dagblog - Comments for "COMMODITIES"

Spam straight from the can

barefooted — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 02:02:38 +0000

In reply to I remember Grandma getting

Spam straight from the can leaves alot to be desired, but nicely browned in a skillet with butter becomes something truly wonderful! Ranks right up there with fried bologna ... with mayo on white bread ... the way it just curls up ... and hot dogs almost blackened on a grill ... funny how some processed meat products (how unappealing does that sound?) are completely transformed with just the slightest effort. The exception? Those little cans of "potted meat". Horrible - don't ever read the ingredient list.

Dick, the biggest problem (or at least one of the biggest) with making shipping food to people part of SNAP is that it simply wouldn't work logistically. And besides, your example, along with food pantries, show that it works very well as a supplement to the program rather than a substitution.

In my part-two life, I'm a cashier in a high-end, downtown-in-the-city small "elite" grocery store - and at least 35% of the customers use their food stamp card. The key part of the above sentence is "in the city". The clientele differential is amazing, but on a day to day basis they're not really all that different; they're just buying food. That SNAP users can't buy hot, pre-prepared food stuns me. I'm not talking about fast food, I'm talking warm sandwiches or chicken strips. Not telling you anything, Dick, I know. But I've learned a whole lot.

One other point that I find interesting: here, anyway, SNAP card holders are offered the choice of "EBT" or "Cash" (sometimes "Food" or "Debit") when they swipe their cards. If they choose the cash or debit option they can buy hot stuff - they can also get cash back. The experienced users know what they can do and what they can't, often splitting purchases into several transactions. Those who are obviously new to the program, and often embarrassed as they whisper, "do you take food stamps?", aren't so savvy. (Don't tell my bosses who operate all the overhead cameras, but I make suggestions now and then ... )

Life is complicated, Dick. Why must little details just make it more so?

It wouldn't be the first time

wabby — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 00:44:27 +0000

In reply to COMMODITIES

It wouldn't be the first time trump wanted to send you food in a box.

I remember Grandma getting

artappraiser — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 23:12:15 +0000

In reply to COMMODITIES

I remember Grandma getting the equivalent as you are, precisely this way. After dad and mom let me stay over one night with her, I asked them: Grandma has all these cans of food with plain black and white labels. How come we don't have those kind of cans? She gave me some meat from one of them, it was real good, how come we never have that?

I remember Mom thought this was hilarious, but she didn't explain why, and I didn't understand why until I was older. It was Spam!

It was probably somewhere around 1960. She was certainly Social Security eligible, but probably a very low payment, qualified for "welfare" as well, which at the time included getting military surplus food.

And my Dad, her son, was a "as long as I am working, we will have real meat on the table" kind of guy, so I had never tasted meat loaf, much less spam. (Also probably splains why, as they went on to have 5 kids total, they were often broke, often borrowing my babysitting money till payday to pay for that meat. Which we had to buy every few days, because there was only that teeny tiny freezer compartment on the frigidaire.)

(I'd still chose Spam any day in preference over what my mom did with "round steak", the cheapest cut--suffice it to say, the color was always grey--and, yes, canned potatotes. She wasn't going to peel potatoes anymore, she did enough of that on the farm.)