Food stamps saved my life

Here’s a bit of perspective for you, Mr. Haro, in case you were lacking:

At the end of the 2012-2013 academic school year, I was “randomly” selected for a program called “FAFSA Verification,” which is a procedure conducted by Indiana University in attempt to verify the validity of information entered on students’ FAFSA applications. It gauges general household information, supplemental income and benefits, and any other valid income/asset information.

The IU Office of Student Financial Assistance requested a series of documents: mine and my mother’s most recent U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns, IRS Tax Return Transcripts and my mother’s W-2s. In attaining this documentation from my mother, I learned that for the year of 2012, her total gross income in wages was $14,990.08.

This is $519.92 shy of the 2013 Federal Poverty Threshold for a two-person household. My mother raised me on this salary and is still caring for my three teenage siblings.

Think of all the financial responsibilities a parent is accountable for: education expenses, medical expenses, housing expenses, transportation expenses, clothing, hygiene, etc. Multiply that imaginary sum by five and you have the load my mother bears annually.

Purposely excluded from this list is food, so let’s talk food for a bit. According to the USDA, my mother’s four-person household — I have purposely excluded myself as I am no longer under my mother’s care — should spend a minimal of $667 per month on food. Multiply that palpable sum by 12 months, you have an approximate annual food cost of $8,004. I’m no mathematics major, but that would leave my mother $6,986.08 to finance the remaining of her responsibilities, a fiscally impossible task — impossible without the advent of government assistance, of course. I am merely one of those 47 million you speak of, and my circumstances are certainly valid.

This is by no means a question of empowerment for low income families; for many it’s a question of survival, one of the most basic human instincts.

I guess my biggest problem is that I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at. What exactly are you suggesting?

When there’s as much social inequality in this country as there is, there needs to be an administrative effort to counterbalance, because poor people deserve to eat, too, believe it or not.

The key word here is “assistance.” Food benefit programs aren’t autonomously feeding Americans. They are a means to offset those expenses. My mother swiped two cards during our trips to the grocery store: her EBT and her MasterCard.

When plundering through ideas to offset our national debt, how about we cut back our spending in foreign aid or defense systems before we consider denying our own citizens food?

Thanks!

­— iamartin@indiana.edu