[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Government Cheese (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 2/7/2016 12:50:49 AM EDT
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Does anyone recall to what ever happened to the government cheese program that qualifying people on food assistance received blocks of cheese? Is government cheese still available?
If I recall correctly this was a decades old program in which the government would purchase massive quantities of daily products in order to shore up low milk prices - in effect a subsidiary to daily producers. Later on these daily products, primarily cheese were given out as some sort of food assistance to food stamp recipients. |
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Does anyone recall to what ever happened to the government cheese program that qualifying people on food assistance received blocks of cheese? If I recall correctly this was a decades old program in which the government would purchase massive quantities of daily products in order to shore up low milk prices - in effect a subsidiary to daily producers. Later on these daily products, primarily cheese were given out as some sort of food assistance to food stamp recipients. My dad has an old wood box packaging for a 2 or 3 pound block of cheese he got from someone in some other junk. I dont recall how old it is, but i previously had no idea thats how it used to be. |
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Does anyone recall to what ever happened to the government cheese program that qualifying people on food assistance received blocks of cheese? Is government cheese still available? If I recall correctly this was a decades old program in which the government would purchase massive quantities of daily products in order to shore up low milk prices - in effect a subsidiary to daily producers. Later on these daily products, primarily cheese were given out as some sort of food assistance to food stamp recipients. I don't know what happened to the big blocks. However, my family did partake in the program when I was in early elementary school. I recall getting the 'belt' one day for pouring out the oil off the top of the peanut butter that came in a number 10 USDA can instead of stirring it in. I also remember having thick sliced cheese sammiches from the blocks on white bread for dinner. |
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It made the best grilled cheese sandwiches. That's no shit. When I was little my dad used to buy it off our small town mayor (who he got elected as a long-shot joke) when things were distributed more locally, along with canned pork, powdered milk, etc. It was all good stuff, but that was pretty fucked up in retrospect. 
It changed from a nice cheddar type cheese to more velveeta type later on. ETA Forgot about the peanut butter, choosey moms choose GIBs 
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Quoted: It made the best grilled cheese sandwiches. |
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Quoted: You got that right, gov cheese was the best cheese. They used to also give out peanut butter, beans, salmon, and powdered milk. I grew up poor and remember mom bringing it home a couple of times. And it was embarrassing , big truck would park somewhere in town and all the poor people would get in line and everyone who drove by could see all the poor folk. Quoted: Quoted: It made the best grilled cheese sandwiches. Holy Shit! They had salmon? I heard that the government also had "powdered milk and assorted chicken parts in bags," but salmon?! |
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I knew one family that got government cheese.
But they were Mormon, and had far more of the Bishop's Storehouse brand canned goods. I ate dinner over there several times. Single mom, and about six kids. Deseret brand cans of beans and veg. Here's something y'all will enjoy: President Reagan, Gordon B. Hinckley (I used to deliver his newspaper before he was church president.) and some farmer. 
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That was WIC when I was a kid. The cheese was good, but the giant tin cans of peanut butter were awesome. Can't buy peanut butter that good.
Now they just give you vouchers to use at the store, I hear. Food stamps is what became EBT. The government cheese is gone 
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Holy Shit! They had salmon? I heard that the government also had "powdered milk and assorted chicken parts in bags," but salmon?! Quoted:
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It made the best grilled cheese sandwiches. Holy Shit! They had salmon? I heard that the government also had "powdered milk and assorted chicken parts in bags," but salmon?! Oh sure, I remember they were blue. Can of damn salmon, head and all (!) And no BS on it making the penultimate grilled cheesey. Nowadays they make some Velveeta BS, if anything at all. Shame. |
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From 2008 -
What does Govt. Cheese Taste like? http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=785534 3 pages. 
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The cheese was good but them dam food stamps we grow up poor and my mom would send me
to the store with food stamps and every time I would get into a fight with some kid who would start making jokes about people with food stamps, all in all I learned to fight well because of food stamps. |
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Mine did too, yes it was. Quoted:
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My grandma used to get it. Stuff was awesome. Mine did too, yes it was. Chesse and butter were better then you could buy locally in Ms. growing up. My grandma would trade a few packs of smokes to some ghetto gobblin every month for theirs. Made the best homemade mac n cheese with it |
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The warehouse the gov used burned down. http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/20_Years_Ago_Today_Central_Storage__Warehouse_Fire_121153104.html Twenty years ago, a massive fire became a part of Madison history. The fire on Madison's East Side was the lead story on NBC15 News May 3rd, 1991. Flames broke out late afternoon at the Central Storage and Warehouse Company on Cottage Grove Road. At one point, about 3,000 residents within a half mile radius were evacuated as the fire threatened chemical tanks. Two days after it started, the fire was declared under control. It became known as the great butter fire. |
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Back when I read DU there was a thread about how awesome government cheese was, dozens of people about how it was a constant of their upbringing, etc. Eh, it was certainly better than what exists now. People on this forum treat it as a novel temporary embarrassment. Other places it's a multi-generational lifestyle. |
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MIL owned a liquor store in a small town. Used to take it in trade all the time.
It was very good. We would ask her when she was going to get some more. I don't remember anything except cheese. Recipients called that stuff, meat, cheese, etc the "modesty". They were illiterate. |
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Why oh yes, memories of the 70's. Still in the 90s. My fraternity did civic stuff, and one of the things we did was helping out with distribution for shut ins. We would take prepacks of various stuff to old and handicapped people. The cheese we handed out was big blocks of cheddar. Must have been a lot of constipated old ladies. |
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You got that right, gov cheese was the best cheese. They used to also give out peanut butter, beans, salmon, and powdered milk. I grew up poor and remember mom bringing it home a couple of times. And it was embarrassing , big truck would park somewhere in town and all the poor people would get in line and everyone who drove by could see all the poor folk. Quoted:
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It made the best grilled cheese sandwiches. Interesting how healthy the menu you just described is, especially for a soon to be or young mother. |
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You got that right, gov cheese was the best cheese. They used to also give out peanut butter, beans, salmon, and powdered milk. I grew up poor and remember mom bringing it home a couple of times. And it was embarrassing , big truck would park somewhere in town and all the poor people would get in line and everyone who drove by could see all the poor folk. Quoted:
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It made the best grilled cheese sandwiches. Doesn't stop the food pantry types who line up now when the mobile food pantries that swing through local villages once a week handing out boxes of commercial junk food.... |