I'm not ashamed to admit that DW and I claim WIC benefits. We are eligible for WIC benefits because we adopted two children from foster care. Because WIC expires when a child reaches age five, we currently have benefits for one child.
We generally shop at one of about five grocery stores in three towns. Two of the stores are Wal Mart, and the other three are smaller stores.
At two of the smaller stores, the employees are generally very polite and discreet when it comes to using the WIC card. One of the stores in particular is very discreet and polite to patrons utlizing WIC. (I'll freely admit that DW used the card more frequently than I do, she probably uses it two or three times for every one time I use it, so this information is from her).
But on Saturday, I brought our three youngest kids into town for DD2's soccer game. I needed to pick up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk before heading back home. I stopped at our local, home town grocery store. The one that is not at all polite or discreet when it come to using WIC.
As it is near the end of the month, I was not sure how many items we had remaining on our WIC card. So, before I started shopping, I asked the clerk to check our remaining benefits.
She took the card, and started tapping in some information through the register, and then said very loudly "Oh this is a WIC card, not a Bridge card" in Michigan a bridge card is a regular food stamp card, and the two cards look almost identical. She printed out my information, and handed me the slip, and I thanked her. She then told me, very loudly again, that the store now has an entire aisle dedicated to WIC items. I thanked her, and went about my shopping.
We had two gallons of WIC milk remaining for the month. No bread. So, I picked up the two gallons of milk, and a brand of bread that is not WIC eligible, and headed back to the check out, back to my friend that had helped me out in the beginning.
She rang the items up, I swiped the WIC card, and had the two bucks in my hand to pay for the bread. She said, loudly again, "I didn't think that bread would go through, you can go back and get a different kind". I tried to help her understand that we had already used our bread allocation for the month, and that I would be paying cash for this loaf. I'm still not sure if she quite understood me. I just handed her the two bucks, collected my change, and left the store.
Our boys are also on Medicaid. We witness all sorts of shabby treatment through the Medicaid system as well. Again, DW gets the majority of that shabby treatment.
I'll just say that DW and I have now witnessed first hand a lot of the world surrounding the safety net that is in place for poor Americans. I'm glad it's there for those who need it. And, yes, I know that it is abused by some people.
I'll also say that from a "treating recipients with dignity" stand point, things are probably much better than they were 20, or 30, or 40 years ago. But, I think there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Dignity
April 28th, 2014 at 01:59 pm
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