I'm in the US and I have a friend in another state on the other coast that is kinda food insecure right now. I am also broke and unemployed, but I have foodstamps (EBT card, SNAP program in the US). I don't have any "regular" money to send them, but I have a couple hundred on my foodstamp account that I don't need for myself. I don't want to void my "benefits" though and I know (well, I've read and been told) that the means-testing fuckers are strict and pay close attention to this kind of thing. Does anyone know if there's a decent, easy way to send my friend food with my EBT card? It can't be known that I'm using it to help feed people that aren't me, obviously.
I know I can buy food locally and then ship it to my friend myself, but that costs. I know I can also use my EBT on websites of certain large scale corporations and have the food sent to my friend's address, but from my understanding, that will get me flagged for using the ebt card for an "unapproved" person which might cost me my "benefits" along with a fine and even a criminal charge.
There's either some obvious way to do it that I'm too dumb and stoned to immediately recognize, or it actually is difficult to do this, by design, because hey, we can't have poor people helping out other poor people, right? That might be bordering on communism!! If it's the former, can anyone who knows about how all this works help me figure the best way to go about it? Thanks for any help. As for opsec, I coincidentally met this person here on hexbear, and know their irl name. But neither of us knows each others specific address. Guess it wouldn't be hard to find out, given a real name, but if I could send them food without even needing their address, it would be great, but probably not possible I'm assuming.
I will add that this question goes beyond just asking if I can help out this specific friend. If there's a safe way for me to "share" my benefits with other people who need some help with food sometimes, I would genuinely love to help out that way. I already have bought some food with my card and handed it out to a few local people without homes, but if there's a more uh... efficient way, I'm open to suggestions!
SNAP is federal so can be used in all 50 states. I used my card to help a couple of friends out in the past. The only issue possibly is that if you make too much of a habit of it, you might get flagged for not reporting a change of address. But honestly I did it several times in the span of a couple of months and didn't have an issue.
I think if you just space the purchases out (tell em to buy in bulk), you can just let DHS know (if they even hit u up) that you've had to move back and forth from X place for work
That is awesome to hear, thank you. Maybe it's not as bad as I heard! I still worry it might be a state by state thing. (edit: SNAP may be federal, but I'm on a state version of SNAP).
Yeah I also have a card that is specific to my state but it can be used in all 50 states. I'm going thru the list and I don't see any state that disallows you from doing this
Awesome! I did use my ebt card in another state a couple years ago with no problem, but I was actually there and present in that other state. This would be sending food to a state I don't live in and will likely never visit, while I also use the same card to get food for myself at the opposite end of this shitstained country.