Recently I learned Amazon.com will be participating along with a few online grocery store to start accepting food stamps. My first thought was wow! What a big step!
This is on the basis to get food stamp users to eat healthier. As many families who use food stamps living in rural communities do not have access to many healthy foods. after thinking about it, I realized it is totally true. People in rural areas do not have access to healthy foods like those who live in the bigger cities. I experienced this first hand and learned a hard lesson.
I vacationed in a rural area for two weeks. I had a hard time trying to find foods that I could consume without my GERD and Diabetes type 2 being affected. The area only had one grocery store. Most of their produce didn't look too healthy or I had no clue what it was. Besides the outrageous prices for produce. I stood there scratching my head and wondering why any store would deliberately sell lettuce that was turning brown. Or other produce. I walked out of the store without buying anything.
I did try a restaurant friends were raving about. Till a huge cockroach crawled up my leg and I literally freaked out almost knocking the table over trying to get it off me. No surprise I didn't try dining there again.
Next stop to try was the few fast food joints the town offered. That was a bigger joke as we all know fast food joints are not healthy. By the time we got to order the fast food joints were closed. I am used to the hours the fast food joints stay open in my town. I didn't think they closed earlier somewhere else. The only place left to get some food was the local gas station. All the hot food was fried and spicy.
Boy was I glad to get back home to get some real food. I think the first thing I ate was a healthy salad.
My experience taught me a couple of things
1. Never travel without a cooler backed up with healthy options for me to eat.
2. Never assume an unfamiliar area offers the same food you are used to eating.
3. Learn where the nearest hospitals are before going. I live ten minutes away from a hospital. In the rural area, I was vacationing the closest hospital was over two hours away. There was no guarantee if I started having complications from my diabetes I could make it to a hospital in time.
Learning Amazon.com would be one of the several online grocery stores to start accepting food stamps on a trial basis made me happy. As I have ordered healthy options through Amazon.com. I know a customer can get what they order in as little as two days if they have Amazon Prime. While Amazon Prime can't be paid with food stamps. Amazon does offer a monthly rate to make it more convenient for those who can't afford to pay for a full year in advance.
With 43 million people low-income people where many live in rural areas, there is a need for this. In case you are wondering, each state will be monitored to see what people buy with their food stamps. If they buy nothing but junk food. The program will fail. If the people start purchasing healthier options like the program is for, the program will expand to other states.
Do you think low-income people should be allowed to use their food stamps to order on online grocery stores?
I know not everyone will agree with my two cents. If you disagree, I would love to know why. I am an open minded person who will take all views into account of the pros and cons.
Photos from Pixabay.com, a free use photo sharing website.
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