Name: SNAP Recipients Answer The Most Googled Questions About Food Stamps
Uploaded: 2026-01-12T16:54:00.000Z
Duration: 8 min 10 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

If they need it, they should be applying.

To-infinitive

Want to dedicate our lives to something that matters to us.

I'm J. Michaels, and my job is music management.

I teach theater and songwriting workshops, and I've been on Snap probably for the last five years.

I have a master's degree, and I was laid off from a Catholic school I was working for.

So I think so many of us then were in the same boat.

And when you fall behind, it's not easy to catch up.

So if I didn't have Snap, that would be scary.

Radio is consolidating, so when you consolidate, a lot of people are let go.

And I was part of the people that were let go.

Not based on performance or anything, just pure numbers.

I ended up, you know, applying for SNAP benefits in Texas as an adult, as a teaching artist, because I have what's called episodic income.

When it averages out, I actually qualify for food stamps, and

that allows me to have groceries throughout the year without worrying about, you know, am I gonna be able to pay for them this month or next month.

if you don't have enough money and you need food, then you should be on it.

I had to fill out so much information, and

I also don't believe so many people are on it.

There's a percentage of the population that genuinely needs this service, and I needed this service.

You have to meet certain requirements, Income and work and household size, in addition to the actual application process, which is a long application where you have to submit information on everything you've made in the last few months.

Your bank statements from any bank account that you have, any assets that you have.

You have to list them on the account, and you have to provide documentation.

In addition to that, there is an interview that will be scheduled for you, but

you will never make it because they will mail you an invitation that will always be late so you won't make it.

And so then you have to actually call their office at, like, you know, whenever they open.

Or you can take the route of going in person to the social services office, where you can get there an hour before they open and wait in line.

Like you're auditioning for Broadway or something and apply in person and have all those documents with you.

I don't know if you've ever been to a food bank.

Maybe you'll get a bag of oranges and some flour and a big tray of frozen vegetable lasagna.

it's human dignity to want to eat the foods that we want.

In radio, we did a lot of benefits for food banks.

food banks seem like for people that really couldn't even go through the system.

I think people have this idea that a food bank is like a grocery store where it's just like open all the time and you just go and you pick out what you want.

If I could paint a picture for you, imagine if you and your friends decided to have a food bank in your neighborhood, right?

We're gonna be here for these hours, these set hours on this set day of the week, and

then you can come and pick up food, meaning you can take whatever's available for you.

So, one, you have the challenge of being able to be there on time.

Second, you have the challenge of even knowing about it in the first place, like actually finding one.

And I have unfortunately been in the position where I had to find a food bank or had to find a community fridge.

And I genuinely think that the people who run food banks, like, they do this out of the goodness of their heart.

So they're trying to provide things that are fresh, but

sometimes by the time things get there, they might not be fresh.

I don't have enough money for everything, and I don't live an extravagant life.

I live in a mobile home and I have a car that's paid off.

So it just has to do with financial need.

So many people are using it to supplement money while they're in between jobs.

A lot of people who are on SNAP are working class people, meaning they have jobs.

When I say underemployed, I mean people who have jobs, but

they're not making enough money to pay their bills.

They're not making enough to pay rent, groceries, all that.

You have folks who are disabled to the point where they cannot work.

And then you've got a whole lot of people who just are not able to make ends meet.

One of the biggest recipients of SNAP benefits, like, you're talking about literally feeding children.

Not fancy food, not cat food, not dog food, not diapers, cigarettes, alcohol, none of those things.

And if it's food that's prepared, let's say a grocery store has fried chicken.

SNAP doesn't cover it because it's cooked in that store.

They're good restrictions, too, because you have to use it for things that are going to support your family.

It's not something you can abuse and go buy alcohol and stuff like that.

And you're only allowed to use it for food.

I can't even buy toilet paper with food stamps.

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SNAP Recipients Answer The Most Googled Questions About Food Stamps

literally

stuff

perception

genuinely