Panera Bread's CEO is a horrible shopper

[SMR 368]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/panera-breads-ceo-tries-eat-153810950.html

Panera Bread's CEO decided to try to live on $4.50 a day which is apparently the average amount that foodstamps provides. He was surprised that he couldn't afford yogurt, milk, fruit or coffee and decided to live on dry cereal, lentils, chickpeas, and pasta.

I track my daily food intake fairly strictly for health reasons and decided to see how much I spend on food a day. Mind you, my primary goal's are not budgetary and I am not on foodstamps. That doesn't mean I don't take price into consideration, but it doesn't control my shopping either. A typical day for me would be:

1lb of boneless, skinless chicken breasts: $1.99 (I buy value packs when they are on sale. Sometimes they are $1.79).

7 eggs: $0.87 ($1.49 per dozen is an average price. The range is about $0.99 to $1.69)

1 banana (6oz) $0.18375 ($0.49 per lb)

1 half cup of dry rice (3.5oz) $0.12 (I can buy a 20lb bag for $10.99)

1 quart of 1% milk $0.625 ($2.49 for a gallon)

1/2 lb veggies $0.50 (this varies, but whether fresh or frozen many vegetables are less than $1/lb)

1 tablet multi-vitamin $0.03 (buy a 500 tablet bottle of Kirkland Signature on Amazon)

2 fish oil tablets $0.08 (kirkland signature on Amazon, $.04 per tablet)

Salt, pepper, etc. $not much

Total $4.40

Sometimes I replace the banana with an apple, orange or pear. Sometimes I have pasta or potatoes instead of rice. Sometimes I vary the meat. Sometimes I eat fish if I feel like and that would probably break the bank, but the other things wouldn't.

Honestly, I shocked that a corporation is paying this man to run their company if he can't figure out how to eat comfortably on $4.50 a day. I do it without even trying.

Edited September 18, 2013 by SMR

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

You eat 7 eggs a day?

[sandinista! 1,816]

If your food intake isn't providing the vitamins and minerals you need, you're doing it wrong.

$1.99 chicken also insures that animal lived and died in unconscionable and inhumane conditions. Same with the egg prices. And milk. Mmm, love the taste of antibiotics and growth hormones in the am.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

But yet right here in Middle GA in a story I posted earlier just one man in a county with a population of 10,000 committed over 6 million in food stamp fraud in one year

that's 600 dollars per resident.

So what did these poor starving souls eat that were trading there food stamps for cash and beer

The investigator said it is much more wide spread in bigger places.

http://www.macon.com/2013/09/15/2666709/sentencing-scheduled-in-6-million.html

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

But yet right here in Middle GA in a story I posted earlier just one man in a county with a population of 10,000 committed over 6 million in food stamp fraud in one year

that's 600 dollars per resident.

So what did these poor starving souls eat that were trading there food stamps for cash and beer

The investigator said it is much more wide spread in bigger places.

http://www.macon.com/2013/09/15/2666709/sentencing-scheduled-in-6-million.html

We already discussed how you live in a bad area and the rest of the country is not like that. You think what you see, or worse, is everywhere. That is not true. Yet you believe things like "the investigator said it is worse in bigger places." Your view of the whole country is based on inflating the garbage you see around you. That is inaccurate.

[SMR 368]

You eat 7 eggs a day?

Yes. My blood pressure and cholesterol are fantastic.

If your food intake isn't providing the vitamins and minerals you need, you're doing it wrong.

$1.99 chicken also insures that animal lived and died in unconscionable and inhumane conditions. Same with the egg prices. And milk. Mmm, love the taste of antibiotics and growth hormones in the am.

I knew somebody was going to say this.

First, just to call out your blatant lie, I've never found milk in the US that didn't have a label stating it came from cows that weren't injected with growth hormones. Now, that doesn't mean milk doesn't contain growth hormones, because milk naturally contains growth hormones. So yes, I love the taste of growth hormones in my milk.

On the subject of multivitamins, I guess we disagree. But consider that it's literally 3 cents a day and there is no credible source that I have read or heard of that taking a daily multivitamin is bad. Even if you're right, you're saving 3 cents a day.

As far as the conditions that the animals lived in, do you really think there are kids that are starving because they or their parents refuse to eat chicken or eggs from caged chickens? If what you say is true, then my conclusion is that modern farming practices have made meat, eggs, and milk accessible to poorer children in America. But maybe you don't think it matters that kids are malnourished as long as the chickens are running free.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

We already discussed how you live in a bad area and the rest of the country is not like that. You think what you see, or worse, is everywhere. That is not true. Yet you believe things like "the investigator said it is worse in bigger places." Your view of the whole country is based on inflating the garbage you see around you. That is inaccurate.

We all know this happens no where else but mid ga LOL

Sorry massive food stamp fraud is everywhere

[GandD 5,966]

But yet right here in Middle GA in a story I posted earlier just one man in a county with a population of 10,000 committed over 6 million in food stamp fraud in one year

that's 600 dollars per resident.

So what did these poor starving souls eat that were trading there food stamps for cash and beer

The investigator said it is much more wide spread in bigger places.

http://www.macon.com/2013/09/15/2666709/sentencing-scheduled-in-6-million.html

Wow, so there's two extreme sides to an issue? Do go on......

[Darnell 8,479]

i loves it that the google ads on the right have a nice 'Panera Bread Coupon' thingie. Stellar !

[GandD 5,966]

i loves it that the google ads on the right have a nice 'Panera Bread Coupon' thingie. Stellar !

