Food Stamps are the new Soup Kitchen
Food Stamps are the new Soup Kitchen, Benefit Cards are the new Food Stamps.
Back in the 1930s, during The Great Depression, poor people had the option of going to soup kitchens to get free food. Churches and other charities would hand out free soup to anyone, no questions asked, no I.D. needed. The donors were anonymous, and the recipients were anonymous; it was truly charity done for its own sake.
The Depression came and went, followed by World War Two, followed by enormous economic growth which peaked in the mid-1960s. The mid-60s brought The Great Society, which did away with the need for soup kitchens (yeah right). Thank goodness, because the sight of needy hungry people loitering on sidewalks reminded everyone else that the USA was actually a mean nasty country. But because needy hungry people didn't disappear, they got Food Stamps; now they could go shopping just like anyone else, without being ostracized.
Eventually, Food Stamps were replaced with Benefit Cards which served the same purpose but were harder to scam. Of course, Benefit Cards are not anonymous ... the welfare department has your name, photo, and fingerprints.
So, there is a direct line from Soup Kitchens to Food Stamps to Benefit Cards.
But wait! We still have soup Kitchens, thanks to Covid-19. Everywhere I go I see long lines of people in front of churches, waiting patiently for their free handout of food. Some places ask you to sign up, some ask for a small donation, a few just hand out the food no questions asked. It's not unusual to see dozens and dozens of people waiting, sometimes for two or three hours, in the heat of summer or the freezing cold of winter, just to get their meager allotment of groceries. You don't get to select what groceries you get ..you get whatever they're handing out.
This is a very inefficient way to help people... They waste hours waiting, outside in all types of weather, just to get something they might not want. Although supermarkets have half a dozen checkout counters, the food banks all seem to serve only one person at a time; it's no wonder that it takes hours to get your free stuff.
The food distribution system in America is a marvel of the free market. There are many cogs in this giant machine.. farmers, ranchers, processors, national and regional distributors, local distributors, supermarkets, delivery companies. They all work without any centralized organization to give consumers the best choices, the best prices, lots of variety, the most convenience. Food Banks and Soup Kitchens offer none of those things, but they do the most to remind poor people that they're poor, they're different, they're helpless; and it falsely reminds the rest of us that America is still a mean nasty uncaring country.
The local government could require that food banks adopt other methods of distributing free food... instead of forcing people to wait in line, they could be given a new type of benefit card which is paid for by the charitable organization, and usable to buy whatever food the recipient desires, at any supermarket. It would reduce wasted time. It would return shoppers to the supermarkets, which is the most efficient way to shop. And it wouldn’t make New York City look like a third-world shithole.