Restaurants on Food Stamp List?

When we saw this headline.....we honestly could not believe it. I REALLY have been gone to long!

Posted: Sep 06, 2011 8:37 PM EST Updated: Sep 06, 2011 9:20 PM EST

By Brooke Holmquist -

SALINAS, Calif.- Taco bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Pizza Hut.  Your tax dollars may be paying for people to eat there.

Fast food restaurants are looking to tap into a new market, to make a profit.

Right now, only people who are disabled, homeless or eldery can use their food stamps at restaurants.

Central Coast News found out, health officials don't think the new move is a great idea.

Richelle Dasinger knows her daughter Sandra would go to a fast food restaurant instead of buying groceries with her food stamps.

"I definitely think that people, like my daughter, who don't like to cook would use it more often."

Sandra agrees and said she wouldn't think of the nutritional value, just what's cheap and easy.

That's why Monterey County Health Department director Dr. Hugh Stallworth said it may not be the best bang for the food stamp buck.

"The dollar just doesn't go as far in a restaurant as it would if the parents bought things to take home and prepare the food...Not just one meal, but several meals," said Stallworth.

So i tried it myself.

I bought eight plain tacos for a family of four, two tacos each.   It cost me $8.53.

Then I went to the 99 cents store.   I bought one head of lettuce, one bag of cheese, two cans of beans, meat and a 30 pack of tortillas.

With just the ingredients I bought I could feed a family of four, tacos, for multiple days or make much more than just eight tacos, and it only cost me $5.60.

"It wouldn't last her the whole month because she would be busy buying hot food and so she wouldn't be able to pace out her money as well as she does coming to the grocery stores and stuff," said Dasinger.

While Monterey County does not participate in the restaurant meals program, some of the local farmer's markets do accept food stamps.

Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Tuollume and Santa Clara counties have a program called CalFresh, allowing certain people with food stamps to buy hot meals.   Fast food restaurants are not included in it