Half of US kids will get food stamps, study says

[Dave]

>>The richest country in the world has starving kids.
>>What a shameful situation.
>>
>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...6S00.DTL&tsp=1

Half of US kids will get food stamps, study says
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer
Monday, November 2, 2009
(11-02) 18:32 PST Chicago (AP) --

Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say.

The estimate comes from an analysis of 30 years of national data, and it bolsters other recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. It suggests that almost everyone knows a family who has received food stamps, or will in the future, said lead author Mark Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis.

"Your neighbor may be using some of these programs but it's not the kind of thing people want to talk about," Rank said.

The analysis was released Monday in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The authors say it's a medical issue pediatricians need to be aware of because children on food stamps are at risk for malnutrition and other ills linked with poverty.

"This is a real danger sign that we as a society need to do a lot more to protect children," Rank said.

Food stamps are a Department of Agriculture program for low-income individuals and families, covering most foods although not prepared hot foods or alcohol. For a family of four to be eligible, their annual take-home pay can't exceed about $22,000.

According to a USDA report released last month, 28.4 million Americans received food stamps in an average month in 2008, and about half were younger than age 18. The average monthly benefit per household totaled $222.

Rank and Cornell University sociologist Thomas Hirschl studied data from a nationally representative survey of 4,800 American households interviewed annually from 1968 through 1997 by the University of Michigan. About 18,000 adults and children were involved.

Overall, about 49 percent of all children were on food stamps at some point by the age of 20, the analysis found. That includes 90 percent of black children and 37 percent of whites. The analysis didn't include other ethnic groups.

The time span included typical economic ups and downs, including the early 1980s recession. That means similar portions of children now and in the future will live in families receiving food stamps, although ongoing economic turmoil may increase the numbers, Rank said.

An editorial in the medical journal agreed.

"The current recession is likely to generate for children in the United States the greatest level of material deprivation that we will see in our professional lifetimes," Stanford pediatrician Dr. Paul Wise wrote.

Wise said the Archives study estimate is believable.

"I find it terribly sad, but not surprising," Wise said.

James Weill, president of Food Research and Action Center, a Washington-based advocacy group, said the analysis underscores that "there are just very large numbers of people who rely on this program for a month, six months, a year."

"What I hope comes out of this study is an understanding that food stamp beneficiaries aren't them — they're us," Weill said.

The analysis is in line with other recent research suggesting that more than 40 percent of U.S. children will live in poverty or near-poverty by age 17; and that half will live at some point in a single-parent family. Also, other researchers have estimated that slightly more than half of adults will use food stamps at some point by age 65.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...6S00.DTL&tsp=1

[ramses]

Get real. We have the fattest poor kids in the world. We could render them for their lard and solve get off of foreign oil.

Originally Posted by Dave

>>The richest country in the world has starving kids.
>>What a shameful situation.
>>
>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...6S00.DTL&tsp=1

Half of US kids will get food stamps, study says
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer
Monday, November 2, 2009
(11-02) 18:32 PST Chicago (AP) --

Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say.

The estimate comes from an analysis of 30 years of national data, and it bolsters other recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. It suggests that almost everyone knows a family who has received food stamps, or will in the future, said lead author Mark Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis.

"Your neighbor may be using some of these programs but it's not the kind of thing people want to talk about," Rank said.

The analysis was released Monday in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The authors say it's a medical issue pediatricians need to be aware of because children on food stamps are at risk for malnutrition and other ills linked with poverty.

"This is a real danger sign that we as a society need to do a lot more to protect children," Rank said.

Food stamps are a Department of Agriculture program for low-income individuals and families, covering most foods although not prepared hot foods or alcohol. For a family of four to be eligible, their annual take-home pay can't exceed about $22,000.

According to a USDA report released last month, 28.4 million Americans received food stamps in an average month in 2008, and about half were younger than age 18. The average monthly benefit per household totaled $222.

Rank and Cornell University sociologist Thomas Hirschl studied data from a nationally representative survey of 4,800 American households interviewed annually from 1968 through 1997 by the University of Michigan. About 18,000 adults and children were involved.

