qualification for food stamps

[dealingsdone]

Hello, I'm strongly considering applying for food stamps. There is an online qualifier that I plugged my info. in on and found that I do qualify. http://www.myfoodstamps.org/eligible.html

I have recently sold the last little bit of stock that I had so I believe I am not 'poor' enough to qualify. What I want to know, is does my retirement account also need to be drained and or custodial accounts that my children have. Within the next few months, I may have to tap my retirement account anyway, but I would do it a little sooner if I knew it was going to prevent me from qualifying for food stamps.
What has been other members experience with food stamps?

Thanks,

[mermaids614]

I work in Social Services. Yes, all those accounts would be considered "resources" and there is a resource limit based on your household size. You may have zero income, but if those accounts put you over the resource limit, you will not qualify. The amount of equity in your house is a resource as well. Also, if they find out you have recently transferred your resources to someone else's name before applying, that is considered fraud.

[dealingsdone]

I work in Social Services. Yes, all those accounts would be considered "resources" and there is a resource limit based on your household size. You may have zero income, but if those accounts put you over the resource limit, you will not qualify. The amount of equity in your house is a resource as well. Also, if they find out you have recently transferred your resources to someone else's name before applying, that is considered fraud.

So you are saying that retirement accounts need to be used up before applying...ditto for the children's CD's. IS that what you are saying? At the rate this household is hemmoraging cash, that won't be too long, but I want to make sure before I apply because I want to do it only once.

Thanks,

[dealingsdone]

I've done a little more research on this subject. It appears that things such as Retirement accounts, education accounts are not counted in certain counties and states. I happen to be in Los Angeles and have not found any information about these accounts for this region. My main concern is that the kids have some money in their accounts that total more than the 3,000 limit. I don't ever want to run through their money, but this program may require that those funds be depleted first. If anybody knows or finds information relevant to this issue, please post it.

Thanks,

[tigergem]

Just apply for it. They will tell you.

[lookingforward]

In my state I believe you can have 2000 in cash resources.
They will ask you how much money you have in the bank and also how much cash at hand.

[sidhesadie]

I live in Oregon, and my retirement account and my son's 529 account did not 'count' as an asset when I applied for (and received) food stamps. They wanted to know about non retirement stock accounts, money markets, checking and savings, and my income. Then they asked my rent/mortgage payment and utility payments.
They did not ask about credit card payments and they did not ask about equity in my home.

I would just apply, they are usually very nice.

[AngelinaCat]

We live in Florida.

We we get income from 'Hub's SS, a pittance from his so-called Retirement account. And I have my paltry amount from my PT job, and my even lesser amount from the Unemployment Compensation--both of which are running out. So therefore the Cat Household makes 'Too Much Money' for us to qualify.

The agency will not tell us how much over the limit we are--we just are. We do not know what is throwing us over.

I should add, that when our god-daughter became unemployed, she also tried for Food Stamps. Because she was living on her savings, amounting to around 2K at that time--a couple of years ago--she ALSO was turned down. So you figure....

[LoadedGuns]

Try your local food bank.

[reesemay]

food stamps

the income limit in florida is 1100 a month anything over and you will not qualify...as far as retirement or ssi income I am not sure, I have been unemployed for quite some time no retirement stocks bonds or any other income...or health insurance..and did not qualify for unemloyment so my last ditch effort was for food stamps which at the time I did not think I would get because of a previous experience requesting food stamps for an emergency situation......but I guess dirt poor qualifies!! If you are thrifty you can make the $200 a month go pretty far....look up angel food ministries.. it is for everyone no need to qualify

[lovemybugs10]

We applied when my husband lost his job last year. Or, rather, I should say we had to wait to apply. His last check was over 2k and you couldn't have anything more than that floating around to be approved.

Basically, you have to have nothing before they'll give you something.

Once we were approved though, we had almost 700 in foodstamps (because we had no income. No job, no unemployment, no 401k) coming in the door. Woza!

[nervous1]

We applied when my husband lost his job last year. Or, rather, I should say we had to wait to apply. His last check was over 2k and you couldn't have anything more than that floating around to be approved.

Basically, you have to have nothing before they'll give you something.

Once we were approved though, we had almost 700 in foodstamps (because we had no income. No job, no unemployment, no 401k) coming in the door. Woza!