Say hi to my parents when you go. They'll be there.

[Darnell 8,479]

I not shop at that store. Sorry.

[RGinWA 816]

i loves it that the google ads on the right have a nice 'Panera Bread Coupon' thingie. Stellar !

My ad was "Cinnamon Toast Crunch". Gotta love that Google programming.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

We already discussed how you live in a bad area and the rest of the country is not like that. You think what you see, or worse, is everywhere. That is not true. Yet you believe things like "the investigator said it is worse in bigger places." Your view of the whole country is based on inflating the garbage you see around you. That is inaccurate.

Just saying

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-ci-food-stamp-fraud-20130917,0,3062888.story#ixzz2fGIeWs39

Maryland food stamp fraud alleged against Baltimore stores

A federal grand jury indicted 10 Baltimore business owners or operators on charges of stealing nearly $7 million from food assistance programs by agreeing to debit cash for beneficiaries without selling food — then keeping a cut of the proceeds.

The owner of a corner grocery in West Baltimore called "Second Obama Express" is accused of obtaining more than $2 million in payments for food sales that never occurred, a practice that authorities call "food stamp trafficking." Eight others are accused of taking between $348,000 and $1.4 million.

"Taxpayers fund the food stamp program to put food on the tables of needy recipients, not to put money in the pockets of greedy criminals," U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said. "Food producers and distributors benefit when food stamp funds are used to buy food, and honest storeowners work hard to earn a profit by actually selling food."

Incidents of food stamp fraud have risen over the past several years as federal assistance increased during rocky economic times. Congressional Republicans have cited such fraud cases as they push for significant cuts from nutrition programs in an agricultural bill now under consideration.

The largest of the programs is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. What once consisted of actual "stamps" now involves debit cards that can be used to purchase approved food items like breads, cereals, fruits, vegetables, meats, fish and poultry.

The indictment alleges that the store operators instead allowed customers to convert the cards into cash, typically splitting the proceeds. To avoid detection, prosecutors say, the owners debited the funds from the cards in multiple transactions over a period of hours or days.

The amount of trafficked benefits has more than doubled in recent years, reflecting explosive growth in the program. SNAP benefits grew from $36 billion in 2008 to $73 billion in 2011, according to the Department of Agriculture. During the same period, stolen benefits rose from $330 million to $858 million, with the rate of fraud inching up from 1 percent to 1.3 percent.

"Twice as many food stamps benefits are out there, but we still have the same enforcement resources," Rosenstein said.

Small grocery or convenience stores account for 15 percent of all redemptions, but 85 percent of all trafficking, the Agriculture Department said last month in a report, and violations are more likely in higher-poverty neighborhoods.

Among those charged in this week's Maryland case was Abdullah Aljaradi, 51, who prosecutors say owns the Second Obama Express in the 900 block of Harlem Ave. and siphoned $2 million in benefits over a three-year period.

Despite a fluorescent "open" sign blinking in the window, its security gate was pulled down tight Tuesday as a handful of people stood around the corner. No one answered the phone for the store, and an attorney was not listed in court records.

Like the "Obama" store, others closed as a result of the charges were located in downtrodden neighborhoods surrounded by vacant buildings. Their windows and shelves appeared stocked with junk food and sodas. Supermarkets are rare in such "food deserts."

According to affidavits unsealed in the case, FBI agents observed the Obama store and watched dozens of customers leave after conducting SNAP transactions with either no items or a small item such as a soda, even as records showed that about half the transactions had been for more than $40.

The FBI had cooperating witnesses go into the stores, wearing "recording and monitoring devices," who asked if they could "sell stamps."

"I got stamps to sell," a cooperating witness told a store employee during a March visit. "I got two hundred."

"You want one hundred?" a store employee said, according to an affidavit, and kept the other hundred.

William G. Squires Jr., of the Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General, said the debit card transactions are tracked electronically, and officials look for unusual activity and purchases that appear out of step with other stores in similar areas.

"In addition to that, we have informants that give us information, and we get information from concerned citizens," he said.

Rob Santoni, chairman of the Maryland Food Dealers Council, said that the cases represent the "tip of the iceberg."

Santoni, whose family operates Santoni's supermarket in East Baltimore, said he has complained about fraud to the inspector general's office for years, "and this is the first time I have heard of anything ever being done about it."

Santoni said many smaller stores don't have systems that track what items are food-stamp eligible. He said store owners who commit fraud "deserve whatever is coming to them."

None of the food-stamp beneficiaries were charged in the federal case, and Rosenstein said that was because the store owners took the bulk of the proceeds and are supposed to be acting as an "agent of the USDA, making sure the recipients get food."

Dae Cho, 66, and Hyung Cho, 40, of Catonsville are charged with obtaining more $1.4 million in payments at the K&S Food Market in the 3900 block of W. Belvedere Ave. According to court records, authorities say Dae Cho was ordered to voluntarily leave the United States in 2008 and never left, and Hyung Cho "lacks legal status to be present in the United States."

No lawyer was listed in court records with the indictment.

Prosecutors say those charged face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud, and others face additional charges of food stamp fraud.

jfenton@baltsun.com

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-ci-food-stamp-fraud-20130917,0,3062888.story#ixzz2fI2AK18q

[Ban Hammer 13,481]

isolated incident.

[Sousuke 1,214]

In the midwest, I feel I could survive on 4 USD a day but not the coasts. Chicken prices are much higher than SMR's number for instance.