Overall, about 49 percent of all children were on food stamps at some point by the age of 20, the analysis found. That includes 90 percent of black children and 37 percent of whites. The analysis didn't include other ethnic groups.

The time span included typical economic ups and downs, including the early 1980s recession. That means similar portions of children now and in the future will live in families receiving food stamps, although ongoing economic turmoil may increase the numbers, Rank said.

An editorial in the medical journal agreed.

"The current recession is likely to generate for children in the United States the greatest level of material deprivation that we will see in our professional lifetimes," Stanford pediatrician Dr. Paul Wise wrote.

Wise said the Archives study estimate is believable.

"I find it terribly sad, but not surprising," Wise said.

James Weill, president of Food Research and Action Center, a Washington-based advocacy group, said the analysis underscores that "there are just very large numbers of people who rely on this program for a month, six months, a year."

"What I hope comes out of this study is an understanding that food stamp beneficiaries aren't them — they're us," Weill said.

The analysis is in line with other recent research suggesting that more than 40 percent of U.S. children will live in poverty or near-poverty by age 17; and that half will live at some point in a single-parent family. Also, other researchers have estimated that slightly more than half of adults will use food stamps at some point by age 65.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...6S00.DTL&tsp=1

[Dave]

Originally Posted by ramses

Get real. We have the fattest poor kids in the world. We could render them for their lard and solve get off of foreign oil.

SO you think kids should go hungry? You want kids to die? YOu think that poor and hungry is a good way to grow up...

That's such a pathetic POV it's stunning... I'm stunned and your witty repartee is fill of shit.

[Riverwind]

If you grow up eating cheep foods, they most often happen to be the worst things you can eat. The poor kids don't get the fresh fruits and vegi's that are needed in a health diet but its not just poor kids who are fat, just look around and America is FAT me included and we all need to be on a diet.

River

[Old Greebo]

Food stamps?
Do you mean little bits of paper, that people designated as 'poor' must use to 'buy', from otherwise commercially-oriented stores, certain designated food products that the US government deems they need in order to survive? Instead of using money?

Sorry, but I admit I don't know how 'food stamps' work. But the whole concept seems very demeaning and self-esteem-killing.

Perhaps a poverty-sympathetic American would spare a minute or two to explain to me (and to others who live in not-quite-communist areas like Britain) how food stamps work?

[Riverwind]

Originally Posted by Old Greebo

Food stamps?
Do you mean little bits of paper, that people designated as 'poor' must use to 'buy', from otherwise commercially-oriented stores, certain designated food products that the US government deems they need in order to survive? Instead of using money?

Sorry, but I admit I don't know how 'food stamps' work. But the whole concept seems very demeaning and self-esteem-killing.

Perhaps a poverty-sympathetic American would spare a minute or two to explain to me (and to others who live in not-quite-communist areas like Britain) how food stamps work?

LOL
History, years ago you got scrip that had amounts on it and I always felt sorry for the people that used them because it was degrading but today they use a debit card just like you would get from the bank, it has money put on it and it works just like a debit card works. You can only buy food with it and not deli foods, they are good anywhere in the USA.

Hope that answers your question.

River

[A-1]

Confucius say...

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.


Can't win with that, can you Ramses?

[moi621]

Wish it would be required that food stamps be used to purchase meat/fowl/fish, veges and fruits, eggs and milk.
Unfortunately they can be used for cocoa puffs.

[Riverwind]

yes, they can but they can't buy the roasted chicken because it is food ready to eat. How a person spends his hard earned EBT card is up to that person, the amount given is the same. However consider this, I got oranges from the store they were $1.49 a LB that was 3 oranges, so if I bought 6 oranges that would be about the same price as a box of coco puffs. the box of cereal would last a week and fill me for one meal, the oranges do not make a meal.

So here you say you want less government but then say that the government should tell you what you can eat and what you cant.

River

[gareth19]

Originally Posted by Riverwind

yes, they can but they can't buy the roasted chicken because it is food ready to eat. How a person spends his hard earned EBT card is up to that person, the amount given is the same. However consider this, I got oranges from the store they were $1.49 a LB that was 3 oranges, so if I bought 6 oranges that would be about the same price as a box of coco puffs. the box of cereal would last a week and fill me for one meal, the oranges do not make a meal.