That must be a state qualifier. I had 3X that much in a cking account and was approved for the max amount. However, as I explained in my application and to the person I talked with....that money had been taken from my ret. account to pay the mortgage (STUPID move on my part...)

However, apparently it didn't disqualify us because we were able to obtain FS (something I NEVER EVER NEVER EVER thought I would have to do, but this is a whole new world we're living in...)

Are you currently receiving FS? I'm looking at it as a means to get us through this rough time. I was so embarassed and told the caseworker. He told me that in no way should I be embarassed...hundreds of apps come through every day.

However, once I rec'd my little card (looks like a credit/debit card), I got over it real quick. No one even has to know that's how you're paying for your groceries.

[Xue]

Hi. I just wanted to post something about Angel Food ministries...not to be a Debbie Downer...but...

http://www.hulu.com/watch/19280/saturday-night-live-debbie-downer-birthday-party

Angel Food Ministries corporate office is searched by FBI and IRS
Tuesday, March 3, 2009

http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/2009/mar/03/angel_food_ministries_office_searched_fbi_and_irs/

The ministry was founded in 1994 by the Wingos, who are pastors of Emmanuel Praise Church in Monroe, Ga...The Wingos enriched themselves by at least $2.7 million, including $600,000 they directed from Angel Food to their church. The money allegedly was given to the Wingos for a housing allowance...Andy Wingo, food buyer for Angel Food Ministries, took kickbacks from food buyers, and other family members knew about it...Joe Wingo set up a North Carolina corporation to buy a personal jet, then leased the jet to Angel Food Ministries for a profit of $10,000 a month...The Wingos spent more than $850,000 for personal goods using Angel Food credit cards.

Nonprofit Angel Food Ministries lays off 49
June 29, 2010

http://www.ajc.com/news/nonprofit-angel-food-ministries-560297.html

The cost-cutting includes reductions in managerial salaries of up to 20 percent, he said. Founder Joe Wingo's salary was also cut, but Engelmayer declined to say by how much. According to IRS documents, in 2008 Wingo made $764,000.

The organization also plans to cut the price of its $30 box of food by $2 to $5 in the next two months, he said. Angel Food Ministries sells boxes of food once a month through a network of more than 5,000 churches nationwide. Patrons pay $30 and get $50 worth or more of food.

The organization ran into trouble in 2009 when the FBI searched its offices. Nothing has come of that investigation. Around that time, Wingo, his two sons and his wife were all on staff and made about $500,000 annually. Since then, there has been an audit at the nonprofit, and one son and Wingo's wife left the organization.

Charity paid its leaders $2.5 million
06/19/2009

http://www.ydr.com/ydr/religion/ci_11545409

A TISKET, A TASKET . . . A GARDEN IN A BASKET

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1976-05-01/A-Tisket-A-Tasket-A-Garden-in-a-Basket.aspx

by C. EGGLETON

Last spring, my wife and, I were faced with a problem that I suppose most folks run into sooner or later: We wanted a garden-in fact, we desperately needed a garden,but we didn't have any place to put one.

At the time, I had just left the Army and was out of work, so the idea of spending my hard to come by cash on overpriced supermarket produce wasn't all that attractive. Unfortunately, our landlord didn't like the notion of us digging a vegetable patch in the backyard any better...and even if he had, we would've hesitated.

You see, we hoped to move to a small farm sometime before the end of the growing season, and we didn't want to have to leave a still thriving garden behind. Besides, we'd already learned from experience that "we'd have to get up early in the morning" to protect a vegetable patch from our two mixed terriers. The "devilish duo" would get under or over any kind of fence we put in their way, and proceed to mangle whatever plants they could find.

So. We used a little ingenuity and came up with a different kind of garden that was portable and pet-proof and productive all at once. In short, we grew piles of tall-topped carrots, juicy tomatoes, and a bevy of other fresh fruits and vegetables...in baskets!

Now, I know that some dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists will turn their noses up at any garden not rooted deep in Mother Earth herself. But if your problems are similar to what ours were, or if you live in a small city apartment, or if you can't do all the stooping and bending that ground-level planting and weeding requires...well, then a basket garden can be a pretty good way to go!

To start one, all you'll need is several containers large enough to hold a sufficient amount of soil to support living vegetation. In our case, we couldn't spend a fortune on oversized ceramic pots, and we didn't have any good "recyclables" (such as paint buckets or gallon-size plastic milk jugs). So we scouted a local discount store, where we discovered that ordinary clothes baskets were just fine for our purposes (and inexpensive to boot).

