I have lived in rural Ohio most of my sixty-eight years of life, living in communities such as Bryan, Farmer, Ney, Deshler, Mt. Blanchard, Mt. Perry, New Lexington, Junction City, Alvordton, Glenford, and Newark. I spent most of my life in northwest and southeast Ohio. I spent almost three decades pastoring poor people; people on government assistance, Medicaid, and food stamps. Most of these people had at least one adult family member who held a full-time job. I spent eleven years pastoring a Baptist church in Perry County, a notoriously poor county. One year, unemployment was over twenty percent. In its heyday, the church ran over 200 in attendance. Total offerings for that year? $40,000. Most years, offerings were closer to $20,000. While I grew up poor, this church gave me an intimate look at how the poor lived their day-to-day lives trying to make it to tomorrow.
WKBN reported recently that the Republican Governor Mike DeWine is trying to ban poor people on food stamps (actually SNAP) from drinking an ice-cold Coke (or Pepsi) on a hot summer day:
Ohio has formed a group to see which beverages should be banned from purchase using SNAP benefits.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced Tuesday who the members of the group looking into the issue will be:
Matt Damschroder, Director, Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) (or designee)
Maureen Corcoran, Director, Ohio Department of Medicaid (or designee)
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Director, Ohio Department of Health (or designee)
Rachel Cahill, Visiting Fellow, The Center for Community Solutions
Douglas Lumpkin, former director of ODJFS
Kimberly McConville, Executive Director, Ohio Beverage Association
Lora Miller, Director of Governmental Affairs & Public Relations, Ohio Council of Retail Merchants
Kristin Mullins, President/CEO, Ohio Grocers Association
Dr. Jonathan Thackeray, Dayton Children’s Hospital
Lexi Tindall, Clinical Manager for the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition, Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Pat Tiberi, President & CEO, Ohio Business Roundtable
The group will make recommendations that would prevent Ohio SNAP benefits from being used to purchase certain beverages that how minimal nutritional value and contribute to medical conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
Any ban would require approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Did you notice who Governor DeWine didn’t put on the group? Poor people. Shouldn’t the people this policy will affect have a say on the matter? Or is this more about self-righteous, arrogant Republicans thinking they have a right to tell the poor what they should eat and drink? They are just looking out for poor people, right?
Of all the things Governor DeWine and Republican legislators could focus on, they choose to focus on “pop.” (Or “soda” for you who live in other places.) This obsession with controlling the behavior of the poor has been a common problem for years. Republicans see a poor person using food stamps and they notice what’s in their cart. OMG! They bought pop and candy. God forbid they reward themselves with sweets after a long week at work. God forbid poor children enjoy the same food and drink as people of means.
I wonder if we paid close attention to the grocery shopping carts of the middle class and the rich. Does anyone doubt that we will find pop, candy, and “junk food” in their carts? If this is really all about “health,” why not ban all sugary foods and drinks? Surely that’s best for rich folk, right? Imagine the outrage from the financially secure if they can’t drink a Coke or eat a Snickers?
On behalf of poor Ohioans, let me say this to Governor DeWine and Ohio Republicans: Go fuck yourself!
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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“Go (bleep) yourself” (Stephen Colbert) Gosh dang Bruce, you must be a Colbert fan too. I can’t wait to see what he blurts out next. Since he already has his layoff notice, Steve may as well take the gloves off. .
As for spending government assistance on sodapop and candy, I admit it goes against my grain. Having involuntarily missed a few meals in my day, I’m all for nutritional assistance for any man or beast experiencing hunger. What anyone eats or drinks bought with their own money is their business. On the other hand, Government support for unwholesome junk food does not get my vote.
What I would like to see is classes on buying food, nutrition, etc. Build in some incentives that will encourage them to take the classes.
My partner grew up in a solid middle class home, yet she knew next to nothing about pricing and shopping. I worked for several grocery companies, and this taught me a lot about food and pricing. So, I became the primary grocery shopper.
Polly is now an excellent shopper, but I still have a sharp eye for numbers. Can’t remember my damn cellphone number🤬, but I can remember what we paid for a food item months ago. It’s a weird superpower; which I use quite often ferreting out price increases, and then bitching about prices all through the store. 🤣🤣
Bruce I’ll double down on that. I’ve lamented that my early education failed to include much about money and NOTHING whatever about nutrition, or health, those being crucial to secure, happy, healthy, living. The result was my early adulthood featured malnutrition, ill health, and a couple bouts of homelessness, all avoidable with a bit of guidance in taking care of myself. I’d suggest less school time spent on sports and music and the time re-allocated to learn managing money, nutrition, and generally taking care of one’s self. .
Fart really loud
Compare your words to Jesus’ response to the poor.
Just remember, asshole, according to your religion, you will one day stand before God and give an account for every comment you left on this site and every vile email you sent me. I am more than happy to provide the Judge of the Universe with enough evidence to send your sorry ass to Hell.
Do these people on this panel make sure that the people they want to ban using SNAP to buy soda have clean, available drinking water?
It’s awfully arrogant to say, “Because you’re poor, you need us to make choices for you. Because we’re not poor, we obviously know better.” Arrogant indeed. We’ve been trained to think this way about poor people, and that’s wrong.
Do these people on this panel make sure that the people they want to ban using SNAP to buy soda have clean, available drinking water?
It’s awfully arrogant to say, “Because you’re poor, you need us to make choices for you. Because we’re not poor, we obviously know better.” Arrogant indeed. We’ve been trained to think this way about poor people, and that’s wrong.
