Snap Presentation and gardening

Today a worker from SNAP come in to discuss the food stamp program. SNAP stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. His name was Nick Clossan and he was a community relations coordinator at Jobs and Family Services. Through Jobs and Family Services the SNAP program is allocated. SNAP provides families and people who have a low income receive the food they need. The families must apply to receive these food stamps and if they qualify they receive an allocated amount which depends on number of people in the family. The food stamps are now on ATM cards. The food stamp program often does not get families the nutrition they need, because they run out of money usually after 2 weeks. The number of people needing food stamps has increased from 9,500 to 734,000 in Ohio. The number of the people needing this program has increased through out the years due the economy. The people that utilize this program often have to go to food banks to help receive all the food they need. The people on this program are usually 130% below the poverty level. The people on the program must be working in order to receive the food stamps. They are only allowed to buy certain items on the food stamp program such as food and food products. They are not allowed to buy items such as: alcohol, pet food, cigarettes, vitamins, already prepared food, and medication. A single person usually receives about $105 and the maximum is $200 per person. Most people are only on the program for a few years. They must reapply by mail and fill out such items like social security, income, housing, children and child support. The funding is provided by the Federal government and state government. There is no nutritional person on staff such as an RD. They have a registered dietitian that works higher up in the process. The monitoring and evaluating is done by asking how the people feel and what could be done better. NHANE's also provides monitoring and evaluating services. Jobs and family services plans the the food stamp program. I think the food stamp program is a good start but could be improved. The food only provides families for 2 weeks. Maybe each person who receives food stamps could have a quick session with a registered dietitian or someone with knowledge to help them stretch their dollars as far as possible. This way it could more individualized for the person. They could possibly make some dietary changes this way also, if they are ready and willing to make the change. It could help some people who want it and would utilize it. At least this way they would have the option.

On Tuesday, I also went to my garden and weeded for hour and half. I found it pretty relaxing and somewhat of a workout. I didn't really know what I was doing but it was fun. I think it will be more exciting once the we start actually planting items. I did encounter some big looking wolf spiders in the garden which I was not a fan of. I also saw a few other bugs and worms that I had never seen before. Next time, when I garden I would like to be dressed more appropriately to get dirty and have the proper tools. I did get 3/4 of the garden weeded which I thought was pretty good and I felt very proud of that. I am excited to see are food grow and see what it is like to really take care of garden. I am plan on gardening this summer, so it will be a great learning experience for me. I will learn so much and hopefully we will grow some amazing food. I think for our garden we are going to use the square foot method. So each square foot will have its different plants in it and hopefully we can grow more this way and utilize our space well.