Kara, I view you as a very courageous young lady to write this article.
I live in Brooklyn and applied for food stamps a couple of years ago, at age 38, when I didn't have steady work, and my gross income for that past month -- BEFORE taxes -- was like $20 too much. The poor caseworker, a man in his 60s with kids in their late 20s, tried everything in his power to override the denial and was literally almost in tears when he finally came back to me and said there was nothing he could do. He said if I'd temped one less day, or if I'd had a child, then I'd have been accepted.
Thankfully, I found steady work not long afterward, due more to agency contacts with whom I'd had relationships well before the recession of 2008 and less to my resume (I'm still struggling with the idea of going back and finishing an undergrad degree!).
I came to NYC from Connecticut at the age of 21, in 1993, and the idea of doing the same thing at the same age in today's world would scare the daylights out of me. I wasn't forced to prove myself - I was simply allowed to discover and explore. For your generation, it seems like every day is a real-life standardized test - and it's really not fair.
You guys deserve the same as we got - and if in today's United States, food stamps are a part of getting there, then that's the way it is.
On Young, Privileged, and Applying for Food Stamps
Kara, I view you as a very courageous young lady to write this article. I live in Brooklyn and applied for food stamps a couple of years ago, at age 38, when I didn't have steady work, and my gross income for that past month -- BEFORE taxes -- was like $20 too much. The poor caseworker, a man in his 60s with kids in their late 20s, tried everything in his power to override the denial and was literally almost in tears when he finally came back to me and said there was nothing he could do. He said if I'd temped one less day, or if I'd had a child, then I'd have been accepted. Thankfully, I found steady work not long afterward, due more to agency contacts with whom I'd had relationships well before the recession of 2008 and less to my resume (I'm still struggling with the idea of going back and finishing an undergrad degree!). I came to NYC from Connecticut at the age of 21, in 1993, and the idea of doing the same thing at the same age in today's world would scare the daylights out of me. I wasn't forced to prove myself - I was simply allowed to discover and explore. For your generation, it seems like every day is a real-life standardized test - and it's really not fair. You guys deserve the same as we got - and if in today's United States, food stamps are a part of getting there, then that's the way it is.