Ourview
Homeless
should eat out too
San Francisco has become the only county
in California that will allow people to
use their food stamps in restaurants.
Subway sandwich shops have agreed to become
the guinea pig for this new program, along
with one small neighborhood restaurant.
Fourteen of the 23 Subway stores in San
Francisco agreed to accept food stamps in
lieu of actual money.
“The elderly and disabled have trouble with
mobility. It’s hard for them to buy and
prepare food for meals,” the food stamp
program director for the San Francisco Department
of Human Services, Leo O’Farrell told the
San Francisco Gate. “And the homeless don’t
have storage and cooking facilities.”
This program is a step in the right direction
for California, even if it has only been
adopted by one county. Hopefully the program
will succeed and the goodwill will continue
to spread to other counties.
Federal food stamp regulations have allowed
seniors and disabled people to buy restaurant
meals with food stamps since 1974. In 1990,
the regulations broadened to include the
homeless, but only 14 states have put the
effort into recruiting restaurants for the
program.
“In some places, you can’t even buy a prepared
sandwich at a grocery store with food stamps,”
an attorney with Bay Area Legal Aid, Steve
Bingham, told the SF Gate.
Homeless people have no home; it is only
logical that they don’t have kitchens to
prepare food from the grocery store in.
Why is San Francisco the only county in
California to see a need for helping the
homeless to eat healthy meals? Food from
a grocery store that does not need to be
prepared is most likely going to be very
weak in nutritional value.
It seems that in our panic to ensure that
our generosity is not taken for granted,
we have implemented certain illogical rules
that need to be reassessed.
The food stamp program is a progressive
initiative that helps to ensure that people
less fortunate than us do not starve to
death. But providing just enough so that
homeless, disabled and the elderly do not
starve to death is not enough. We have all
been guaranteed the right to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. This applies
to all citizens, not just those who are
lucky enough to afford three meals a day.
Americans are lucky. We are luckier than
the majority of the people in this world.
All we have to do is turn on the television
news to appreciate our blessings. It means
nothing to us to allow the less fortunate
the small privilege of occasionally eating
out at a restaurant.
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