Dear Ms. Fields,<\/p>\n
Your application for food stamps dated February 15, 2013 has been denied.<\/p>\n
Love,<\/p>\n
Indiana Family and Social Services Administration<\/p>\n
I received this uplifting letter last week in regards to my food stamp application that I had been working on for over a month.\u00a0 I found the results rather shocking especially as my roommate who is in the similar if not exact same situation was approved for the full amount every month.\u00a0 Me?\u00a0 I got nothing not even a dollar. \u00a0How could this have happened?<\/p>\n
For starters, I opted into a phone interview rather than in person one on one which I thought (very wrongly so) would speed up the process.\u00a0 This just made things more confusing as I had little or no room to explain my forms, papers, current situation, and various other contingent variables to food stamp approval.<\/p>\n
Secondly, it was a dehumanizing process much like a lot of processes today.\u00a0 I was not a person in need of assistance I was a case number accompanied with a variety of so called self explanatory documents.\u00a0 When I tried to further explain documents such as\u00a0 why my first pay stub didn\u2019t accurately depict my income no one seemed to want to hear it.\u00a0 Even when I circled and highlighted my actual bi-weekly income no one took note of it BOTH times I tried.\u00a0 Ultimately this led to the disapproval of food stamp benefits.<\/p>\n
I saved you the full length story of my month long trials and tribulations of trying to get food stamp assistance because well, I don\u2019t have all day or perhaps all week to explain.\u00a0 Other blunders included multiple phone calls, rude unapologetic staff, multiple trips to the family services offices, and showing up for a schedule appointment which I apparently didn\u2019t have although a letter said otherwise.<\/p>\n
Going through this tedious very stressful process has opened my naive eyes to the system of government assistance.\u00a0 While I will hopefully get food stamps after going through an appeal process, which could take another month, I still have food in the cabinet to feed me and money to buy it if I don\u2019t.\u00a0 For most going through this process that\u2019s not the case.\u00a0 They require almost immediate assistance in order to feed themselves and most often their entire family.<\/p>\n
While this process has been time consuming and highly stressful, I cannot fathom the weight of balancing a family, multiple jobs, and whatever else life decides to throw at you as well. \u00a0 Aren\u2019t government assistance programs meant to help reduce the daily stresses instead of creating more?\u00a0 How can these individuals and families work through the system to get what they need without high stress and time away from work and family?<\/p>\n
Although I was upset with my rejection and denial of benefits there are people who are rejected and denied on a regular basis whether in society or through government assistance.\u00a0 Instead of cursing the flawed system what can we do to make it better?\u00a0 What conversations can we start having with friends and family?\u00a0 What immediate actions can we take?\u00a0 Food stamps or no food stamps I came through the process with a changed mind and perspective.\u00a0 For that, I thank you Indiana Family Services!<\/p>\n
P.S. Indiana Family and Social Services Administration doesn\u2019t really sign their letters with love I just needed some comedic relief on the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Going through this tedious very stressful process has opened my naive eyes to the system of government assistance. Aren’t government assistance programs meant to help reduce the daily stresses instead of creating more? How can these individuals and families work through the system to get what they need without high stress and time away from work and family? <\/p>","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[136,321],"tags":[267,34,141,265,266],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poverty","category-young-adults","tag-families","tag-food","tag-food-stamps","tag-government-assistance","tag-stress"],"yoast_head":"\n