Yum! lobbies for food stamp use in Yum! restaurants

Good times - bad times

you know I had my share;
When my woman left home for a brown eyed man,
Well, I still don't seem to care.

Good times - bad times

you know I had my share;
When my woman left home for a brown eyed man,
Well, I still don't seem to care.

one of the kitchen guys even asked...'hey matt. what do you think the odds are that the local government would pass legislation to allow people with ebt cards to purchase produce from farmer's markets and use our tax money to help subsidize those purchases as well as the farmers labors?'
i shed a tear at that question, because i know the answer.

Matt, I agree with much of what you said. Just to make it clear...the produce vendors at the Phoenix hill farmers market are set up to take the EBT for their veggies. I know of other markets around that do so as well.

thank you for that bit of information. i had no idea and i guess that helps me breathe a little easier. this is one of those times where im glad to be wrong

this is one of those times where im glad to be wrong

How refreshing! Thank you.

A few states, including California, already allow the use of food stamps in restaurants. This lets homeless people who do not have any place to store or prepare food have meals.

Would you rather have them using food stamps in the nicer restaurants with you? (Probably wouldn't cover as many meals.) Or should they just stay outside and eat what they can find or beg?

Well, I think health care should be free anyway like it is in Europe.

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Sorry, pet peeve of mine. Healthcare is not free in Europe. I pay $800 a month and my employer chips in another $475 which is obviously passed on to consumers of our product by way of price. But that's probably another thread.

As far as food stamps/food deserts go, I have always wondered if there isn't a golden opportunity for entrepreneurs, if you assume:
1) Food deserts exist
2)Food stamp recipients would buy healthier foods given adequate access
3) Shopping/cooking time constraints are a burden for low income people
4) (guessing) Urban food stamp recipients have partially lost cooking skills of their more rural ancestors

Possible solution/opportunity. Build small industrial kitchen in or near food desert. Create rotating menu of healthy family meals (meat, veg, starchies) and portion according to family size (feeds 3,4,5, etc). Package and cool meals so they adhere to food stamp guidlines, use refrigerated food truck and build delivery route in said food desert. Customers simply heat up meal at home.

Advantage to customer: overcomes time/transport issues, little waste, healthy, whole family gets a full belly. If you reckon there are 50,000 people in the West End (arguably the only food desert), maybe divide by three to get number of households, shoot for maybe 5% of that you'd be doing 800 meals a day. Assume economies of scale and simplicity of operation keeps your costs relatively low so you can make say $2 per meal.

Could be pretty decent money. Wonder if something like that would work?

I will bring up two situations not addressed in any of the previous posts.
1st, people that live alone. Cooking for one is a different ball game than cooking for two. There are times when buying a meal out and refrigerating and or freezing the leftovers is more economical than cooking the meal from scratch. (Health benefits aside given the nature of YUM restaurants.)

2nd, some people cannot cook. I mean really cannot physically cook. I have a friend that has Meniere's syndrome. He cannot drive, hold a steady job, has difficulty walking any distance (even getting around his apartment is difficult). The constant, ongoing dizzy spells mean working with knives and hot stoves is unthinkable. He lives alone so he is limited to cold meals or meals heated in a microwave. For him an already prepared, hot meal, even from a KFC is a treat.

I think we all to often assume that everyone's lives are like our own and we have a hard time understanding anything that is not our experience. We think in terms of OUR lives, what we have and we take for granted the resources we have that others may not. We assume the worse in EVERYONE else because we have a single bad experience. It's a bad habit to get into and it's very sad.

. We assume the worse in EVERYONE else because we have a single bad experience. It's a bad habit to get into and it's very sad.

Carla-
Well stated. A very bad habit indeed.
'Winger

Well, I think health care should be free anyway like it is in Europe.

Sorry, pet peeve of mine. Healthcare is not free in Europe. I pay $800 a month and my employer chips in another $475 which is obviously passed on to consumers of our product by way of price. But that's probably another thread.

Dan, Are you talking about Germany? Maybe, you have to pay because you are an American and not German. I don't know about Germany, but in the UK, yes, people get money deducted from their paycheck, much the same as medicare here. But, the big difference is that if they require a broken leg to be set, or a round of chemotherapy or a hip replacement there is NO charge in the UK. As I stated, my mother received 4 years of chemotherapy, a colostomy bag operation and and another operation, free of charge in Greece and the UK. They picked her up to take her to the hospital for her chemo appointments, my neice has just had a baby, also free of charge. If you are on income support which is the UK equivalent of Welfare, then obviously you are not paying into the National Health Service so it is totally free. When I lived in the UK prescriptions were around 5 pounds which is about $8. It is probably more now. I have just spoken to a friend in the UK and she confirmed what I have said.

