Does anyone of a certain age.. over 70 say .. remember government cheese

[Peacetrain]

Is this what Trump is trying to go back to with his 32 pounds of food monthly for seniors instead of the ability to buy their foods at the store?? These MAHA boxes.. next stop.. sod shanties for poor seniors??


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-maha-food-box-replace-csfp-low-income-seniors/

[Walleye]

1. Trying to imagine what it would be like if this suggestion came from a Democratic administration

[Peacetrain]

2. I know, I know... everyday I am just that much more flabbergasted

[Walleye]

3. They accuse us of having a "nanny State". If this isn't that I don't know what is.

[Diamond_Dog]

4. You know the food boxes will be either

leftovers close to their expiration date or products from one of Trump’s CEO buddies’ companies.

[SheltieLover]

6. Or contaminated with pathogens or heavy metals

[erronis]

19. Probably all of the above. trmp's buddies and contaminated.

[SheltieLover]

20. Probably so!

[Walleye]

23. Will we get the food out of the dumpster at Mar-a-Lago?

[Peacetrain]

5. "I'm from the government, I'm here to help"

"why do you need those nasty old social security cards that people can steal your number.. we will give you 32 pounds of food every month.. and you can live by the rail road tracks and listen to the trains rolling by.. it will help you sleep and you will not need that nasty old TV that has news programs on it that bother you..."

Somehow that scenario is playing through my head..

[JHB]

52. I don't think we need to imagine, considering all the foam over Michelle Obama's vegetable garden

And that was just suggestions, not policy.

[Srkdqltr]

7. It's just stupid. Put out by people who don't live in a reality.

Like everything they do there is no real plan. Stupid people.

[Xavier Breath]

8. You don't have to be 70 to remember it.

I'm 58 and remember my Mom brining some home. It was passable, if memory serves. Couple it with Reagan's newest vegetable, ketchup, and you had two of the four food groups covered!

[get the red out]

12. Reagan and ketchup

My Dad got really pissed off over that (and all things Reagan).

[Xavier Breath]

25. My paternal great-grandfather had zero use for any Republican.

He worked on the railroad and used his salary to provide for his wife and five girls. He never forgave Hoover for the depression and was a staunch Democrat. He spent his final years despising Regan to anyone that would listen. I'm guessing he and your Dad would have gotten along well

[Jilly_in_VA]

53. My maternal grandmother likewise

She was born in 1885, but whenever he came on TV she would glare at him and say, "You're OLD!"

[bif]

28. Saint Fucking Ronnie

The first president to make it okay to fuck the poor.

[Wiz Imp]

16. I'm just a month shy of 60 and I remember it vividly

I remember my mother picking it up (I don't remember exactly who distributed it). I also remember it was under Reagan when Unemployment was over 10% (almost 11%), Inflation over 10%. and the Prime interest rate over 20%.

[usonian]

9. Have YOU had your 5 pounds of cheese today?

[BattleRow]

48. IIRC,they also included a large tin of peanut butter.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. I am laughing my butt off thinking how Trump is stepping in with social programs to send

crumbs down to the needy while he leverages our public money for his own personal benefit.

[get the red out]

11. I am 60

But my grandmother got it and would give most to us (my mom was and only child). I loved the stuff.

[EverHopeful]

13. Remember hearing about it

Tried and tried but can't imagine any way the current regime could handle the logistics of this new scheme. Perhaps they're trying to figure out how to dispose of the crops farmers can't sell because of his tariff insanity.

My cousin and I often tried to make a $.99 bag of elbow macaroni last until payday with nothing to put on it but never really looked for that government surplus cheese.

It did annoy me, though, when I'd hear people yammering about what a useless idea it was. Clearly they'd never gone days without food waiting for payday (but at least the lights were on and the rent was paid) when a bit of cheese would have been nice.

My favorite story from those days was running out of gas on the way to work on payday. This was before the miracle of direct deposit

[Ocelot II]

18. Maybe Grandma and Grandpa will have to come out to the farm

and pick their own.

[True Blue American]

36. My Grandpa and Dad owned a farm. Even after they sold it we lived in a self reliant

Farming community where people shared and helped each other.

