Food Stamps instead of cash?

Following yesterday’ post on car guards and casual labour, a couple of interesting comments. Peet Kemp, chairman of St Francis Tourism suggested a very possible solution that could be used, not only for car guards, but as a general method of giving ‘money’ as a gratuity to those deserving of such or to the needy, if you ever feel so inclined. By giving cash it is certain that many of those asking for handouts will spend the money on alcohol and or drugs so Peet’s suggestion could be a worth pursuing further.

The suggestion is that coupons be printed and sold at Spar, and other outlets for that matter. These coupons in denominations f say R2 & R5 that can be given instead of money and would be redeemable for food only.  Let’s call ‘food stamps’ for lack of a better description.

Obviously there are costs involved in printing the coupons so to be sure that nobody loses money on supplying them, they could sell the food stamps in booklet form for say R45 for a book of 20 x R2 coupons and R110 for a book of 20 x R5 coupons.  Spar could sell the booklets and so would receive money upfront for future sales and with a bar-code printed on the ‘food stamp’ tracking sales on the till transaction should not present a problem for most retailers are equipped for processing coupons on specials.

By offering ‘food stamps’ it could greatly reduce the incidences of beggars hanging around when they realise they aren’t going to get money for booze.  On the downside some would no doubt sell coupons at reduced rates but Peet’s suggestion certainly has value so maybe others can expand on the concept and maybe even run with it.

A bit of lateral thinking and there is also an opportunity for a little advertising to cover the cost.