Feeding a family on food stamps.

One of our most frequent requests is for help with food.

Fortunately, we have an arrangement with a local church that allows us to get a food box for our clients when needed. Victims getting reestablished often have a hard time feeding their children. Those in minimum wage jobs have chronic need. Many are on food stamps. We've all heard stories of people who bought steaks or expensive items. Some of us are convinced that if poor people would only spend properly they would have no problems in getting the food stamps to last through the month.

But is that really the case? To find answers I started digging online at the FNS Food Stamp Website. The answers surprised me and may surprise you.

First, I want you to think about the amount you spend feeding your family each month. Be honest. Include snacks and soft drinks you pick up when you get gas. The money has to come from somewhere. For a family living in poverty food stamps is how they might pay for those gas station sodas.

For me, we spent just over $80.00 this week for groceries and there wasn't a steak in the cart. We ate out twice as a family for $64.00, 2 times individually (including meetings) another $32.00 and spent $10.50 on school lunches plus $5.00 so my daughter can get a bottle of water after school. That's about $191.00 this week. Earlier this month we spent $59.00 on Angel Food boxes to stretch our food budget. (Buying the Angel Food is a large savings for our family!) I buy generics, markdowns and sale items whenever possible. The total spent works out to about $890 for the month for the 3 of us.

A food stamp family of 3 must survive on less than half of that each month.

According to the FNS Food Stamp Eligibility website mentioned above a family of 3 with no income in Tennessee only qualifies for between $398 and $408 in food stamps each month. That works out to about $94.22 per week. At 3 meals daily that breaks down to about $4.48 per meal or less than $1.50 per person per meal without snacks or gas station sodas.

The good news is that the child will also qualify for free lunch at school. The bad news is that the parents still have to each lunch and will probably absorb the extra $1.50 in food stamps that they saved by sending their child to school.

How did your family compare?