How do food stamps even work?! This is what I was wondering, as someone who had never before embarked on the bureaucratic hell that is getting government assistance.
“Food stamps” is actually a dated term for the program that is now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. We weren’t on food stamps when I was growing up, but things were tight: when we went shopping, nothing went in the cart that wasn’t on the list. The budget was carefully planned ahead of time to account for buying occasional expensive necessities, like toilet paper. It didn’t even occur to me until I was a little older that you could go to the grocery store and make an impulse purchase, because we had never done that!
My family rarely ate out, and when we did it was planned way ahead of time. Things started to shift as I got older, and the necessary tightness around money loosened a bit. But it wasn’t until one night when I was home from college for the weekend and my mom came home from work with an unplanned pizza for dinner when I realized that the stress around money had finally started to ease.
Now that I’m on food stamps while I’m serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA, I have so much admiration for my mom, who figured out how to shop to feed a family on a small budget. I have also realized that I went into this AmeriCorps year with a lot of confidence in my ability to live (and eat!) well on a small budget. But, let me tell you: It. Is. Hard.
Like, really really hard.
When I first saw that I would receive $194 every month in food stamps, I was thrilled! That seemed like sooo much money, and I was used to spending $25-35 per week on groceries while I was in college, so I figured I could eat pretty well with a $45 per week grocery budget.
Well, a couple things got in the way of that plan:
In college, at least a few times a week I got take-out, went to dinner with friends, or grabbed a quick salad or sandwich between work and class. Now that I’m in AmeriCorps, I’m making ALL of my meals, which means that I just need to buy more at the store!
I run, do yoga, or strength train 5-7 days a week, so I get hungry and need to make some hearty meals-- ramen doesn’t cut it.
I’m used to living in a city that has a myriad of options for where to buy food. From budget grocery stores to farmer’s markets to co-ops to specialty stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, it’s easy to eat well on a budget because there are so many choices. It was an adjustment to live somewhere with fewer options: I can go to a very small weekly farmer’s market, the local grocery store, Walmart, or drive 70 minutes to Trader Joe’s (and any money I save on groceries is counteracted by the gas spent to get there). It takes a lot more planning to figure out what’s worth driving to buy, and what it best bought for cheap at Walmart.
And that brings me to... Walmart. The place I said I would never shop, and I now go to weekly. I’m going to come clean about my previous judgment about Walmart, and the high horse I sat on as I declared nothing could make me become a regular shopper there. There’s a reason people go there and that reason is: it’s cheap! And sometimes you don’t have an option to go to the more expensive store that has (I would argue) better ethics. Sometimes those scruples get pushed aside when you can buy the same grocery haul for $20 less at Walmart than at a grocery store.
So, you may be wondering (as I was) how the logistics of SNAP work, and what you can buy with your SNAP benefits.
Once you are enrolled in SNAP, you will get an EBT (Electronic Balance Transfer) card, which basically works as a debit card. This gets reloaded automatically on the same day every month with the benefits you qualify for; so, for example, I received $194 on the 12th of every month. Most grocery stores take EBT cards, but some don’t; I found this out the hard way when I tried to buy $40 worth of groceries at a store that didn’t accept my card. After this, if I went to a new store I would buy something small and cheap with my EBT card as a test before committing to a full grocery shopping trip.
When I first started researching how to use my EBT card, I found a lot of info about what you can and cannot buy. But, basically, you can buy almost any food except for alcoholic beverages, vitamin supplements, or hot foods that are ready to eat. You also can’t buy non-food items (no matter how essential they seem) like toilet paper or paper towels, and you can’t buy cigarettes (which seems fairly obvious but is still worth repeating).
With that being said, here are some takeaways and tips I wish I had known about applying for, using, and living on food stamps as an AmeriCorps VISTA!
