The Truth About Food Stamps: SNAP & The System That Keeps Us Hungry

You ever feel that flash of judgment or frustration in the grocery line when someone pays with food stamps or feel like a failure having to use an EBT card yourself? That frustration, anger, exhaustion, envy so many of us feel is real but misplaced. It's not about who's getting help – it's about who's profiting off our struggle.

In this episode of Somebody Pinch Me with Sonia in Cyber, we expose the real enemy behind the struggle. It's not your neighbor trying to feed their family; it's the system that makes basic survival a members-only club. I discuss what it truly means to need help in America, why shame is weaponized to keep people divided, and how empathy might be the most radical form of rebellion left.

About your host:
Sonia in Cyber is a multicultural feminist voice, creative entrepreneur, and unapologetic truth-teller. With roots in education, tech, and product marketing, she blends data with empathy, humor with heartbreak, to expose the cracks in America’s “normal.” Through her podcast Somebody Pinch Me, she gives voice to the disillusioned, the outspoken, the overlooked, and the quietly furious — proving that truth doesn’t just survive in chaos; it thrives in it. Her mission is simple: to use her voice to inspire others to keep fighting, resisting, and moving forward — no matter what.

Transcript

@soniaincyber: 0:21

You ever catch yourself standing in the grocery store line, staring at someone's cart, and something in you just feels something? A little envy, a little resentment, maybe even anger. Yeah, me too. Because it's hard out here. When your own total hits $200 for basics, when rent just went up again, when your job gave you a raise that didn't even cover inflation, seeing someone swipe an EBT card can stir something in you. But here's the thing: that anger, you're not wrong for feeling it. You're just aiming it at the wrong target. You're mad at the person trying to survive, not the system designed to make sure most people never get ahead. Or, on the contrary, perhaps you've been or are that person in line at the grocery store using your EBT card, but feel ashamed, embarrassed, or even angry that you need the benefits in the first place. You're not wrong. Let's get into it.

@soniaincyber: 1:19

Let's rewind. Food stamps didn't fall out of the sky. They were born in crisis during the Great Depression in 1939. Back then, farmers were producing more food than people could afford. So the government created the first food stamp program to solve two problems at once: help farmers sell surplus crops, and help struggling families eat. Recipients could buy orange stamps equal to the cash they spent and get blue stamps worth half that amount for free, which could be used for specific surplus foods like milk, beans, and flour. It wasn't charity, it was a strategy, a boost to help people spend more. It was about keeping the economy afloat, feeding families and farmers alike. The program ended in 1943 as World War II revived the economy, then came back in the 1960s as poverty spiked again. By 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson made it permanent under his war on poverty, and today we call it SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

@soniaincyber: 2:26

Let's get something straight. Food stamps, or SNAP, were never designed to be charity. They were designed to be a bridge, a stabilizer for families, farmers, and the economy itself. A reminder that when people can eat, society runs smoother. SNAP was built on one radical belief that hunger helps no one. Not the worker who can't focus because they skip dinner to stretch a paycheck, not the kid who can't learn because their stomach growls through math class, not the grocery store whose customers can't afford to fill a cart, not the farmer whose harvest goes unsold. It was made for the moments when the cost of living outpaces the paycheck. And that's not a poor people problem anymore. That's an everybody problem.

@soniaincyber: 3:13

Here's what Snap really does in plain language. It keeps the money flowing downstream instead of getting stuck at the top. When a single mom gets $180 in Snap benefits, that money doesn't sit in a savings account. It moves fast. She spends it at a local grocery store, maybe the one down the street, not the mega chain an hour away. That store uses her purchase to restock from a distributor. The distributor places another order from the farmer or manufacturer. Truckers move the goods, warehouse workers pack them, cashiers ring them up, and the whole time that one EBT card transaction is quietly creating a chain reaction of paychecks. That's how $1 in SNAP generates about $1.50 to $1.80 in economic activity. Because that dollar doesn't trickle down, it circulates. It keeps the gears turning in communities where money might otherwise dry up. It's not a drain, it's a current, a lifeline that runs through farms, trucks, stores, and homes. So when politicians frame SNAP as costing taxpayers, they're missing the point because taxpayers benefit from it. It's food security and job security. It's local business support and public health protection. It's the difference between desperation and dignity.

