With a freeze on SNAP benefits during the government shutdown, so many people are questioning how they’ll get by. On TikTok, helpful content creators have been sharing cheap meal ideas and inspiring hope in many. However, there’s also an ugly side to TikTok I’m sure we’ve all seen. A Florida woman went to TikTok to discuss how difficult it is trying to survive with so few groceries. She asks for help from her audience to throw cheap meal ideas at her while she’s unable to access her food stamps. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go the way she expects. Instead, she’s greeted by rude and unhelpful comments.
TikToker V (@v.allure) posted a video saying, “No food stamp November in full effect.” She tells her audience that she hasn’t gotten her November food stamps and only has a little money for groceries. She asks everybody to “drop your budget-friendly Aldi meals in the comments.” According to V, with few options left, she and her family are about to be eating only soup and chili until their benefits resume. This is a sad reality that so many families are facing at this very moment.
V explains that she has been through the trauma of living in poverty in the past. She said that, when she was living in her first house, she didn’t have money to spend on proper groceries. As she says, “I was literally so depressed and hungry I was crying on the kitchen floor calling my mom for food.” It’s so difficult for people to get out of poverty once they’re already in it and this is just an example of this.
Instead of meeting V with support and understanding, an audience on the apparent wrong side of TikTok found her. One commenter pointed out that V’s hair is dyed and so she could have saved money. They rudely pointed out, “I make 120k+ a year and sometimes I skip dying my hair to save money, I use box dye…” V explained that a loved one paid for her to dye her hair for her birthday but this doesn’t matter to these heartless TikTokers.
Another commenter stated, “Girl that’s literally what most of us Americans without food stamps are doing anyways. Like everyone losing food stamps right now acting like life has stopped and you can still make food and cheap meals!” Apparently, this commenter doesn’t understand that food stamps literally supplement food for families. Without them, how are they getting money to eat when every cent goes toward other bills for a struggling family? As another pointedly commenter responds, “Some people don’t have a literal dollar left after their bills. They deserve to eat. Them getting food stamps is not hurting us.” Everybody without assistance thinks that people on food stamps are the enemy right now. They need to take a really close look at their government and what it’s doing to its people.
