This site is privately owned and is not affiliated with any government agency. Learn more here.

Food Stamps

ViewArticles

At Food Stamps, the focus is often on serious topics because being a SNAP recipient isn’t usually associated with fun times. But for a change, here are some of the successes and positives associated with the SNAP program.

Oprah Winfrey: Born in 1954 to a teenage mother, Oprah was raped at the age of 9, pregnant at 14, and lost her son in infancy. But while she was still a teenager, Oprah got a job at a local radio station that quickly led to anchoring a local evening news program. Before her big break, though, Oprah stole from her mother, dated older boys, had to put up with years of abuse, and rode the bus with other African-Americans where her poverty was rubbed in her face. Today, Oprah’s one of the most successful people in the world, never mind a successful TV show host.

Whoopi Goldberg: Entering the world one year after Oprah, Caryn Elaine Johnson was born and brought up in a public housing project in Manhattan. Her parents split up when she was young, she dropped out of high school, and even took jobs as a phone sex operator and morgue beautician.  However, when she lived in communist East Germany, Whoopi was exposed to theater and carved out her road to success.

Ruth Riley: The 6’5” star of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream had a childhood that was anything but. Her family encountered a stumbling block that caused her mother to turn to food stamps, but this ensured that Ruth always had something to eat. As a result, she grew tall and strong and got into the athletic form necessary to make a professional basketball career possible.

Dr. Phil: His father was an alcoholic, and Phil McGraw had to work from a young age to help his mother put food on the table for him and his three sisters. At times, though, it still wasn’t enough and he lived in apartments with no utilities. Fast forward many years, and his face is one of the most recognizable in the United States, a testament to incredibly hard work, a results-oriented mindset—and, of course, a couple of lucky bounces.

Michael Oher: People know this gentle giant from the movie, The Blind Side, which was made about him and starred Sandra Bullock. But some of the details might surprise you: he and his 11 siblings shared an alcoholic and crack cocaine addict-mother, his father was always in and out of jail, went to 11 different schools during his first nine years (and had to repeat the first and second grades), alternated between foster care and homelessness from the age of 7, and endured his father getting murdered when he was only a high school senior. But thanks to people looking out for him, Oher went on to be drafted by the Baltimore Ravens and secured a comfortable future.

The American Dream often tells people that if they just work hard enough, life will be easy for them. It’s not true, of course, as luck and support also have to be involved. But these five individuals are living proof that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Comments

There are currently no comments, be the first to post one.

Find Food Stamps Office Locations

Additional Reading