Food Stamps and the Military

[Navy1960]

More military families used food stamps to buy milk, cheese, meat and bread at military grocers last year.
Food stamp redemption at military grocers has been rising steadily since the beginning of the recession in 2008. Nearly $104 million worth of food stamps was redeemed at military commissaries in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30....

Military use of food stamps rises again - Feb. 17, 2014

While I don't doubt that there is fraud in the Food Stamp program as well as many other programs like this, I've noticed a lot of people using blanket statements that lump all people that receive Govt. benefits together along with those who scam the system. This is is just unfair to all those hard working folks that have no intention to scam the system and need the system for what it was INTENDED for. The real shame however is that ANY family or person that is on active duty or for that matter has honorably served this nation has to get to the point where they ask the Govt. to feed them.

 

[SteadyMercury]

The real shame however is that ANY family or person that is on active duty or for that matter has honorably served this nation has to get to the point where they ask the Govt. to feed them.

It is a shame, but not unexpected.

The military has low-level jobs just like any organization, and someone who is younger in a low level position with lots of kids will likely struggle to make ends meet regardless of whether in the military or not.

Article also mentions there are about 5,000 active duty military members on food stamps. Total active duty is approx 1,370,000 so we're talking 0.3% and while would be nice if that number was 0 it certainly isn't pervasive and those on food stamps are the rare exception.

 

[Moonglow]

Thank you Navy1960 for your service....

 

[Steven_R]

That's just it. An E-Nothing who lives in the barracks can easily make ends meet. Give that same E-Nothing rent, car payments, a Dependapotamus who just keeps squeezing out kids and not working and it's not surprising that our soldier just can't pay all the bills.

 

[Navy1960]

The real shame however is that ANY family or person that is on active duty or for that matter has honorably served this nation has to get to the point where they ask the Govt. to feed them.

It is a shame, but not unexpected.

The military has low-level jobs just like any organization, and someone who is younger in a low level position with lots of kids will likely struggle to make ends meet regardless of whether in the military or not.

Article also mentions there are about 5,000 active duty military members on food stamps. Total active duty is approx 1,370,000 so we're talking 0.3% and while would be nice if that number was 0 it certainly isn't pervasive and those on food stamps are the rare exception.

While that's true, I cannot think of many low-level jobs that require a person to be deployed away from their families for long periods of times, and in some cases while doing so risk their lives. That said, your point is very valid, and it's a shame these young people have to struggle so, and our nation has gotten to the point where we sometimes think that a job that once was considered a summer job, is now a job where someone is supposed to support a family, Perhaps the real solution to all this is regardless of whatever someone thinks on a political basis to advocate for a more domestic American made approach. While this might sound a bit nationalist on my part if it is it is a label I will proudly wear if it means , building a nation that gives these kids more opportunity for a better life and one where they don't have to look to Gov't just in order to survive.

 

[Moonglow]

I served from 1982-1988. With 2 kids and a wife I made 860 a month and could not get food stamps, so I moonlighted building firewalls in storage facilities...

 

[Navy1960]

While I tend to agree a E-1 who is single who lives on base , and doesn't have a car, nor does he or she rely on anything but the of branch of service they happen to be in for living, can easily live that way. However, having said that, it's not very realistic to expect any sailor, soldier, airman, or marine for that matter to fit that mold. While I am not aware of any statistics on that particular matter, I am aware that over 50% enlisted personnel are married and just over 70% of officers. So I would well imagine that not many of those E-1's would fit into that mold of just surviving on base without any outside obligations. If they do they won't for very long.

 

[SteadyMercury]

That's just it. An E-Nothing who lives in the barracks can easily make ends meet. Give that same E-Nothing rent, car payments, a Dependapotamus who just keeps squeezing out kids and not working and it's not surprising that our soldier just can't pay all the bills.

Yup that was my experience as well. All the single junior enlisted guys living in the barracks had cars, nice stereo and video game shit, etc. they had few financial worries. Married were a bit more grounded but still usually had no problem making ends meet with the BAQ+BAS.

It was the E1-E3 type who already had 3-4 kids that was usually struggling.

 

[SteadyMercury]

Let's break this down to give some perspective. For an E-1 with less than two years experience who has dependents and is living in my zip code near Phoenix AZ:

base pay = 1532
housing = 1300
subsistence = 357

That is $3,189/month or $38,268 for a brand new military member at the lowest rank, including free health care. Not wealthy but not exactly starving poverty wages either, plenty of people manage to raise families or have a spouse on less than that and I suspect very few people who are 18-20 years old even make that kind of money in the civilian world.

Then people deployed might have additional supplemental pay, and people in high cost areas get COLA pay, etc.

 

[NLT]

The DOD should not allow enlisted marriage until at least E-5. Below that enlisted with kids cannot get by on thier pay.

 

[Navy1960]

My original post was to make people aware that there were some young people in the Military on Food Stamps and more so, to point out that making blanket statements about everyone on Govt. benefits doesn't paint the whole picture and is often unfair to those folks who just need GENUINE help. As for enlisted pay, I am not advocating for a raise in pay , however, I would not fight against one , especially for those who are on extended deployments.

 

[Asclepias]

Low wages was one of the reasons I did my 4 years and left. I had some friends that got married and had kids and they struggled to make ends meet.

 

[SteadyMercury]

Low wages was one of the reasons I did my 4 years and left.

I think it depends on your job. Some it is a no brainer they could make a lot more money on the outside, when I was in you'd see some pretty righteous retention bonuses waived in the face of linguists, air traffic controllers, computer programmers etc.

The dude driving a bus around base or the services specialist peeling carrots might find they have a pretty good deal at their salary and benefits compared to similar jobs in civilian world.

 

[Navy1960]

Personally I have always felt that there are a good number of professional men and women in the Military at many different highly trained positions. Knowing this, the service should do it's level best to keep those young men and women in those positions. It's no different I would imagine than in in the civilian world when some company wants to keep its best people and does what it can to keep them. This is more of an editorial than anything else here, but if the Navy started spending and watching its money in a more professional manner perhaps they can do just that. I would imagine it's pretty hard to retain good people when your extending deployments at sea from 6 to 9 months, and at the same time spending money on programs like the LCS aka "Littoral Combat Ship".

 

[SteadyMercury]

The DOD should not allow enlisted marriage until at least E-5. Below that enlisted with kids cannot get by on thier pay.

Not true.