NYU Student On Food Stamps

I am the mother of 5, in college full time, work 3 small jobs and because of this fucked up economy, I have had to go on food stamps and I drive a conversion van. Should I be able to get them? Well I need them. Hopefully I will find a job that will allow me to go off them, but for those making ignorant comments, I am pretty sure that most of you have never been on welfare, and also have a social media dilution about welfare. It is for those who need it. If a kid is in school trying to get an education (so he doesnt end up a non working bum) and he cant find a job, he shouldn't go and get some help? Or if he drops out of college would that be better in your opinions?

I was on welfare with my boyfriend when we had our first child 20 years ago, my boyfriend up and left me when our child was 4, I was working, but it wasn't enough, I went on welfare. The better I did for myself, the less they helped me with. I got more hours at work, they took my food stamps away. So I asked work to not give me more hours, sounds messed up, but what was I to do, not be able to afford to feed my child? I needed to pay my rent and utilities as well. The only thing you all are right about, is this system is fucked up. It is a system that is an outdated one.

I am sure once he finds himself a job he would be giving up his food stamps. Maybe if the United States took care of its people more, we wouldn't have these issues. We are the only country in the WORLD with a structured government who doesn't take care of its poor, and doesn't take care of its elderly.

And it is the ignorance of people in this country that keep it down.

I don't see anything wrong with a struggling student applying for Food Stamps. It's for anyone in NEED, people! So what if he's @ NYU? I can't believe the asinine comments..how do you know he didn't have grants or scholarships? I have a feeling that most of you would rank on ANYONE who was on Food Stamps. If it was a single mom with kids, you'd still bitch about that.

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I went to CUNY, and proudly living loan-free. No bank owns me.

I want to CUNY and I could buy myself with my debt.

I got a suggestion: eat dogshit. It's free and there's no standing in line.

Sympathy level: zero.

Also, there is no right way to answer this conundrum. You can't quantify "poor" and "deserving."

Does he speak another language? It may not be that bad elsewhere.

lose the earrings, please lose the earrings

btw

http://gothamist.com/2009/10/19/new_york_times_to_slash_newsroom_st.php

95,000 for a journalism degree, yeah, wise choice

i love it when broke people wear multiple piercings and tattoos. Shows where their money goes.

dont blame me, i voted for ron paul

That's worse than voting for Nader.

If you want to be poor, go to J-school. If you want to be even poorer (read: eventually unemployed), work in publishing after J-school.

Exactly. It's not just about graduating at the wrong time. It's about picking a dying profession.

Note to NYU students: Gourmet Garage does accept food stamps.

I thought you can't get FS if you're a full time student?

if she is living with her mother, it gets listed in the application with her mother's income.

Also, this is not uncommon. I volunteered at a food co-op (for the discount) and I can't tell you home many times white hipster grad-student types would come in and pay for their organic seaweed and free-range chicken breasts with a food stamp card. And they seemed not the least bit embarrassed either!

What, should they just be eating potato chips and twinkies from the bodega?

Honestly, I feel pretty good about my tax money going towards students. They're as likely as not going to be useful members of society, and I see no reason why they should suffer unduly.

I mean, hey, good on you for taking the tough route, but I don't see it as at all necessary.

Honestly, I feel pretty good about my tax money going towards students. They're as likely as not going to be useful members of society, and I see no reason why they should suffer unduly.

That shouldn't be how taxes are spent. If you feel good about your $$ going to students, feel free to donate to a charity or scholarship. We should be getting our budget under control, not handing out food stamps to people who should be working.

McLendon waited more than seven hours over two days to see a food stamps counselor in Williamsburg

two days he could have been earning $$ doing part time work, probably at the very grocery store he went to spend the food stamps at.

Who should we be handing out food stamps to?

Sad to say that the system is easily frauded. I know a girl who goes to a cuny school, lives for free in the honors dorms, her mother makes six figures a year (it's just the two of them) yet she filed her daughter as an independant and got her a food stamp card and her daughter uses it as a "meal card" while she's away at school ( all the way ::sarcasm:: downtown since they live on te upper west)

it disgusts me.

This privileged asshole gets zero sympathy from me- I paid tuition with student loans but fed, clothed and housed myself on my own dime by working my ass off in restaurants and bars full time.

Then I waited tables, worked temp and entry-level jobs for years until I finally worked my way up (a little). And paid my loans AND MY TAXES while I was doing it without taking a dime from Uncle Sucker.

Don't see the problem with college kids getting food stamps; they have to qualify just like anyone else, and odds are they're going to be the ones getting jobs, paying taxes and eventually footing the bill anyway.

