of the price of maintaining my lift van and my home it would be more cost effective to sell the house and the van and rent near the busline until I have no money left from those assests, then move into section 8 on the busline. Yes, they said that, and it was the most assinine thing I ever heard. That was before I started working. All I wanted was little help with groceries, not to be a drain on society my whole life.

[fed-up]

8. I see you had a similar worker to me.....nt

[fight4my3sons]

10. horrible :(

I dreaded going, but our kids were hungry and we just weren't making it after my husband lost his job last year. My worker is decent. Hopefully my husband will get this job he is interviewing for in the next two weeks and we will be off for good. (We were off for a few months, but my husband was working about 100 hours a week, literally.) I go back to work when the twins start Kindergarten and then we should be fine.

I'm sorry you had to go through that. Some 'human services' workers should not be working with the public at all. When I worked at Head Start I used to accompany the parents on my caseload to appointments for recertifications because they said they would get treated badly if they went by themselves. This was in NY. I know that some caseworkers are overwhelmed, but that is no excuse to treat people like crap.

[fed-up]

7. I did for 6 months but quit as the worker I had was a psycho *B* from hell

and hated those that were getting food stamps.

She mislabeled my file, put my income for the year in the slot for income for the month, made many sly comments about her having to work full-time even though she was in pain and had to pay $500 for prescriptions.

It wasn't worth the mental anguish I had to go through and did nothing for my self-esteem while struggling through a major depression. I would rather live on coffee, rice and beans and veggies than put up with her attitude.

The good news is that warm weather is here and I am making a little more money selling stuff at yard sales.

[caledesi]

12. AngelFood is the answer.

Check them out. For $30 you can lots of food. No forms, ID anything!

They are in every state.

Food Stamps there is a process and it ain't pretty!

http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

They have a menu!

[kineneb]

13. just got the notification that I am approved

I have no official income after my husband died in March. The only assistance available for widows (under 65, not disabled) is a one-time payment of $255 death benefit. Since I was his caregiver for the last 2-1/2 years, I need time to recover, so working is not on my list right now.