So here you say you want less government but then say that the government should tell you what you can eat and what you cant.

River

The funny thing is the poor have to show a card to get a discount on restricted food so the middle class can gripe about taxpayer money, but if the rich had to use their huge tax breaks in in "Wealthfare Stamps" so you could see how much of your government largess is going for their frivolities, we'd have a whole different tax system.

[nullorchis]

Should anyone be so fortunate as to have access to money and/or food stamps to buy their own food they are responsible for what they buy and eat. Until we live in a total dictatorship, freedom means you are free to eat food that is laidened with fat, salt, cholesterol........or you are free to eat healthy grains, fruits, vegetables. Unfortunately healthy food does in general cost more than unhealthy food, so that does influence what people will buy and eat.

So, just what would happen if all food stamp programs were suddenly eliminated?
a) Our taxes would not go down
b) Government would waste that money in some other way
c) I really can't forcast what would happen to people who use food stamps.
d) There would be some other government program that we could complain about.

And that chicken you are eating was raised in a food factory that in no way resembles a farm and the chicken had about 60 square inches of space to live in, surrounded by thousands of other chickens, and it lived an awful life, a short life and was fed all kinds of chemically laidened products that one could hardly call "food". (Pretty much the same for most turkeys too)

[Riverwind]

yep the whole idea is to keep the chicken from moving from egg to axe, just eat and poop tell its time, Foster Farms is a good example of this, there located in Turlock California. Nice people

River

[Old Greebo]

<< LOL
History, years ago you got scrip that had amounts on it and I always felt sorry for the people that used them because it was degrading but today they use a debit card just like you would get from the bank, it has money put on it and it works just like a debit card works. You can only buy food with it and not deli foods, they are good anywhere in the USA.
Hope that answers your question.
River >>

Thanks River.

[moi621]

Originally Posted by Riverwind

yes, they can but they can't buy the roasted chicken because it is food ready to eat. How a person spends his hard earned EBT card is up to that person, the amount given is the same. However consider this, I got oranges from the store they were $1.49 a LB that was 3 oranges, so if I bought 6 oranges that would be about the same price as a box of coco puffs. the box of cereal would last a week and fill me for one meal, the oranges do not make a meal.

So here you say you want less government but then say that the government should tell you what you can eat and what you cant.

River

Restructure the system from the bottom up.

The failure to do that with health care will be the doom of reform.
Example- Dictate the % of the health care dollar that must go to the Health Care professional, limiting skimming.
Restructure the pay scale to health care providers as to represent time spent with a patient and not procedures.
These failures leaves us with the same broken system,
just funded differently.

Why? Oh, why is it so hard for people to work out problems with systems that are broken?
Blame it all on health care profiteers and Cocoa Puff manufacturers?
Are our leaders so stupid or is it all about vested interests?
Moi

[ramses]

LOL,,,, I just have to laugh when I go to the grocery store and I see what people buy with the Lone Star Card (Texas). A baskit full of SHIT paid for by people that WORK. I don't want people dying of malnutrition but I have no problem at all in someone feeling the pangs of hunger.

As watch the societal leaches empty their carts at the register, I can't help but think of the long line of poor life choices that has led up to this cart of poor choices.

If you are sucking the blood of productive citizens for your nourishment, you should get 2 choices at the grocery store. A sack of gruel that is nutritious yet bland and milk. Maybe throw in some bulk quantities of brown rice and dry beans.

Free lunch at school? Fuck that. If you can't feed your kids, they should get in the outmeal line for breakfast and the soup line at lunch. Sound cruel? net really. Training people to depend on the system is the ultimate cruelty. IF you feed a kid nutritious but tasteless and make them stand in the line of shame for poor kids, there is a good chance that they will want better for their kids and decide to take advantage of their free education and make something of themselves.

Welfare SHOULD suck. You SHOULD be embarrased if you rely on the wages of people that actually work.