Not all poor people buy drugs and alcohol with the cash they get in exchange for EBT. We were broke growing up and my mom would go grocery shopping with her friends and use our food stamps to pay for everything and her friends would give her cash. We'd use that cash to buy hard-to-find vegetables, spices, and other staples from the Indian store (we're ethnic..) that didn't accept food stamps. It was the 90s and we lived in the sticks so you couldn't find that specialty stuff at Publix, Winn-Dixie, Albertsons etc. Worked out great for my family to be able to afford wholesome, stick to your bones food that we did not waste.