Here is my conservative take on this issue: Our family was super poor when our kids were young. We could have gotten food stamps easily but chose not to. We were just very careful with our budgeting. Later we started a business that brought us out of poverty. We did well enough that within a few years we were paying in tens of thousands of dollars in income tax yearly. We still had a big family and had to be careful with our finances, though.

So, our family of nine would go shopping and we’d buy real food. No chips or sodas because we. were. on. a. budget. We had to be. We ate healthy food and got enough but it was no frills. (We also gardened and had chickens for eggs and goats for milk.) Every time we grocery shopped we’d see at least one family who arrived in a better and newer vehicle than us, in brand name clothes, hair and nails done, who loaded their carts down with “luxury” items (as in not essentials) like junk food that my kids would have loved to have, prepackaged meals, chips, soda, steaks, ribs, etc.

I’m not going to lie. This stung. Here we were- young people with a fledgling business that we were breaking our backs to make successful, paying in so much in income taxes, and doing without the things that our tax dollars were helping to buy for other people. If I can’t afford it for myself it seems unfair that I’m affording it for others. I have no problem with SNAP benefits helping people but it should go for real food to help people stay fed/healthy.