Don’t expect the process to go smoothly, and, if it does, be delightfully surprised
When I officially committed to being a VISTA, I was told by multiple people to apply early for food stamps. “Early”, it turns out, can be a vastly different time frame depending on the person. I applied for food stamps on June 3rd, which I considered to be very early since my first day as a VISTA would be July 22nd. I don’t know what the people who recommended I apply “early” were thinking, but I wish I had started my application at least a month earlier. I didn’t get my benefits until late August, but it took a few days (and more than a few phone calls) to get my EBT card activated, so I was able to start buying food in early September.
Moral of the story: Apply early, meaning as soon as you commit to being a VISTA!
Be prepared to advocate for yourself, and find others to fight your corner
I calculated once (when I was frustrated after calling to figure out an EBT card issue and was waiting on hold, once again) how much time I spent on hold with someone from the Department of Health and Human Services (we’ve gotten so familiar at this point though I just use their nickname, DHHS). The rough number I came to was 5+ hours. This seemed so absurd that I had to redo my calculations a couple times, but alas it was true: I had spent over five hours of my life waiting to speak to someone at the DHHS.
In these 5+ hours, I realized how important it is to fight my corner and get a little pushy. The people I talked to ranged from warm, understanding, and generous with their information and suggestions, to condescending and patronizing. No matter who I talked to, I gathered little nuggets of information from them that I could use to expedite the process next time; for example, one of the lovelier people I talked to said to ask for an “eligibility specialist”, which I did from then on and it helped cut the time I spent on hold immensely.
Oftentimes, the DHHS hours and your work hours will be similar, so if this is the case ask your supervisor if you can call during work. I was able to shut my office door and put the phone on speaker, so I could keep working for the hours that I was on hold. And, if you need help, call your VISTA leader! They often have had a lot of personal experience and experience with their VISTA’s regarding food stamps, so enlist their help and knowledge.
If you see something odd, investigate!
I called the DHHS for so many reasons: my EBT card hadn’t arrived when they said it would (it got returned to sender, and they hadn’t planned on letting me know), my benefits got slashed (they had a typo that said I was working 80 hours per month instead of 80 hours biweekly), my card wasn’t working at Target (we never could hash out that problem). No matter what the issue, don’t expect them to notify you or correct it themselves. Follow up!!
Be well prepared for a food stamps apocalypse
Sometimes your benefits get cut without warning (see the 80 hours a month issue above). What I’ve learned this year is that food stamps are not 100% reliable, and if there is an issue it usually isn’t solved quickly. So, if I have extra money at the end of a month, I usually buy some food that could get me through those times if they come. I would stock up on soup, beans, and frozen fruits and vegetables, as well as tortellini, bagels, and bread that I would put in the freezer. If I had any leftovers from meals that would freeze well (like lasagna!), I would wrap that up and freeze it too. This way, if I had an issue with my benefits, I could feed myself without spending much for at least a week or two. It also came in handy for the months that I was close to running out of money on my EBT card, and so I could rely on pantry or freezer food that I had stocked up on.
Use Your Farmers Markets
A lot of farmer’s markets accept EBT cards, and a lot of farmer’s markets have their own programs to help low-income households buy healthy food. Look into your local farmers markets or CSAs and see if they have any resources you can use.
There’s an app for that!
One of the best resources I found was the “Fresh EBT” app. This is a national app that connects to each state’s SNAP program. You can link your account and quickly see in the app what your EBT balance is, where you’ve spent your benefits, and when your next deposit date is. It also gives you some coupons, and money saving tips. But the biggest help to me was being able to quickly check that balance and deposit date!
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Hopefully all of this isn’t discouraging, and doesn’t make applying for SNAP benefits seem like an insurmountable task. It really isn’t that hard, it’s just harder than I had anticipated. But if you apply early, stay on top of your benefits (especially in the beginning) and quickly follow-up whenever you notice a problem, it isn’t too difficult.
Despite the hassle involved, it is truly, most definitely, ABSOLUTELY worth it! It has allowed my monthly AmeriCorps VISTA stipend to pay for rent, utilities, and my car payment, without having to eat less or unhealthy to make those ends meet.
You can do this!
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