@soniaincyber: 4:40

Here's the thing nobody wants to say out loud. SNAP doesn't just fight hunger, it keeps the American economy from collapsing in on itself. Think about it. If low-income and working class people suddenly stopped spending at grocery stores, small towns would dry up overnight. That's not speculation, that's math. Let's walk through a real scenario. Meet Angela. She's a single mom working full-time at a nursing home. She earns $17 an hour, just above the threshold for help in some states, but somehow still barely scraping by. Her rent just hit $1,400. Gas and groceries keep climbing. Without Snap, she's constantly choosing between food and electricity. With Snap, she gets $200 a month, enough to make sure her kids eat three meals a day. She spends that at her neighborhood grocery store. That $200 doesn't vanish, it moves. The store uses that money to reorder from its wholesaler. The wholesaler pays the trucking company that delivers milk and bread. The trucking company pays its drivers who spend their paychecks at local diners and auto shops. The farmer whose produce fills the shelves gets another order and hires more seasonal workers to meet the demand. Those workers buy groceries too, and the cycle continues. That's what an economy is supposed to look like: money circulating, not hoarded.

@soniaincyber: 6:02

SNAP is also an automatic economic stabilizer, meaning when the economy dips, it catches people before they fall too far. During recessions, Snap expands as needs grow and then contracts as things stabilize. It's responsive, efficient, smart. When people lose jobs or hours, Snap keeps food on tables and businesses open. That's not dependency, that's resilience.

@soniaincyber: 6:27

Here's another truth bomb for anyone who still thinks Snap is a handout for the lazy. Most adults on Snap work. Many full-time. They're teachers, CNAs, retail workers, delivery drivers, even our military, working class people that make up the backbone of this country. They're the ones stocking shelves, cleaning hospitals, caring for seniors, or people that plugged away working in jobs for years before falling on misfortune or some kind of illness. They're not gaming the system. They're surviving one. The majority of SNAP recipients are children, the elderly, or disabled adults. In fact, over two-thirds of SNAP households include someone who's working. So the problem isn't laziness, it's wages. You can't budget better your way out of a system that underpays and overcharges you for everything you need to live. When the government hands out corporate tax breaks, no one calls that a handout. When billionaires pay less in taxes than their secretaries, no one says they're abusing the system. But when a family uses SNAP to buy milk, suddenly it's an outrage. That's not economics. That's class warfare disguised as morality. Because if the same people who call SNAP welfare actually cared about fraud or freeloading, they'd start at the top, not the checkout line.

@soniaincyber: 7:57

So let's call it what it is. Snap isn't a burden. It's an investment in workers, in kids, in local economies, and in the belief that no one in a country as rich as this should go hungry. And if that belief makes some people uncomfortable, maybe that says more about their comfort than about anyone's needs.

@soniaincyber: 8:18

And then there's those that can't get past the envy they feel for others qualifying for food stamps while they're unable to. That feeling when you're working full-time, paying taxes, doing everything right, and somehow you're still drowning, but you don't qualify for help. That frustration is real. That exhaustion is real, and your anger is valid. But the system wants you to point it downward, not upward. They want you mad at the mother buying groceries with an EBT card, not the CEO whose company doesn't pay her enough to feed her kids without one. They want you mad at your neighbor getting $250 in benefits, not at the billionaire lobbying to keep your wages flat and your rent high. They've convinced a nation that poverty is a personal failure, not a policy choice. And that's how the system wins. Because while we're busy blaming each other, they're cashing checks off both ends, underpaying workers and overcharging for essentials, and then pointing at the poor like, see, they're the problem.

