I have to say that I don ' t have time to read your well thought out post because I ' m hosting thanksgiving but I will . I spent some of my youth on food stamps while my mother went back to school and had 2 boys to take care of . She didn ' t buy sugar water every month because it was too expensive compared to pasta and Ragu . She bought soda on holidays , birthdays and other special occasions . Food stamps helped us survive but also gave us some sense of normalcy in the poverty . Now that I have my own family and am a homeowner I ' m all about social programs like SNAP because if it wasn ' t for it God knows what I would have done with my life . Too many people have opinions on how these programs should work and yet never have first hand experience or solicit advice fromThose that have . Anyway I ' ll read your post and comment later tonight .