Growing up Bronx: Food stamps

If you use an EBT card to get your food stamps, then you don’t know the struggle!

I remember back in the days, some of the bodegas would run a hustle where you’d give them a certain amount of food stamps, and they’d give you a lesser amount, but in green cash. Seeing this image brought to my mind the question that we always used to ask store owners as kids, “Cojen cupones?”

In Spanish that means, “Do you accept food stamps,” so whenever we went to a new store where we didn’t know the owners, we’d ask them “Ustedes cojen cupones?” Who’d think a time would come when that question would be replaced with “Do you take credit card?”

How many of you ever actually held these food stamps? We grew up on welfare, there is no shame in my game. I see social services as a stepping stone on your way to a better life, and I feel there is nothing wrong with getting a little help at one point or another. If you really need it!

When I see these food stamps, they remind me of a more innocent time, they remind me of the sacrifices my mother made, and they give me a warm sense of home.

Cupones for the win!

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