I Don’t Think They Need Help, They Look Like They Have Money

Yasmine Toure

Sometimes, the requirements to receive food stamps from the government or the states are rigorous. Some people are in need, but because the income that they have is higher than the requirements, they will not receive the help they need.

I remember that one day, in my Anthropology class, we watched a documentary about hunger. In this documentary, a young woman had to stay unemployed if she wanted to feed her two children. Indeed, when she was unemployed, she received food stamps, but did not have enough money to pay for her bills. Months later, she found a job and her children were not eligible anymore to receive free food at school because of her income. She had to provide all the food by herself, which took her back to the beginning; she wasn’t able to pay all her bills again.

Looking at somebody’s income or outside look to define their needs can be misleading sometimes. It’s hard to identify who needs help just by what we see because we don’t know what’s really going on in their personal life. We should try our best to give as much as we can, even in communities with “nice” neighborhoods and “wealthy” people.