Poor people aren’t zoo animals. Stop inspecting their carts, filming their food bank lines, and acting like unpaid auditors of their survival.
As a foster mom, my caseworker insisted that we take advantage of WIC benefits for our kids in care. She said they were eligible and that it was our job to use it on their behalf.
So I dutifully took my WIC checks to Walmart and spent hours—with small active kids in tow—trying to make the best decisions for them. Fast forward to checkout, where the cashiers clearly hated dealing with WIC checks.
“I’ve got another WIC here,” they’d yell with a big sigh to the manager.
“Fine, I’ll come check out the WIC person,” they’d snort back.
People behind me would huff and groan and stare at the purchases in my cart. I could feel their glares, see them examining the items I chose, all while my littles squirmed and wiggled.
It wasn’t the kids’ fault. Yet here we were, being made a spectacle of, pointed out for the entire checkout area to watch.
The Pumpkin Scandal
I was reminded of this recently when a disabled creator online talked about how she got flack for buying a pumpkin with her SNAP benefits. A pumpkin, for goodness’ sake. It sparked immediate controversy and judgment. How dare she buy something as much fun as a pumpkin! (Personally, I thought it was a great idea – edible decorations? That’s getting more for your money).
The problem isn’t the government providing help.
The problem is the public’s self-appointed role as auditor and judge.
The judgment strips recipients of their autonomy and humanity. The message is clear: if you need assistance, you don’t deserve dignity. You certainly don’t deserve to experience joy.
If you shop with SNAP or WIC and have certain items in your cart, you are going to be judged. Don’t you dare buy soda, cookies, processed food, or, by golly, something seasonal that could be mistaken for a decoration. You’ll get judged if you do.
Because if you’re poor, people act like you’re only “allowed” the bare essentials, and they must be perfectly healthy choices. Never mind that less nutritious, highly processed foods are often cheaper per calorie than “healthy” foods, and that many low-income neighborhoods (often referred to as food deserts), have little or no convenient access to stores with fresh food at all.
Why do onlookers feel entitled to judge other people’s food choices? Is it because you’re using “my tax dollars” to buy that? Does contributing to taxes give me the right to dictate what you consume with YOUR body?
Who gets to decide what someone else eats?
You wouldn’t walk up to a stranger in a coffee shop and tell them they shouldn’t be eating that pastry. So why are we blowing up the internet with judgment over another adult’s decision on what to eat?
There’s also this unspoken rule that recipients of aid need to “look” or “act” poor to be deserving of help. You’re not supposed to look happy. You’re not supposed to have pleasure or joy. Your food choices are reduced to survival only—you must live on rice and beans and be thankful.
So when a SNAP beneficiary purchases a non-essential, the reaction is anger. Anger that “their” money, their hard-earned tax dollars, are being spent on something as “wasteful” as joy.
Why is it okay for the wealthy to make frivolous choices – yachts, multiple vacation homes, fancy cars – while every dollar the poor spend is scrutinized and picked apart? Why does this double standard exist?
This kind of judgment ignores the reality that food access is restricted, and that in many areas, especially urban ones, high-calorie, processed foods are the cheapest way to stave off hunger.
We aren’t arguing over “issues.”
We are arguing over human beings.
Snap Qualifications
Our government has already decided that if you meet specific criteria—mainly having a low enough income for your household size—then you qualify for help. That process is done. No need to judge. No need to defame. No need to put people down.
The government already decided these folks need and deserve assistance. There’s no need to re-vet them in the checkout line. There’s no need for you, a passerby, to inspect their cart or silently decide if they deserve it. No point in shaming them on social media. It’s already been done.
And then there’s poverty as spectacle.
The local news channel recently showed up at a mobile food bank, filming people without consent and even asking for interviews. I find this reprehensible.
Spotlight the food bank? Yes, please. They are good people doing good work, and it’s important to show where people can find resources.
But betraying the privacy of folks who need help—during a time when people needing assistance are already subject to scrutiny, judgment, and scorn? That’s a big no for me. We can do much better than news crews filming vulnerable people in line at food banks without truly informed consent.
A person waiting in line at the food bank can’t just walk away to stay off camera—they need that assistance. And if it’s a car line, there is no room to drive away before being recorded anyway. It’s unfair to force media on them just to show the world, “Hey, look, this person needs help!” especially when people needing assistance are so harshly criticized.
Exposing recipients of aid isn’t good journalism. It’s poverty voyeurism, feel-good charity content that brings in views but doesn’t actually help anyone. It’s a massive invasion of privacy that can put them in harm’s way.
Stop the Judgement
I know you don’t like other people questioning your choices, so please don’t do it to someone else. Don’t analyze the shopping carts of someone who holds an Access card. Don’t huff and puff at people pulling out their WIC folder. Aren’t we all just trying to make it through the day?
If you have more than someone else, you have the power and the responsibility to help them, not the right to analyze and judge their choices.
I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it: your anger is misdirected.
The problem isn’t the poor.
The problem is corporate greed and policies that keep wages low, rents high, and healthy food out of reach.
If you’re angry, aim that anger at the systems that make it so millions of working people need SNAP and medical assistance just to survive.If you don’t like that so many people need help, do something that makes it possible for working people to earn a living wage.
The measure of our society isn’t how well we police the poor, but how hard we work to make poverty unnecessary. How are you going to help?