I think it depends on where you are and how used to using bureaucracy you are. I know people who really struggled to wend their way through the bureaucracy that protects food stamps in order to get them.
I readily critize our grotesque engorged bureaucracy, but getting food stamps isn't difficult, as exibited by the 40+ million people who take advantage of them, and by personal anecdotal evidence.
I haven't had much luck finding milk, flour, eggs, or rice in stores unless I go at 6am. I'm not sure the state of appying for food stamps right now, but it can't be great. For unemployment, it took my friend over 3 weeks to get their unemployment debit card, and he only got it because it was sent by mistake to his neighbors house who kindly hand delivered it. California EDD is so backed up, and you can't really call them or contact them in any way right now.
Great points, jstarfish. Its an artificial way to get people to not apply by demotivating them with bureaucracy. We even had a saying for it here in NL in mid '00s: "purple crocodile" [1].
SSDI/Medicare has similar bureaucracy. Many phone calls, forms, witness forms (I filled them in for a friend, but it all got void because since I wasn't from USA it was invalid proof so my autistic and allegedly (she got it in the end) disabled friend had to ask someone else. She already had virtually no real-life friends...), long waiting times, and all kind of proof (such as bank statement IIRC though perhaps that was for the food stamps). Kinda ironic given the typical jokes about German bureaucracy. And those are also vulnerable people already.
Food stamps also can't be used to buy toilet paper & diapers. As if you don't need those when you buy them. One already feels ashamed they gotta pay with food stamps. All these experiences are miserable and humiliating. I can end on a positive note since what did genuinely surprise me is that California (including all these forms, city council, and such) is very dual language: English and Spanish.
How are the foodbank in USA, and Cali specifically?
There are many caveats to your first statement. For example food aid (SNAP) may be time limited. The federal govt is concerned that you may be deterred for getting a job.
I can vouch for this, having grown up on 'food stamps' as well as most of friends it really isnt enough for a family.
A few times as an adult I've also fallen on hard times and used snap benefits, it was enough for me as a single guy who can cook and knows to eat cheaply, but its hard and not fun.
However where I lived you need a mailing address to get benefits so when I was really down and I was homeless I got no benefits.
That's why this meal program in NYC is so great, it says right at the bottom there is no need for registration, it's actually accessible to everyone.
I'm currently between opportunities and could qualify for food stamps. I don't get them because I come down with a intense depression every time I interact with the safety net.
No one cares, you must obligate them. This FACT is constantly shoved in your face throughout the entire process. Automatic rejection when you first apply (you must appeal), Means testing, Constant reapplying to extend benefits.
The people running food banks are way nice though. Seamless sign up, no run around, no hassle, just friendly help and compassion. Unfortunately these types of people don't make life worth it, like spitting in a ocean.
You ever applied for food stamps? I have. If your kids are hungry right now, you aren't getting WIC instantly. And you ever live on $50 month for food? I have, it's not easy. I guarantee you that getting nutritionally sound meals prepped on that kind of benefit is near impossible.
If you can get it. My mother lost her job from the place closing two years ago and after the unemployment ran out she applied for food stamps.
Denied because she owned a car and house. I wouldn't be eligible because I own a car.
Which is ridiculous, because that just means she has to sell one to eat. It means that she has to choose between entering that destitute poverty cycle or starve.
She never got the stamps, but has had fleeting employment since.
I applaud the effort, but the bureaucratic structure of these government programs are Byzantine for a reason. The more people they keep from successfully enrolling, the less has to be paid out.
Rather than government partnering with the private sector to implement even more technical crap and everybody patting themselves on the back for a job well done, why don't they take a step back and realize how fucked up the fundamental administrative process is and just fucking fix it?
MRelief may get one to the door, but it doesn't provide any greater accountability once you're there. Maybe the system actually works in California (blue state?), I don't know, but in other parts of the country even if someone holds your hand to get the application submitted you get to look forward to your paper applications going missing/stuck in processing purgatory, online application portals being down for months on end, ignored phone lines that ring to full voicemail boxes, social workers terminating your account over requests for documents that were never actually requested (or that you already provided multiple times), notices of scheduled phone interviews that consistently show up in the mail after the fact and all manner of other shady nonsense.
Any excuse that can be played to kick you off the books is fair game, and it's not like you can get a hold of anyone to appeal it-- your only option is to re-apply, but meanwhile you're not their problem for a few pay cycles.
For the brief period of time I had to take advantage of food stamps, it really opened my eyes as to what sorts of bullshit gets heaped upon the people who need it most.
And a grinding, dehumanizing bureaucracy to prove that you need access to assistance of various kinds, plus various disincentives to work as assistance drops off faster than your income grows.
All-in-all it's not pretty being poor in America, even if you have cable TV and heat to distract you from the mountain of paperwork where you have to repeatedly state how much help you need and the gaps in your teeth and the "joy" of paying with food stamps at the store.
I talk about it once in a while -- when I have time. I am homeless and had food stamps for a time. Then someone in the welfare office dropped the ball and they got cancelled. I reapplied and someone else dropped the ball. I have a compromised immune system. Not only did it take scads of time while getting me nothing, it made me ill to spend half the day in a crowded welfare office waiting room surrounded by poor people, who tend to not be in the best of health.
After the second time they dropped the ball, I didn't bother to go back. My income is gradually going up. I would get less help than I used to. I do freelance work, so my income is erratic, which doesn't play nicely with their forms. Etc.
I began looking for other solutions.
I am sometimes upset that I am not getting the food stamps. My situation is still dicey and it is still a scramble every month to get enough resources to eat every day. But I am not going to go spend all kinds of time trying to chase the few dollars they would give me, getting sick over it, and worrying about the possibility that they will feel I am committing fraud or something because my income is erratic and some months I have enough and some months I don't (or whatever the hell problem they might have with me).
So I do sometimes talk about it. But not a whole lot, for various reasons.
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