That's exactly what I did. I attended NYU (as a transfer undergrad) on scholarships and loans. My program was extremely time consuming and I was probably one of the only students working outside the school for an additional 25 hours a week (at my prior college I thought nothing about attending school full time plus a 40 hr a week job). I received food stamps for about 6 months when I needed them desperately, and have no regrets; I also realized that if I was going to be sexually active, I was obligated to practice birth control consistently and responsibly to prevent any surprises in the equation.

Your net weekly income is no different if you choose the same program at a cheaper school and any loans are to be paid back after graduation. A scholarship awarded by a particular school isn't magically going to be transferred to your bank account for living expenses if you suddenly decide not to attend that school. Depending on the financial aid package, a school more expensive on paper might actually be the more economical choice.

The food stamp program was a bit humbling at the time, but it was valuable in that it gave me greater empathy for others. It also a great reminder how few steps can lie between a secure existence and a life on the streets.

I don't think you can get soy milk with food stamps. However, you can just sell them to the local bodega for 25 cents on the dollar and buy booze.

ahhh, the United Welfare Entitlement States of America

Hotstepper is correct about the system; don't tell me most of the people here haven't taken advantage of something they didn't need on the taxpayers dime. And this kid was pretty up-front about feeling out of place next to women who had kids with them.

I don't feel too sorry for him, and I wouldn't have made the same choice (my tip: Get a job in the cafeteria. Meals and a paycheck!), but it's wrong to assume that all private university students are privileged and/or obnoxious. I don't know about the J. program, but their graduate program in social work doesn't leave time for a job outside of the classes and field work.

That said, he probably could have gone to the line with a book instead of the phone and without the high-end-coffee in his hand.

I don't feel sorry for him either and even though he might not be privileged and/or obnoxious he sure isn't very smart to have borrowed nearly $100k in loans for a profession that is dying a slow agonizing death. If you can't make through college paying off a majority of your tuition with grants and scholarships then you should just stick with state or city college because those debts will stick with you for life. You can't write off those student loans by declaring bankruptcy.

That's not true; it strongly depends on the economy and your major. I went to private school and had 21K of debt when I got out. But I paid it all off because I majored in a desirable field ... not a dying field or a field that requires wealthy parents (eg, literature, history, Ancient Greek).

I think tuition is almost negligible in NY, it's the living expenses that really run things up.

maybe now he'll learn something instead of using phrases like "welfare queens". where are you people doing your shopping where you seen one of these?

Move back to Cincinnati where the cost of living is half what Brooklyn is.

I went to NYU and am considering food stamps. While I realize it was a choice to go to such an expensive school (and pay for it all with loans), I made that choice with the mindset that it would help me get a good job once I finished. Unfortunately for everyone, the economy died and well-paying jobs are hard to come by. While I don't think this was newsworthy, I think everyone needs to STFU with all the NYU bashing already. Not everyone who goes there fits the "overprivaledged-obnoxious-NYU Student" stereotype.

I'm not trying to attack you here, but well paying jobs are not nearly as damaged or scarce as low paying jobs in the current job market.

I noticed that you intentionally wrote "well-paying jobs are hard to come by", which makes it sound like you are unwilling to settle for an average paying job...which brings me back to my previous point above. (and makes you sound like an over-privileged obnoxious nyu stereotype)

You should call Suzy Orman, she will put your ass in line.

I am willing to settle for an average paying job and in fact have done so - I'm temping currently and am barely staying afloat. I specified "well-paying" for just that reason - even if you're working it might not be enough to pay all the bills. I'm doing everything I can and will be applying for income based repayment to lower my loan bills so I can afford things better. I'm not getting any help from anyone and wouldn't ask for it even if I could. So, no I'm not one of those NYU stereotypes. I graduated at the wrong damn time is all.

if the kid was indeed eligible by law for stamps then the issue is not with him but NY state for having such loose restrictions. this is exactly why strict regulation and policing of entitlements is the only way to make sure that people in need get help and the others get the boot.

That's what comes when you go to a private school in NYC, why do these ppl go to get food stamps , including jews from bklyn on food stamps and then they act so privledged if its above you stay out- leave that money for the families that actually need it

Jews? You mean Sids, I think (Hasidem: the guys with the funny curls who drive minivans and fund terrorists).

Please don't lump the rest of us in with them. Or are all Christians like Fred Phelps?

Why is this newsworthy? Everybody starves and scrapes by in college, that's what makes it so much fun! It builds character. It forces kids to get a move on with their job prospects and find work as opposed to sitting around waiting for the socialist government to give them hand-outs.

Admit it, those years you spent scrimping by on ramen noodles and rooming with ten other people to pay rent were the best years of your lives.

when i was in college, i looked into getting food stamps. after all, free food was basically currency. and as i recall, they didn't let full time students get food stamps.

