Northwest Indiana Discussion

I have sat on the fish bank with a lot of White guys that are very nice and we have a great time and have a lot in common.

We confide in each other and lots of time we get drunk and swap our hardship stories .
One story that I have heard from all of them is if they get on government assistance they will travel to Gary to shop because they are ridiculed in their communities for using food stamps or Hoosier cards.

The Aldi on Grant street in Gary where I shop is often patronized by White shoppers some wearing business clothes.

I have a friend in Valparaiso who comes to Gary to shop for Meats at the Store on 8th and Broadway with their Hoosier card.

I see thousand of White shoppers in Gary now that the economy has tanked they are welcomed and have fun shopping here and make a lot of new friends.

Sorry G-Man, I'm just not seeing the thousands of white shoppers flocking to Gary to shop. A few here and there but nothing to get excited about - there is no resurrection of retail business in Gary.

I went to Orland Park yesterday. Went to the mall (TigerDirect)...It was as crowded as River Oaks at Christmas. Apparently those people didn't get the memo that we are in economic chaos! A totally different world compared to the Calumet Region.

Orland Park # 45 best place to live

http://www.orland-park.il.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1216

http://www.orland-park.il.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1213

http://www.orland-park.il.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1219

The quality of life in Orland park puts Lake County Indiana to shame



@ 219 you must not do much shopping me and my wife are both retired and we go shopping every day and she loves to go window shopping.

By the way we are both secret shoppers and get paid for shopping !

I have heard about the ridicule. In the lunch room at work White men would openly brag about what they did to any White person purchasing food with stamps and what they said and did to them was a hate crime in my book against other White people.

They said they have made women and children turn around and go back and put back expensive cut's of meat they (the working class could not afford)(even though they had the stamps to pay for it) back in the meat counter and make them purchase what they thought they should be eating with the blessing of the store employees
they told me they would scream at them and tell them it was their tax dollars they were wasting and they would brag about how many they drove away in tears.

That's easy...DUMBO and big gub'mint just keeps cranking out those checks for the parasites.....

we have to work for ours...

Huh?

Are you too proud to get on assistance?

I don't think that's a major problem in the Deficient Three, especially in Gary.

hey pal...someone has to pay for it.

I believe recipients should consider thanking the people who work day after day and pay the taxes that put thie ''free'' food on their tables once in a while instead of acting like they're automatically entitled to it...


wishful thinking huh?...

I think the recipients should be made to work and construct a beautiful national park with trails roads and fishing piers from Gary to Michigan city they should be making picnic tables for the lakes county parks department they should be doing all sorts of stuff.

Hey pal I feel you.

I also feel the pain of those coming to Gary to shop because they are embarrassed and know they will be ridiculed in their community for shopping with a Hoosier card that stands out like a sore thumb.

Fear of being labeled a "freeloader"

“I think that in an affluent society there are too many people who think that people who receive handouts are freeloaders,” she said.

That’s why, for months after she lost her job, the woman, let’s call her Kate, waffled on whether to apply for food stamps.

Fed up with living on peanut butter sandwiches and "way too much bread" to fill her up, she finally Googled “Washington food stamps” and signed up online.

With the $200 per month she receives she can afford to buy produce and make more nutritious meals.

“My only regret is that I didn’t sign up sooner,” she said.

Beckett, 31, believes no one should have to be worried about food, or be embarrassed to ask for help.

“I think the stigma of who uses food stamps and why they use them needs to be smashed a little,” she said. “I’m an educated individual, I have two college degrees, I’ve done AmeriCorps.”

Putting it on plastic

The switch to debit cards has helped to make using food benefits less conspicuous.

When it was food stamps, “people would roll their eyes and stuff. Now you can pretty much whip out your card,” said Jennifer McCormack, who has used both systems.

In October 2008 the state broadened the gross income limit to 200 percent of the federal poverty rate. A family of three could have a gross income of up to $3,052 per month and be eligible.

Not just for the “poorest of the poor”

Despite these changes, many still believe federal food assistance is for “the absolutely poorest of the poor,” said John Camp, who administers the program at the state Dept. of Health. “They assume that the program isn’t available to them.”

The average Washington household on food stamps receives nearly $215 per month and is comprised of two people, he said.

As part of the stimulus package, the federal government also expanded access to benefits by temporarily lifting a time limit imposed by Congress under welfare reform that gave able-bodied adults without children three months of benefits for every six months unless they work 20 hours a week. The time limit is lifted until September.

Now that more people need help affording food, will food stamps lose their stigma?

Kate, the anonymous food stamp recipient, said she hopes so.

“I read the blogs and responses to articles in the paper, and there are people who write in and still have jobs who are pretty damn mean,” she said.

She has a theory about why.

“Some of it has to be driven by fear,” she said. “In the back of their minds, they are worried.”