@soniaincyber: 9:23

Here's the cruel irony. Millions of people who qualify for food stamps are the very people keeping the economy running. Retail workers, truck drivers, caregivers, teachers, people working full-time, sometimes two jobs, still can't afford groceries. Not because they're lazy, because the math doesn't math anymore. Wages haven't kept up with rent, gas, healthcare, or food. You can make $45,000 a year and still be food insecure in 2025. That's not a personal problem. That's a political design. Snap is supposed to fill the gap, but the real question is, why is there a gap in the first place? Why do we accept an economy where millions of hardworking Americans make too much for help, but too little to live? Because someone profits when we stay divided and desperate.

@soniaincyber: 10:17

Here's what most people don't see. When one person eats, the whole community benefits. Kids who grow up food secure do better in school. Adults who aren't starving are more productive and less likely to get sick. Seniors with steady nutrition live longer, healthier lives. That's less strain on hospitals, schools, and emergency services, all things we pay for as taxpayers. SNAP doesn't take from society, it supports it. It's one of the few government programs that touches every part of the economy: healthcare, education, agriculture, and employment. When we help people meet basic needs, we all gain in safety, productivity, and peace.

@soniaincyber: 11:01

But still, there's this deep shame attached to using food stamps. People hide their cards, they lower their voice, they look down instead of up. And that shame isn't an accident, it's engineered. Because if people start believing they deserve to eat, they might start believing they deserve housing, health care, and dignity too. And that's bad for business. So the shame stays, recycled through political speeches and media talking points, keeping the struggling population divided between those barely making it and those barely surviving.

@soniaincyber: 11:35

And then there's the judgment. You know the kind I mean. The, oh, look what they're buying with my tax dollars crowd. The if you can afford soda and snacks, you don't need help, people. Yeah, those. Let's get something straight. Food stamps were designed so people can eat, not perform poverty to make others comfortable. You don't lose your right to make choices just because you need help. You don't have to build a grocery cart that pleases strangers who've never had to choose between gas and groceries. And here's the part those food police never talk about. Unhealthy food is cheaper because it's meant to be. Processed food is subsidized, marketed, and mass-produced by billion-dollar corporations that make it easy to fill a cart and hard to afford anything else. Fresh produce, lean protein, whole grains, the things we're told to eat, cost more, spoil faster, and are harder to find in low-income neighborhoods. So when you see someone buying frozen dinners or snacks with their EBT card, don't assume they're irresponsible. Assume they live in a system that's rigged to make unhealthy food the most accessible option. Food deserts didn't appear by accident. Corporate lobbying, urban planning, and decades of neglect created them. And now we blame the people trapped in them for surviving the only way the system allows.

@soniaincyber: 12:55

And here's another truth. Even if healthier options were right down the street, not everyone has the time to prepare them. When you're working two jobs, juggling childcare, or living with a disability or chronic fatigue, you're not meal prepping quinoa bowls after a 12-hour shift. You're trying to get something, anything, on the table before the next day starts all over again and fast. That's not laziness. That's exhaustion. That's survival in a system that demands everything from you and gives almost nothing back. So if you're mad that poor folks are eating cheap, processed food, don't look at the checkout line or their cart. Look at the corporate boardrooms that profit off hunger, addiction, and convenience. Look at the billion-dollar ad budgets that target low-income communities with junk instead of nourishment. Look at a system where soda is cheaper than milk, chips last longer than fruit, and a dollar menu is easier to find than a grocery store. People don't need more judgment. They need more options. They need time, access, and dignity. They need support and empathy. And until they have those things, nobody has the moral high ground to judge what's in someone else's cart.

@soniaincyber: 14:11

And here's the harshest truth of all. America doesn't have a food shortage. We have a compassion shortage. We have a wage shortage. We have a justice shortage. We waste 80 billion pounds of food every year, enough to feed every hungry person twice over. We have people and corporations with enough wealth that the equivalent of mere pennies of their fortune could feed our whole country. So hunger here isn't inevitable. It's intentional. It's the byproduct of greed, policy, and moral disconnection. Because the truth is, food stamps aren't the problem. They're the evidence that the problem exists. So if you've ever screamed into the void wondering how we live in the richest nation on earth and still can't make sure everyone eats, your feelings are valid and you're definitely not alone. No one should have to beg to eat in a country this rich.

@soniaincyber: 15:18

Snap isn't broken. The system that made it necessary is.