http://www.9news.com/news/article.as...2328&catid=339
DENVER - A 9Wants to Know investigation shows low-income Coloradans receiving food stamps and other federal benefits are using the money to buy crab legs, cigarettes, energy drinks, shrimp scampi and Starbucks ground coffee.
"I just sit back and look at it and I'm like I can't even afford that and I work," said a local grocery store cashier who asked us not to use her name because she feared she'd lose her job. She saved receipts to show 9NEWS.
Some say families should be able to use the benefits for whatever they choose.
"I think that people get to make individual choices and it might not be the choice you would make, it might not be the choice I would make, but it's a choice and it doesn't necessarily make it wrong," said Pauline Burton, Colorado Department of Human Services director of the office of self sufficiency, whose office runs the food and cash assistance programs.
9NEWS is presenting both sides of the story so readers can make their own judgments.
Both food assistance, formerly known as food stamps, and the cash benefit programs are funded with federal taxdollars.
"I'm sure half of the people out there don't realize their tax money is being used in this way," the checker said.
She gave 9NEWS a receipt showing a food stamp recipient spent $29.39 on king crab legs and she says she's watched customers pay for T-bone steaks and lobster with food stamp money.
"You can't buy alcohol, but you can buy mixes to make Bloody Marys or margaritas. You can buy margarita salt. Is that really necessary? Is that a main staple?" she said.
"I think it's an individual choice about what a person's dietary or nutritional benefit may be," Burton said.
Last month, 350,000 Coloradans received money from the food assistance program.
People on food assistance get roughly $150 per person each month. A two-person household must make less than $18,948 to qualify. The money is loaded on a reusable debit card.
When it comes to food purchases using the funds, there are a few limits.
Recipients can buy breads, cereals, fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, dairy products, seeds and plants which produce food. Food assistance recipients cannot use the money to buy freshly prepared food such as deli sandwiches, liquor, cigarettes, pet foods, house hold supplies, medicines or cosmetics.
"I was shocked that people can buy candy and pop on food stamps, but these people can't purchase diapers or anything for children," the grocery checker said.
Some low-income people receive additional cash benefits. Cash benefits are available to some very low-income families and allow families to withdraw cash from an ATM or grocery checkout counter and use it for non-food items. In July, 11,641 Coloradans received cash benefits, according to the Colorado Department of Human Services.
"The cash assistance is really for housing and utilities. You can also buy food with it. It is to meet a person's basic needs," Burton said.
9Wants to Know found people receiving cash benefits spending money on cigarettes. One receipt shows a $4 charge for cigarettes, another receipt shows $4.80 and a third receipt shows two tobacco products purchased for $9.01.
"They take [cash benefits] money out and sometimes it's $200 at a time. They'll put it in the lottery machine," the grocery checker said.
"We wouldn't condone that but certainly a cash benefit is a lot more flexible and is not intended to buy cigarettes. But we also do not tell people specifically what to buy with their cash benefits," Burton said.
The state has the same policy for food assistance.
"The rules allow for individual choice. If you choose to buy crab legs, you might very well have had to eat rice for two weeks in order just to be able to make that selection," Burton said.
The grocery checker doesn't agree. She believes the system is broken.
"But that doesn't mean you can't fix it," she said.
Jon Caldara, a frequent government critic and president of the conservative think tank: The Independence Institute, says more regulation isn't the answer.
"I don't like what's happening, but the alternative is much worse," Caldara said. "You can give the poor choices or do what socialists want to do which is gather up the food you think they ought to eat and put together some distribution point where they can come get their broccoli and government cheese. I don't want that system."
Instead, he hopes to teach people how to be good customers.
"It is possible to prepare healthy meals for your families on a very limited budget," said Ruth Stemler, director of Operation Frontline Colorado. The group teaches low income families to make meals costing less $1.40 per person.
Read more about how the program works and the one way Stemler says you can instantly learn to cook healthier, by clicking here.
An east Denver family showed 9NEWS how they are eating healthy despite their lack of money.
Rick Wheeler lost his job as a construction manager in April. He's actively searching for another job.
"Without food stamps we'd be in serious trouble," Wheeler said.
The family has started growing some of their own food in their garden and used food stamp money to buy tomato plants.
Rick and Anastasia Wheeler said their garden saves them money and lets them use food stamps for other staples.
The family only buys the basics and has crossed some items off their shopping list all together.
"We've been making our own soda. We get frozen juice and add fizzy water. It's like soda, a lot healthier," Anastasia Wheeler said.
"The food stamp program is there to protect people for a short period of time and hopefully they get back on their fee and can support themselves. That's our idea," Rick Wheeler said.
He's not a fan of taxpayer money being used to by cigarettes.
"If they want to smoke a cigarette, that's their business, but they need to pay for it themselves," he said.
Contact investigative reporter Jace Larson by e-mailing jace.larson@9news.com, calling 303-871-1432, on Twitter or Facebook.
Read Jace Larson's blog on this story by clicking here.
To report an abuse in the food assistance or cash benefit program you can call the fraud hotline at 1-877-934-6361.
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Originally Posted by Snowman