I don't understand your post,Allison. You are claiming Healthcare is free in Europe?, however people must pay into various tax funds required by certain countries at different rates. A person may be able to purchase additional insurance if he/she elects, In stating Healthcare is free would be a misnomer. If it were truly free, then I'd not be required to pay any tax to a general fund for medical services and receive them without fear of being billed. Sure,one person may go into a hospital and not pay a dime,but the other people paying into the general fund may disagree about Healthcare being totally free in Europe.

Kyle, you are misunderstanding. We pay social security which is on a percentage of what a person earns. Similar to your Social Security. A fraction of that payment goes to the National Health Service. The rest of it is for your old age pension. To my mind if one goes to the Doctors for a visit and does not pay for that visit, only a flat rate for a prescription, then health care is free. If a person goes into hospital and has a baby and does not pay anything, then that is free health care. If a person needs six months of chemotherapy and is picked up from their home, taken to hospital, given chemotherapy and taken home again, and does not pay anything, then that is free healthcare. Yes, people can opt for private health care, for instance a non life threatening operation , eg varicose veins, there would be a long wait. However, a person needing a pacemaker or a broken leg set, there isn't a wait. The reason my Mother was treated free in Greece is because they have a reciprocal agreement with the UK. She had an oika card which allowed her to be treated for free, just like any Greek person would be.

No one is billed for a hospital visit unless they are going privately, and as I already stated, there is really no need to pay for private healthcare. Employers are not required to pay for health insurance as there is no health insurance. Chantix and other anti smoking aids are free.

People who do not have jobs pay nothing. Yes, there is a payment, but it is so small, probably smaller than American's Medicare payment. That is why I state that healthcare is free in the UK.

I don't understand your post,Allison. You are claiming Healthcare is free in Europe?, however people must pay into various tax funds required by certain countries at different rates. A person may be able to purchase additional insurance if he/she elects, In stating Healthcare is free would be a misnomer. If it were truly free, then I'd not be required to pay any tax to a general fund for medical services and receive them without fear of being billed. Sure,one person may go into a hospital and not pay a dime,but the other people paying into the general fund may disagree about Healthcare being totally free in Europe.

Allison, no matter how you look at it Health Care is certainly not free in Europe. Maybe there is minimal or no out of pocket expense when you require Medical Care but overall they pay dearly for that coverage. The overall tax rates in European countries is significantly higher than in America. I'm sure we could have the same thing here if Americans were willing to pay 50% or more of their gross income in taxes every year. I really don't think most working Americans want to even consider a system like that.

Allison, I didn't mean to initiate a threadjack, but again, National Healthcare all across Europe is not "free". In Germany it's a statutory, (supposedly) self funding system. Everyone who has a job is required to buy health insurance...only we buy it from the government and not Blue Cross et. al. Last year between my employer and me it was c.a $1275 monthly. In years where I earned more, it was North of $1500 monthly. For me, it's OK since I have four kids and they're covered. If I were childless, I'd be paying exactly the same amount (and feel pretty screwed).

In the UK and some other countries Healthcare is not specifically self funding so the financing is a bit murkier. Some of it is paid by the NIC. The rest is funded via VAT and other taxes. Frankly, if you take a really honest look at Germany's system, it is never really covered by statutory payments. But then again when I pay $8.50 for a gallon of gas, I know how they're funding it.

Also, not everything is covered. When I go to the dentist the first thing they do is make me sign off on a long list of procedures that are no longered covered by the government. I'm not complaining. The German system is far superior to the NHS IMO. But free? Not in a million years.

I'd still take UKs health plan over the US. I shudder to think how much money I've contributed to Medicare via my paycheck and how much I've paid for health insurance only to be told that my yearly physical, check ups, or almost any other health claim I've made is not covered under my insurance plan. (Or , at best, only a ridiculously small fraction of it is covered.) So I'm paying a bundle and basically getting nothing in return. Other friends have their needed prescriptions routinely dropped from coverage. Change to another covered drug only to have that one dropped as well, over and over and over again. And we STILL don't have the common sense to cover any kind of health maintenance program. Something that would be much cheaper in costs in the long run. Birth control pills aren't covered but Viagra is. (goofy) Our nation's health plan is constructed to only to make money not to preserve our nation's health.

Allison.I'm simply stating your definition of "free" is not valid.

And Carla, while I agree your point about Birth Control and Viagra being covered/not covered is mind boggling , I'd like to point out not all insurances cover Viagra just as some insurances DO cover Birth Control. The system here is a mess. Yes. You'll get no argument from me.


-Don't ask me how I know about Viagra.