“It’s Just A Dollar”

By Elysabethe Brown

• Alicia Quetel, from Easton, PA, is a day care worker, who struggles to take care of her family of six as her husband was recently demoted. She shops at her local Shoprite while her children are at school.

• Along with 22,188,845 other households in the country, the Quetels now take part in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). As of January 2012 the average amount of money a household receives on food stamps is $277.27 a month according to fns.usda.gov. “We just started receiving food stamps. They kept telling me I made too much money. But by the end of the month I’m spending my own money that I just don’t have.” The Quetels’ receive only $100 a month.

• “I spend about $100-150 a week on groceries. It depends how much I get. Sometimes the money’s just not there,” said Quetel.

• As Mrs.Quetelscans each item, she seems embarrassed to compare the prices between items, carefully looking around the store before she does so.

• Mrs.Quetelexplains that her children’s school offers lunch specials of $2 hot dogs and pizza and 25 cent snacks two days a week. “It takes the pressure off.”

• She explained that with three growing boys and a little girl, food doesn’t last very long. “I try to buy the family size, but it goes bad so quickly. Sometimes I have to buy smaller packs of food, which costs more.”

• “I try to keep it as healthy as I can, but with fruit normally I just have to walk away.”

• “I get the bowls of fruit, which to me aren’t as healthy, but what can I do? They complain about kids being overweight, but I can’t afford it when I have to keep a roof over our heads.”

• While standing in line to pay for her food Mrs. Quetel told the woman standing in front of her that she had dropped a dollar. The woman laughed and replied “Oh, well it’s only a dollar. No big deal, ya know?” Mrs. Quetel smiled and handed her the bill.

• Quetel later confessed that she had to buy $80 worth of food stamps for $60 from another woman she knows. “The government needs to look into that stuff. Right now we struggle to make ends meet. Some people get $500 a month and don’t even use it all.” According to delcotimes Over the past three years, more than 3,000 people have been convicted or pled guilty to SNAP-related fraud.

• The total for the shopping trip was $89. The food will get them through the weekend, unless her children “are extra hungry when they see all of the food in the kitchen,” she laughs.