Results tagged “foodstamps”

With college loan debt, three months till graduation, and less than encouraging job prospects, NYU journalism school student Ryan McLendon decided to sign up for food stamps. According to CityRoom, McLendon waited more than seven hours over two days to see a food stamps counselor in Williamsburg, along with young families and other struggling New Yorkers. Since 2002 the number of NYC residents on food stamps has grown by more than 74%. In the end, when McLendon finally met with a food stamps counselor, the computers were down.

As the debate to legalize gay marriage rages on within the chaotic confines of Albany, two young men took matters into their own hands and hoodwinked their way into a marriage certificate at the City Clerk's Office. Hakim Nelson and Jason Stenson were married on May 26th, sliding under the radar on Nelson's food stamps card, which lists him as a female. No one at the clerk's office raised an eyebrow since Nelson arrived wearing an orange dress with white leggings. The two believe that they made history with Stenson saying, "People in Albany can say, 'Look, it's already happened, so let's just make it legal.'" Hakim Nelson and Jason Stenson, you might be New York's first gay marriage to go public, what are you gonna do now? We're taking our story to the New York Post! The Post talked to a city official, who seemed pretty unfazed, telling the paper, "If someone is trying to willfully sneak through, we try to stop it. But you have instances of females [who] have male names and vice versa. You've heard of a boy named Sue, right?" The newlyweds have been honeymooning at a homeless youth shelter in Brooklyn.

Marina Gavrielova's husband makes about $98,000 a year as a limo driver and owns a nice house in Jamaica, Queens, where the couple resides with their three children. But according to prosecutors, Gavrielova duped various city, state and federal agencies into believing she was single mom living in Brooklyn, earning just $200 a week at a nail salon. With her husband posing as her landlord, Gavrielova, a licensed cosmetologist, allegedly bilked the system out of $360,000 in welfare benefits, which helped fund trips to Cancun, the Bahamas and Jamaica.

With more families turning to food stamps as food prices increases, more farmers markets are accepting them. The Farmers' Market Federation of NY says that food stamp sales have grown to $90,000 in 2007 from $3,000 in 2002 (helped in part by wireless technology that allows the farmers to accept payments by food stamp debit card); executive director Diane Eggert told the AP, "We're already outpacing 2007, so I think we're going to see significant growth." One Brooklyn resident hopes to use his food stamps on fresher produce from the farmers, "When you shop at the grocery store, it's very limited-they don't have a very wide selection. I think if we had a farmers market, I think we would shop more, and eat more produce."