Food Stamps

One of the most oft-repeated adages is “money can’t buy happiness”, but how true is that? And how much does it apply to people on food stamps? This week, we’ll take a look at the relationship between money and happiness for food stamps users in a four-part series.

Spending Time with Friends: You don’t need money to be in good company, the theory goes. All you need is to be with friends, enjoying the simple pleasures in life and you’ll be far richer than those who spend money on socializing. This message is especially trotted out around the holidays, as do-gooders preach the importance of love and relationships in the face of commercials and ads exhorting you to spend thousands.

But try telling that to someone on food stamps when every spare cent is vainly spent trying to put enough food on the table. Where are they supposed to go and socialize, especially as winter sets in? Cafes don’t like loiterers, restaurants don’t all you to bring your own food in, and movies don’t play for free.

And this is assuming that even if someone wants to be friends with someone who has limited job prospects, no savings, and a bleak financial future, they live in the same neighborhood, never mind the same city or state. For someone employed and on food stamps, that can mean long shifts with a brutal commute each way. Unless their friend lives down the street, hopping on another bus to visit without the distraction of a movie or a meal just isn’t worth it.

Things like taking trips or vacations together is also out of the picture, too, because it’s so expensive, it might as well be on the moon. After a while, getting together with friends to “simply enjoy their company” either becomes boring from a lack of things to do or a non-stop complaining session of how tired you are from having to work two full-time jobs and still look after a family. Without money to do stuff, you’re not becoming educated or cultured about life, and your world drastically narrows.

Add in a little bit of money, and suddenly spending time with friends takes on a whole new meaning. You’re able to share experiences, like bonding over a hockey game or a shared trip out of town. You get to see parks in other cities—and possibly countries—instead of just the same one three blocks away. And you get to know what it’s like to be able to give a friend a gift that they might necessarily need, but would love to have. Heck, they could even host a get-together or party at their own place, indulging in the pipe dream of having it catered or decorated.

But for someone on food stamps, that just doesn’t happen because the choice almost always comes down to one of two things: food, or no food. And when their stomachs ache with hunger pangs, it’s just about impossible to think of anything but filling it.

Even if that something is seeing a friend.

In Part II of this four-part series, we’ll look at how being on food stamps affects hobbies, and whether or not money can buy happiness.