Seems that if you give poor people the means to pay for fresh, healthy food and access to fresh healthy food, they buy fresh, healthy food.
Whoda thunk it?
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What’s next: “Sky is blue, film at 11″?
This reminds me of the incident (sorry, I have no link) in which a local welfare office had a surplus, and decided to give a little extra to each client, to see what they would do.
Result: They got their prescriptions filled, bought some decent food, felt good enough to go out and buy new shirts and bus tokens, went downtown and got jobs, in such numbers that the office had an even bigger surplus the next year.
They spent it on hiring more caseworkers.
Wow, bell peppers and butternut squash taste better than a big mac. There was a Tuesday last week, too.
$10 a month for Fruits and Veggies. $10 a month! Are they fucking kidding me! Have they tried to buy a freaking cucumber lately? Or a tomato? There, there is your $10 a mont on like, two things!
My god our country scares me.
it’s a start. a small one but i hope it sticks. i could have eaten my weight in produce when i was on WIC but could barely afford it. and i totally bought farmer’s market when i could…the quality was well worth the extra bit of money, esp. when grocery store produce was so lacking…moldy, soggy, poor in color…
now if they could just address the dairy issue…unless they have and i don’t know…i begged them for soy milk when i was on, and was basically laughed at and told that cow’s milk was better for me…uhh…yeah…ok…
I’m shocked, shocked, that poor people behave like rational people when you give them money and access.
Um, no duh?
I thought this was cool too:
Farmer’s markets are great for building community and there’s nothing more therapeutic for someone who’s told every day of their lives by the national media and many people that they are worthless POS, than to go the farmer’s market and get smiled at by vendors and neighbors alike.
I know, I’ve been that person.
And WIC is a great program, which the Rethuglicans have tried for years to defund.
They’re good for the farmers, too. And the farmers can sell more if more people can buy, meaning more suppliers of fresh, locally-grown produce. It’s really win-win.
I was told we made to much money to qualify for WIC. But upon hearing that you get 8 to 10 dollars a month! for vegetables…well, that’s kind of ridiculous? What can you even buy for 10 dollars a month to feed your family with?
From the article:
“It’s not clear why mothers visiting a farmers’ market wound up buying more vegetables than grocery store shoppers…”
Duh…because the prices at farmer’s markets are WAY lower than at the supermarket, and you can get a whole helluva lot more produce for your $10. F’rinstance, you can buy a 2-lb acorn squash at the grocery store for maybe $3, but could probably get one for a buck a piece at the farmer’s market. Savings go way up when considering something like fresh herbs, which might be a splurge at the grocery store (maybe $1.99 a bunch) but might be 2 bunches for a dollar at the farmer’s market.
I wish the farmer’s markets around here were easier to get to, though. The ones I know of are not located where the people who could really use high-quality, fresh food are located. (F’rinstance, the only one that is remotely located where people in need could access it — at the Food Bank/WIC office — only operates twice a year!)
On the plus side, farmer’s markets in New York State are able to accept food stamps despite the move from paper stamps to a “debit card” style of system. At the market I go to, I’d say around 80% of the stalls have “We Accept EBT” signs.
From the article It’s not clear why mothers visiting a farmers’ market wound up buying more vegetables than grocery store shoppers,
Whoever wrote that clearly has zero experience with grocery stores in less affluent neighborhoods–The Safeway across from my house routinely stocks produce that’s rotten, moldy, inedible, etc. No surprise that if you go someplace that has edible produce–you’ll eat more of it.
I’m happy to read about this, but every time I go to the grocery store I think there’s a real need for dramatic changes in WIC. About half the people shopping at my grocery store use it, and it seems to have been deliberately designed to humiliate them and make going to store a pain for them and everyone else. Why, when we have EBT for foodstamps, does WIC still force people to run 3 paper checks through the machine and get a manager’s sign off? Why does it require low-income women to buy fruit juice we know is bad for baby’s teeth? Why doesn’t it discriminate between brands of cereal/juice and whether they’re on sale or not–Shouldn’t we let women who are savvy and buy the sale cereal or the store brand keep the price difference, encouraging them to learn smart budgeting long term? I DON’T begrudge these women the assistance–we should help them more–but couldn’t the program be made to work better for them and everyone else?
Btw, for people complaining about produce prices: Store brand frozen veggies are a great, often more affordable, option that lasts longer and is no less healthy than fresh. $10 is still too little, though.
not to mention that when i was on WIC i couldn’t get soy products…and was chastised for being vegetarian…seems kinda shady that you can’t get soy when so much of the nation is lactose intolerant…roughly 70% of african americans and about 97% of asian americans…but i don’t know if it is still that way…if it is, it needs to change, now.
… and yet I still get terrible looks — and at times, comments — from customers and cashiers when I have them ring up my organic mango, blueberries, bananas, and whole wheat flour on food stamps.
:P
Local.com allows for searching via your zip code etc for a list of farmers markets near you- I just tried it and it brought up both of the ones I know of…
Our local farmer’s market accepts WIC vouchers. As someone who was one WIC once and always wondered what I should be doing with all those carrots, I thought this was great. Not only for the recipients, but also for the farmers–our area, like many, is in danger of losing its local farms to development. The only problem I see in our area is that the farmer’s market is hard to get to.
“The only problem I see in our area is that the farmer’s market is hard to get to.”
I commented on this, too. I’m sure a lot of it is that the areas with big open spaces for stalls to be set up in tend to be away from population centers. I wonder how hard/expensive it would be to start up some kind of shuttle service for this. Hmm….~musing~….you’d need maybe a big van, and some fliers, and lots of time on a Saturday morning… What do you guys think?
$10 a month for Fruits and Veggies. $10 a month! Are they fucking kidding me! Have they tried to buy a freaking cucumber lately? Or a tomato? There, there is your $10 a mont on like, two things!
Impossible. Vegetables are very inexpensive because they’re picked by undocumented workers underpaid and exploited by big industry. This keeps the prices way down, see. If we paid them a fair wage, only then would prices soar.
one reason they might buy more is the growers will tell you all the ways you can cook the veg, introduce you to new veg you’re unfamiliar with, suggest something to go with it… I call the supermarket the ‘STUPORmarket’ because I get there and all thoughts of what I could cook with the food leave my head immediately and I wander around trying to make sense of it all…
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