You’re telling me you get this kind of feed on EBT? Wow.
No.
It's actually worse than that: the lady got the lentils and tripe from a
food bank. These are places, usually run by private and religious charitable organizations, where poors can go to get groceries
for free. The lentils, tripe, milk, and literal garden worth of greenery cost her nothing, and stuff like this will continue to be available to anyone during the EBT shutdown.
EBT is simply a monthly check that's supposed to be used on "non-prepared food" i.e. anything at the grocery store that isn't going to get you drunk, but which can, with a few
clever tricks, be used on liquor and smokes and whatever else you want. You COULD buy tripe and lentils with EBT if you want, sure, although most people prefer soda and Twinkies and big bags of pizza rolls (this is one of the things Republicans want to reform; limiting the types of food and beverages EBT can be applied towards).
EBT checks range from about ten dollars (if you've got a full-time job) to several thousand dollars (if you sit at home all day and convince the government you have a couple kids). The normal maximum payout for a single, unemployed NEET is around $200. Again, having a job or going to school is disincentivized, as any time not spent at home playing Digimon is deducted from your potential EBT payouts, and the penalties to monthly allowances start early and rack up quick.
This is NOT the only avenue poor Americans have for getting food, it's only one of about a dozen options.
It is, however, the one option most conspicuously abused by Future Scholars, as well as the option most Americans (myself included) would prefer to have, since it's free money and you can get whatever you want with it, as opposed to food banks, where you have to suffer and eat sugarless garbage food only ever purchased by foreigners.