We never went hungry but when I went out on my own I had a couple of times. I just found another job.
I believe in giving people a had up, not permanent help. That is what welfare became.

[Ocelot II]

39. It's fine if you live on a farm.

But a lot of elderly people do not live on farms and can't pick their own crops. They might also be unable to even prepare and cook their own food, which is why organizations like Meals on Wheels have been so important. Telling someone who's 85, infirm and housebound in a city apartment, that they should just head out to the farm, pick and cook their own food is just cruel; helping them is not "welfare."

[True Blue American]

43. We did not live on a farm.

It was sold when I was 4 years old. We made a down payment on a nice house that was one of the mass produced houses Roosevelt had the CCC buid.We had to pay for it. My Dad worked on anything he could. At one time my Mother was doing 7 or 8 washings a week for store owners.
What I said was, People shared if they could from surrounding farms. Both my parents taught me self reliance, but also to help if someone needed a hand.

Do not change my words!

[Ms. Toad]

14. You don't have to be that old . . .

It's one of the few things where I can pinpoint where I was when something was mentioned - and I was on a road I drove on only from 1978-1989. So I checked my memory and the program ended in the 80s. So people as young as mid-40s may remember it.

But this appears to be magical thinking. Thirty-two lbs of perishable foods directly from farmers would largely end up in landfills. Most fresh food, direct from farmers, would spoil in a week or two - so it would be feast or famine (or more likely feast, dump, starve). Processed food (dried beans, flour, etc.) is shelf-stable, but isn't direct from farmers. And . . . while we're at it . . . direct from farmers (aside from CSAs and farmer's markets) isn't direct from farmers. It would need to be harvested by the farmers, sent to a third party for packaging into the boxes, and delivered by another third party to the intended seniors.

[Ocelot II]

17. And who's going to harvest all this fresh produce

when the immigrants that do most of the agricultural labor have been deported? It sure won't be Chad and Buffy from Grosse Pointe, home from Bryn Mawr for the summer.

[bif]

31. Hey watch it!

I'm from Grosse Pointe!

[Ocelot II]

38. Sorry!

I'd have used my own town of North Oaks as my metaphor for privileged non-crop-picking white college kids (like me, once) - it's just that more people have heard of Grosse Pointe. No offense to Grosse Pointers.

[bif]

42. Just kidding.

The kids around here are a pretty entitled lot, for the most part. It's amusing to imagine them out in a strawberry patch under the glaring California sun picking fruit!

[Ocelot II]

15. Considering that RFKJR is in charge, we can assume the protein component

will consist of road-killed raccoons and squirrels. Maybe small bears if in season.

[onethatcares]

21. I remember powdered milk too

we had two sons, 3 and 7 y/o. they could go through a gallon of milk in a minute.

[Conjuay]

22. Yeah, I remember the senior citizens club

Giving their members a 10or 12 pound cheese.
I can't imagine how long it took for a single person to consume an entire block of cheese.

[Timewas]

24. Probably

Most likely they will have to pick the boxes up and the pickup points will be 40-50 miles away fro many of them

[democrank]

26. Government cheese? Yes indeedy!

We received a box a month via our town’s “Overseer of the Poor” along with some lard, a can of cocoa powder and some dried milk. On a special month we also received a tiny canned ham.

We thought we had hit the jackpot.

[True Blue American]

27. I remember it clearly.

My Mother would not have anything to do with Government surplus. My Dad’s Half brother, adopted into the big family was thrilled to death with flour, butter and cheese. He brought some flour out to our house. My Mother pitched it saying it was gray and refused to use it. Anything free was great for him.

I think that is where my life long disdain of welfare came from.🥴 and I had a couple of times being hungry.

[LiberalArkie]

29. Yes..

[Maninacan]

30. Commodities

My cheap ass brother in law and my sister drove 100 miles and spent all day to get some canned peanut butter and cheese 1n 1974.

[niyad]

32. 32 pounds a month? WOWWWWW. Such bounty. A whole pound of "food"

a day. A tomato, a grapefruit, and a carrot.

[bif]

33. A friend's parents used to deliver it to seniors

And one of their perks was they got to keep the cheese they couldn't deliver. We had a hunk of it in our fridge for months and months. I must say, the stuff never got moldy!

