I've never had to rely on government food assistance... but my family has benefited from other government programs, notably going back to the land that was given to my Norwegian immigrant ancestors. My parents were beneficiaries of government programs such as the GI bill, which provided funds for my dad to attend college and to buy a suburban home (after Dad secured fairly paid work as a chemical engineer, often funded by government contracts). I am thankful that my parents and their ancestors could benefit in that way but I'm aware that many people have not.
Dad was able to benefit from the GI Bill, but that didn't help my mother or her sisters, all of whom, I think, were able to "work their way through college." Their parents, my maternal grandparents, were small business owners (tiny independent grocery stores, for example) were not able to contribute anything other than room and board at their home. Google AI says one reason Mom could go to the UofMN was "Low university tuition fees: When your mother would have attended, most likely in the late 1940s or early 1950s, tuition at a state institution like the University of Minnesota was extremely low. The university archives show that during the 1940s, tuition was just $10 per semester. Even after adjusting for inflation, this was a small fraction of the cost today." My mom went there. One of her sisters became a nurse, the other graduated from Augsburg College, which was strongly supported, at the time, by the Lutheran church.
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