Food stamp bill makes sense
Re "Bill has misguided goal for farmers markets" (Viewpoints, Feb. 28): In the midst of an unprecedented global recession, stigmatizing families who want to buy good food for their families, but can't, isn't just wrong, it's downright mean.
California ranks 47th in the United States with an unemployment rate of 12.4 percent. These Californians can tell you they did not lose their jobs, and subsequently become unable to feed their families, because they are lazy. At a time when one in 10 Americans and one in four children rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to fulfill a basic human need, Ruben Navarrette's arguments just don't hold up.
The new face of food stamps includes the recently jobless, working moms, seniors and workers earning reduced salaries; it's your neighbor, your mom and your child's classmate. The USDA estimates that $5 in food stamp spending generates $9 in economic activity. Why wouldn't we want this to go to local farmers and producers? EBT: good for families, farmers and communities.
-Shakirah Simley, San Francisco
EBT bill is good business
Re "Bill has misguided goal for farmers markets" (Viewpoints, Feb. 28): Shame on Ruben Navarrette, not on food stamp participants. As the economy has tanked in the last two years, food stamp participation has risen by 43 percent in California—that's 900,000 additional folks trying to make healthy buying decisions for their families in the face of a national economic crisis.
Locking them out of farmers markets (when many low-income communities don't even have grocery stores nearby) isn't just cruel and unhealthy, it's bad business. Denying people healthy food options means higher rates of chronic disease down the road and higher health care costs for all of us.
Opening farmers markets to EBTs mean healthier communities, more consumers who buy locally and better business for local farmers.
Let's find solutions—not elbow people away from the table.
-Leslie Mikkelsen, Oakland
Managing Director, Prevention Institute
Read the letters at Sacbee.com