Instead of food stamps that can be used to buy unhealthy items (such as soda) which we end up paying for in medical costs, let’s support our local farmers and create healthy weekly meal kits.
These meal kits would be available to everyone in participating counties, not just to those on government assistance. Cost would be on a sliding scale depending on your income, therefore no one would be discouraged from earning more money to end up in a worse situation.
Those who would like to lower their costs, make some extra money, or looking for volunteer opportunities could deliver the meals.
For example, I want healthy local meal boxes and make $80,000/year. I would pay full price for my meal box and if I don’t want to pick it up each week, I would pay a fee for it to be delivered by someone in need, which in turn would cover part of the cost of their box. Once the cost of their box is covered, the deliverer starts making money on deliveries. Other opportunities for those who can’t drive would be assembling the boxes, office work- creating delivery routes, printing labels, inventory management.
This would encourage folks to work instead of collect and with healthier eating habits they will have the motivation and energy to do so while at the same time allowing single mothers with young children to be at home with their kids and feed them healthy meals.
The cost would be offset by local restaurants (chefs that create recipes using that weeks ingredients) and other promotional items/information companies would pay to have included inside the kits.