Military Families on Food Stamps Don't Have to Be

“More military families used food stamps to buy milk, cheese, meat and bread at military grocers last year,” CNN Money reported. Some states lowered eligible standards to qualify, which might account for the increase.

But according to Military.com, these families don’t have to be on food stamps.

“The military services offer an allowance specifically designed to lift the income of a military family above the eligibility for food stamps. Any active duty family who is utilizing food stamps has failed to take full advantage of the benefits being offered by the military services. You should know about this allowance because you may know someone who could benefit.”

So why don’t military families receiving food stamps know about the Family Subsistence Supplemental Allowance? Wouldn’t this information be part of the list of available benefits? Some of the post’s commenters have interesting theories.

In a column titled, “Let’s get government out of the charity business,” Star Parker wrote that food stamps and other welfare programs “are notoriously wasteful and are too often counterproductive and motivated by political gain rather than genuine sincerity to really help people. Funds extracted from taxpayers, dispensed by bureaucrats, under rules and conditions designed by other bureaucrats, remove personal responsibility from both the giving and receiving ends of the equation.”