Food Stamps

The first time that I experienced using food stamps was when we moved to New Mexico, in 2021. During that year, each student at our children's schools were given $400.00 in food stamps.

I was just reading a book where a character was making fun of another character for having to use food stamps. Personally, I was thrilled to receive such a gift.

I looked forward to spending the money at our local meat market, too. If we were going to benefit from government funding, it was going right back into our community. It wasn't going to be spent at a big box store.

When Caleb and I really needed food stamps, in 2008, we were denied them because the government calculated that Caleb's 20 hours/week was actually only 19.5 hours/week.

We sincerely only wanted the money to spend on food. We were newly married and trying to get through college. Yet, due to "whatever-excuse-the-system-gave-us" we were denied that help.

It's a pity when government assistance is misused or misallocated. However, it was quite nice when we were able to use it, especially when we weren't expecting to receive it.