RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: Nanny New Yorker State may ban fizzy drinks for welfare beneficiaries Tue Jun 05, 2012 10:17 pm | |
| With a month to go before the height of summer, temperatures in New York are already hitting 30C (86F).
For Dennis, Johnson and Javii, playing basketball in the Bronx, it's the kind of weather for a refreshing fizzy drink.
"Soda's good for us," says Johnson.
Dennis is even sure fizzy drinks can help with medical problems: "If you have a stomach ache," he says, "What does your mom buy?"
He answers his own question: "Ginger ale, right? That's a soda."
Twenty-three-year-old Dominique Pleasant is sitting nearby with her two daughters. They're all drinking cans of cola.
Like more than a quarter of people in the Bronx, Dominique qualifies for food stamps.
"Food stamps is free money from the government to purchase food," she explains.
"It's for people on low incomes, single parent families like us or people that don't have a job." 'It's stupid'
It's estimated 1.7 million New Yorkers claim food stamps.
Now the city's waiting to hear if the federal government in Washington will allow a ban on spending food stamps on fizzy drinks.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/13618342 |
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