Since starting graduate school, Ryan McLendon has lived nearly entirely on student loans. All together, he has taken out $95,000 in five years, including undergraduate loans. With less than three months left until his graduation from New York University’s school of journalism, Mr. McLendon had to make a choice to keep afloat: Take on more debt, or get help.

Here's a thought... get a f--king job! For 5 years you haven't been able to get a part time job doing anything? Out of curiosity, what does he expect to do once he graduates and can't get more loans?

I'm assuming he's going to get a job since he doesn't have to spend his time studying.

Working and going to grad school, while possible, is horribly difficult. Take it from me, I work 40+ hours a week and go to school for another 10-15. My school work suffers, my real work suffers, and I don't get any sleep.

Seriously?

I worked 40+ hours and went to graduate school full time, and I am a single parent. Thousands of people do this every day. I did not sleep as much or make straight As like I would have if I had the luxury of not working or parenting, but it's totally feasible.

Seriously? Did you read my comment about how I'm doing it, but not happy about it? Sorry you couldn't get the A's, neither can I. Thus: I wish I could have gone on foodstamps to save myself some hassle and maybe get the A's.

At the end of the day I would rather have a B and no food stamps then an A with food stamps, Maybe you would have saved yourself the hassle, but I now have to work another 10 hours to pay for your food.

Please. I worked 20 - 25 hour weeks all the way through high school, college (William & Mary) and grad school (NYU), and I was totally able to balance work, studying/classes, and free time. I was also on a work-study program at NYU, but still came out with $13,000 in debt.

Oh please, you should have gotten a full scholarship to Harvard and received an all expense paid-for PhD from Princeton. Then you wouldn't have graduated with 13K in debt. Slacker.

20-25 you say? Yeah, DOUBLE that, and you'll get my work week. Add more to that and you'll get my school week. And I'm in debt up to my eyeballs.

Yuck! You mean, like, an hourly wage?

Speaking of which, what percentage of those loans was set aside for beer-money/girls/boys/adderol/blow?

or this: http://gothamist.com/2009/10/12/nyu_grad_student.php

I have federally sponsored loans from private companies - they went straight to the school, I never touched a dime.

foodstamps are a supplement. it varies on how much income you make, some get the max, some don't and get $20-$30 a month.

bloomberg closed down many foodstamp offices in the city and it's a USDA program.

Over privileged vapid piece of shit.

Maybe you should turn your "google filters" on to show you how much money you've wasted living in the city and going to a school you can't afford.

You guys seem pretty out of touch. My girlfriend and I went to the "#1 Best Value" SUNY school in Western NY. She worked two full time jobs last year (while in school) and still had to get food stamps to make ends meet. I'm also nearly 100k in debt from tuition and housing, and I didn't even go to NYU.

If you need food stamps you need food stamps, you think every single person on food stamps is a broken down alcoholic who's been on the streets for 5 years?

Maybe the j-school student can write a story about it and sell it for, oh.....three or four dollars.

Exactly. That's not what fuckin food stamps are for. You can't have money and then spend a ton on things and get food stamps, that's BS.

Tell that to the people that leave the supermarket in $60,000 SUVs after using food stamps to pay for a good portion of their grocery bill. Wake up, this system is fraud-laden.

This is something I find infuriating, and surprisingly common. How can you have a car and qualify for food stamps, or any sort of public assistance? Having a large family or something? I was on one of the state health care things for a while, and as soon as I found a low-paying part-time job I was making too much to qualify for anything.

Wow people make some pretty ignorant statements, including Mr. McLendon & his faux-PC all-accepting attitude of the people on line with him outside the welfare office. "Welfare Queens" was a pretty big blunder though, unless there's some new transgendered/ on welfare group I haven't heard about.

With the exception of those patting themselves on the back for holding 2-3 FT jobs as single parents AND walking uphill(both ways)in the snow 20 miles to school each day, I'd take a gamble that many who read + commented on this article have never really wanted for much of anything. I'd also gamble that most have definately not had to go sit in a welfare office & deal with the displaced frustration & passive aggression of some of the workers(think DMVx10) or really have a clue about how the welfare system in the US actually "works." While it doesn't surprise me, it still infuriates & depresses me to read such judgemental & paternalistic comments...Of course there's fraud in the system- what large system doesn't have fraud? Just because SOME people exploit it doesn't mean everybody on P.A.(that's Public Assistance) is a liar, alchoholic/drug addict, criminal, stupid, or think they're owed something, enjoy living on all that "free money" & want to be dependant for the rest of their lives. I hope that none of you with your helpful suggestions of what people on P.A. "should" or should not have or-even better-WHAT FOOD they should buy or not buy, never have the misfortune to need PA yourselves.

Sorry, but if you're that destitute, don't go to a private school.

(It doesn't say where he went for undergrad, but he's from Cincinnati, and OSU is a perfect good school that won't leave you almost 100k in debt.)