Next, we lined the containers with plain old "Hefty type" trash bags, and then filled the bottom of each with two inches of coarse gravel for drainage. On top of that we placed a layer of newspaper to keep the soil from washing down into the stones.

Then we added the growing' medium itself. Gardening books call for a 1: 1: 1 ratio of peat moss, loam, and sand . . . and advise that rotted manure, leaves, grass clippings, and other well-shredded vegetation can also be mixed in. We, however, simply used three parts slightly, sandy (and rocky) soil from an empty field, combined with one part grass clippings judging from the way our plants thrived, I'd say just about any reasonably rich blend of natural materials that's light and loose enough to provide good aeration will work OK.

Finally, we poked a few small holes in the base of the lined containers to allow extra drainage, and placed stakes in the baskets in which we intended to grow tomatoes and peas.

A friend of ours had access to a number of wooden pallets that some local factories wanted to dispose of so he gave us two of the skids, from which we constructed a platform that kept our "garden" well above the reach of canine claws, but at just the right height for easy weeding. One of the discards made an "instant tabletop", and a few minutes' work with a crowbar and hammer gave us enough usable lumber from the other to build supporting legs and braces. (Incidentally, homesteaders might take note of the fact that throwaway pallets are a good source of free wood for rough construction. They can be used either disassembled or as whole "prefab" sections in any number of projects.)

The final step in establishing our vegetable patch, of course, was the actual planting . . . but before jumping in "seeds first", we referred to three books which were especially helpful: [1] Raise Vegetables Without a Garden by Doc and Katy Abraham ; [2] All About Vegetables edited by Walter Doty ; and [3] The Mother Earth News

This information?particularly the guides to natural pest control and companion planting in MOTHER'S Almanac— helped us choose the kinds of vegetables and fruits we felt would be most productive and best suited to our own needs and tastes.

We put two large-variety tomato plants (such as "Heinz" and "Country Fair") in each bushel basket, and found that a half-bushel container could accommodate either a pair of small tomato vines (such as Burpee's "Early Girl") or four good size pepper plants. Our remaining baskets were seeded with radishes, onions, carrots, peas, miniature corn, strawberries, and cucumbers. We planted relatively early in the season, kept the containers out in the sun on warm days, and simply carried them back into the house whenever a chill threatened. (My poor ole Dad lost two successive sets of tomatoes to late frosts in his regular garden . . . but our portable vegetables stayed cozy and warm and healthy the whole time.)

Obviously, there's much less moisture retaining soil in a "container garden" than in a conventional plot, so we did have to give our "babies" frequent waterings. (One possible solution might be to fold the tops of the trash bag liners over the soil, punch holes in the sacks, and then let the plants grow through. We haven't tried it yet, but suspect the plastic would act as a good water holding, weed?stifling mulch.) We also had to add extra dirt occasionally as the original material settled but aside from those two minor measures and a little careful bug-watching and ?squashing, and cultivating (none of which ever required bending our backs) our food practically grew by itself!

All that summer and fall, we enjoyed a vast and abundant variety of fresh produce straight from one table (the plants) to another (ours). And we never so much as picked up stake the whole year!

So . . . you say supermarket prices are killing your budget, but (moan, groan) you don't have space to grow your own vegetables? Buy a bunch of baskets!

[Xue]

Don Sisco once wrote: "I bought sugar, yeast, cheap fruit, margarine, pinto beans, bacon ends, corn meal, raisins, rice, canned milk and odds and ends.

I had a hot-plate I'd bought earlier in a Salvation Army store and odd pots and pans. One of my favorite dishes was rice and raisins and canned milk. Delicious, nutritious and cheap.

Notice, I didn't buy any prepared food, nothing in cans or ready to eat."

http://www.nls.org/benehl.htm

http://www.gettingfoodstamps.org/rights.htm

Save money sprouting your own beans

http://www.essortment.com/all/sproutingbeans_rbzu.htm

Growing Your Own Sprouts

http://vegetarian.lovetoknow.com/Growing_Your_Own_Sprouts

[LadyDoveFL]

Try your local food bank.

In Florida, the Food Bank income limits are the same as those for food stamps. The best you can do is qualify for 5 days of "emergency food rations" each month.