[atreides1]

34. Well

I'm 66 and I remember getting food assistance when I was in the military, to include government cheese!

[kacekwl]

35. I remember my father

brought some home when he was on strike for over a year. Don't remember if I ate any or how it tasted.

[Greybnk48]

37. We loved it. It was the best American cheese I've ever had.

An elderly relative of mine, at the time, was loaded. His grandson and I were were struggling to get along, as he had just gotten out of the military and was working odd jobs and going to school. He would drive to the neighboring town and get his cheese allotment for us, and we really appreciated it!

[Brother Buzz]

40. Gubment cheese, Baby!

Boy howdy, it was bashed ten was to Tuesday, but I will volunteer it makes a most excellent dormitory grilled cheese sandwich if you set the iron to "cotton".

[Montauk6]

41. THAT was some good-ass cheese!

[orangecrush]

49. It sure fucking was

Cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, 1968.

[Uncle Joe]

44. I'm not over 70 however I remember it, but somebody cut the cheese

Thanks for the thread Peacetrain

[Iamscrewed]

45. Soup lines

If you can get there.

[homegirl]

46. I remember

large bricks of cheese being distributed from the back of a truck in a low income neighborhood in San Francisco.

The U.S. government has had warehouses full of cheese, butter and turkeys for decades. My husband had an aversion to turkey due to being served so much of it during the Korean War!

[LudwigPastorius]

47. But...but...

It’ll include 15lbs of Trump (horse) Steaks™️.

[orangecrush]

50. He wants to kill SNAP benefits

Obviously.

Any senior who voted for this scum will get exactly what they voted for.

[Jilly_in_VA]

51. Oh heck yeah

We didn't get it, but our downstairs neighbor did. We were all struggling, even though my late ex was gainfully employed. She shared hers with us because there was no way she and her two toddlers could eat the whole block. it was GOOD!

[Wicked Blue]

54. Yup. USDA food boxes that contained cheese and other basics

including big bags of prunes.

One time I tried making prune bread. Shared it with co-workers, and you can imagine the results.

[dchill]

55. "...herring boxes without topses sandals were for Clementine."

[LoisB]

56. Yes. I stood in the line with my mother and brother for the box. If I remember correctly, it

contained cheese, powdered milk, peanut butter, bread...

[Tikki]

57. Yes and we were both so busy working minimum wage jobs at the time..

but still found a way to take advantage of the free Government cheese.

Maybe Cheese sandwiches or Mac-and-Cheese.

Ah, the ‘70’s..somehow we survived and we are now in our 70’s.

The Tikkis

[sop]

58. Grocery industry lobbyists will oppose this, stores make money from food stamps.

Since Trump has such a problem with food stamps, maybe just start calling them "food vouchers."

[Wednesdays]

59. Yes! A friend of mine in college got it

Circa 1982. He was epileptic and so qualified to receive them, and he gave me a brick of it once. That cheese made the absolutely best grilled cheese sandwiches.

I kinda doubt anything coming from TSF's government will be anything of quality.

[TygrBright]

60. You don't have to be old. Government surplus food distribution was going on right up until 1/20/2025

The government has always purchased a wide variety of agricultural products from U.S. farmers, for a whole array of purposes, from feeding the military to stabilizing agricultural prices (to support farmers) to retaining stocks of key foodstuffs for disaster remediation.

In addition to those, over the years surplus food has been part of school lunch programs, foreign aid programs, and direct distribution to low-income Americans via several different programs and processes.

The system worked surprisingly well to meet its major goals of stabilizing ag prices and having key stocks available and usable. The "usable" issue provided the impetus for creating programs where food with shorter-term stock limits could be readily distributed while still in good condition for use and consumption.

It was quite an effective, efficient system, well-conceptualized, constantly improved, and well-maintained. It benefited not just millions of individual Americans and families through agricultural price support and direct distributions, but other institutions such as schools, the military, US AID, etc., creating a highly cost-effective synergy.

All hosed now, of course.

Dumb fuckers.

wearily,
Bright

[joanbarnes]

61. I was away at college but my parents got it, it was good!