There was a food stamp controversy in Michigan, which has a 10¢ deposit on all drinks. The allegation is that recipients would use their benefit to buy drinks, dump the contents, and then pocket the refund. I suppose it does make sense that deposits shouldn’t be covered by the benefit. (Also this never happens.)
Let’s face it, drinking sugary drinks isn’t all that healthy and water is free. People who consume them don’t just have an occasional summer treat, they buy cases of it. That said creating extra paperwork and computer work for stores to exclude the purchase is absurd and the sentiment behind the legislation is cruel.
In what part of the US is water “free”? People still have to pay their utility bills every month as far as I know. My water sure isn’t free.
@Ange Free at restaurants. But Ok I got out my water bill. 1.3¢/gallon. So a 12 oz bottle of water (similar to a can of coke) from the tap costs about 1/8¢ for a drink. Ok so not free, but pretty darn close.
Shout it at them!
I live in a poor county in GA, I don’t know how poor in relation to others, exactly. But we don’t have animal control or anything like that.
I grew up pretty rough. Before going into the IFB, I lived with my biological parents. My dad got a 2k VA check every month. We didnt have food stamps, but I did get free lunch at school.
My question just echoes what you’ve already said. “Why do poor people somehow deserve to eat just the bare minimum after working jobs the people making decisions for them would never deign worthy?” Why do my coworkers (I work at McDonald’s) kids have to sit out when the middle class kids eat candy and cake? Does my coworker’s daughter somehow deserve to not have a cake on her birthday because mom, working two jobs and still needs food stamps, had to buy it with aforementioned food stamps? (Idk if you can buy a cake with food stamps. But hypothetically, you could insert a candy bar or a Coke here.)
So what if that lady in the grocery store buys crab legs with EBT? Why are y’all so heavy in her business? Lol
I think this issue is more complex than a “either-or” perspective. It goes beyond what food poor people should be able to buy with SNAP.
The problem is that the crap food and drink has become the most accessible and desirable. The food industry as depicted in “Food, Inc.” and “Supersize Me” is usually cast as the ultimate villain, however they are just giving us what we demand- cheap food and drink that tastes good (savory salty and sweet), can remain shelf stable and can be transported to every convenience store, Dollar General and McD’s in the country. The hook onto crap food begins early, with whole milk, starch and protein/meat heavy school lunches and Happy Meals. This diet “fills”, but is not very nutritious. That said, I think it’s unrealistic to force poor people to become food nuns and monks. Meals are something many who don’t have a lot of good happening in their lives look forward to. Rich food and drink is used to celebrate events. The difference between now and the past (in general) is that people usually had canned or fresh fruit and vegetables, potatoes, beans etc in addition to snacks and fast food. Fast food was not as cheap or accessible, and portion sizes now compared to when I was a kid are different. Refills were not always free from what I recall. Remember, I wrote “in general”. I’m sure this was not the case everywhere.
This really has nothing to do with what poor people buy with SNAP. I think the issue becomes when too many people accept the claim that those on SNAP can buy these items when people who don’t qualify for SNAP can barely afford food becomes accepted as “truth”. I honestly don’t know whether this is a legitimate issue or not, but maybe the best overall remedy is to make sure good, nutritious and yes sometimes indulgent food and drink is accessible to all people.
You are wasting your time posting gross, disgusting, vile, ugly, awful comments. I will not approve them. It’s evident you are unable to have thoughtful theological, philosophical, and scientific conversations with people you disagree with. Instead, your comments are worthy of a stupid middle schoolers. Bravo, Revival Fires, you make Christianity into a disgusting belief system.
I apologize, Bruce. This is probably my fault, looking again at my post, for using the term “crap food” to describe fast food. I should have anticipated that Revival Liars would latch onto that in his usual Bevis and Butthead style.
I’ve known enough poor people to realize that most of them are very skilled at stretching food budgets as far as they can go, with whatever help is available. SNAP, AFDC (is that a California thing? Aid to Families with Dependent Children), and so forth. I know poor people who are barely making it, but will make a big pan of bean and cheese enchiladas and go feed the homeless in their community.
It isn’t so much about an occasional cold Coke, it’s about one hand of the government (the FDA) saying that Coke is fine and Republiholes in Congress saying it isn’t, but only for poor people. An occasional Coke or [insert favorite sugar- or aspartame/sucralose/stevia-flavored beverage here] is okay. Good-tasting, healthy water out of everyone’s tap ought to be MANDATORY.
There is a postage-stamp town in Eastern California called Keeler, on the once-banks of Owens Lake, which has been mostly drained by a big water company; that water company, having left most of a dust bowl behind, now must manage the dust according to state law. Go, Sacramento legislature! However, local drinking groundwater is contaminated with radon. (This was not caused by the water company, though such egregious pumping might have contributed. I haven’t read papers on the subject, and I’m not a hydrogeologist.) So the state, counting households in a VERY sparsely populated part of CA, decided the cheapest solution to safe water was to simply equip each household with a reverse osmosis system.
Why, in as rich a country as we are, can we not give EVERY household an RO system? Husband and I installed ours in 1987. They need filters changed occasionally. I suspect that one or two cases of house-brand drinking water at the grocery store pays for a quarter-year filter change. Do I buy bottled water? Sure, a case of a dozen ahead of any serious work on the house being done, so I can had them out to contractor employees if they don’t have enough. Nobody keels over from heat stroke on my watch.