Apparently I'm eligible for food stamps.

Throughout college, I got about $500 a month in welfare because I was legally blind but unemployed. It was nice. With tuition, room, and most of my food paid for by scholarships, loans, and my parents, and no-premium no-copay health insurance provided by Medicaid, it was more than enough to cover all my other expenses, mostly groceries, clothing, and plane tickets between home and college.

Now that I get a stipend as a teaching assistant, the payments have shrunk to $85 a month. No big deal; my net income's several times what it used to be, even now that I have to pay rent. But also, as part of some experimental program that applies to all SSI beneficiaries living alone in my county, I'm getting food stamps. The monthly payout is a measly but nontrivial $56. The catch is that, given that the closest grocery store is a good three miles from my house, I get all my groceries through Peapod, an online delivery service, and regulations concerning food stamps prohibit using them for Internet transactions. I would just hop in my car and drive to a real grocery store except I that can't drive because I'm blind. So yes, the very disability that makes me eligible for food stamps makes it difficult to redeem them. "God often gives nuts to toothless people."

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octopuses : octopi : octopodes :: address : URL : URI
Smash Bros. : tires don exits :: Transformers : trukk not munky

Hmm... Couldn't you get a taxi to take you? Diminished savings, but still, better than nothing. Or even better, find someone headed that way anyways? If you're worried about imposing you could help them out a little.
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Fame is but a slow decay.
-Theodore Tilton

This is why faceless things don't work. If they interviewed every person they could at least get an idea of special needs like this. Local government FTW.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of empowered local government. The only problem is inconsistency. Well, let's not turn the topic into a debate. But the bottom line is the situation is a lame one.
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Can you sell the food stamps to other interested parties, possibly for drugs?
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir

I guess I'll take a taxi or hitch a ride with someone else on alternate months, so I have enough benefits for a full load of groceries.

From: willis5225 | Posted: 11/15/2011 8:04:07 PM | #005

Can you sell the food stamps to other interested parties, possibly for drugs?

No, no, silly, I don't need to pay for drugs. That's what Medicaid is for.

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octopuses : octopi : octopodes :: address : URL : URI
Smash Bros. : tires don exits :: Transformers : trukk not munky