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!
Buy non perishable at a farmers market?
Farmer's markets are great because people with ebt get like double the value. Or 1/3? I forget. Anyway, it's good, so thanks. I'd still have to package it up and ship it to my friend, which I am totally willing to do, but still would LIKE to avoid if possible.
Your going to have to ship it. If you are looking to try and spend your ebt money on another state you gotta fly their. Other wise what your are trying to figure out is fraud.