620,000 Military Families Rely on Food Pantries to Meet Basic Needs

[Lee-Lee]

2. Part of this is service members and spouses abusing the system, for active duty anyway

Been there, seen that.

Much like food stamps- because only the base pay and not housing allowances or sustenance allowances are counted as pay for purposes of food stamps and entitlements many are eligible where they wouldn't be if payed the same by any other employer.

A new servicemember will make E-2 within months of finishing training. Base pay for an E-2 with under 2 years is 1716.90 a month.

That is 20,602.80 a year- but if married they will live out of the barracks, so they get Basic Allowance for Sustenance of $357.55 a month, or 4,290.60 a month.

So you have $24,893.40 for an entry level worker in the military, who will get promoted within a year unless they screw up. That is before any special incentive pays.

You might say "nobody can make it one that with a family"- but wait. That assumes they will be living on on-post housing at no cost.

So its $24k a year to cover everything other than housing.

A very livable amount if one budgets responsibly.

If they live off post or one of the new privatized housing setups they will get a housing allowance that is adequate for a decent apartment in their area, as they get promoted that rises and will cover a mortgage plus expenses of a house in most areas.

If an active duty servicemember is at a food bank, barring a few exceptional cases, they either are doing a poor job managing money or are just abusing the system.

Now Reserve and Guard can be a whole different story, I have had several of my troops struggle. We always band together to help whenever we can.