California Sent Out $1,700 In COVID Food Stamps To Affluent Families

Apparently, coming down with COVID-19 makes you incredibly hungry, regardless of income.

At least that seems to be the theory in California, where pre-loaded food stamp cards worth as much as $1,700 were sent to residents in North County San Diego as part of the COVID relief effort, according to RealClearPolitics.

Many of the residents receiving the cards live in affluent neighborhoods to boot, the report stated.

These odd COVID-related payments "started circulating quietly among neighbors and friends last year in several affluent beachside communities of North County San Diego," RealClearPolitics wrote.

In other words, California was mailing out food stamp cards to households with some of the state's highest incomes.

That's not all. Per the report, several of the pre-loaded cards were mailed to students, who in some cases received twice the amount.

"The cards were addressed to the students themselves, and some families with more than one child attending the same school received double the amount or more, at least $3,400 worth of cards," RealClearPolitics wrote.

How's that for COVID relief funds going to good use?

Anyway, these massive payments seemed to include schools that were fit under federal school lunch umbrella.

"If all students at these schools received the cards regardless of income, as appears to be the case, it would amount to more than $1 billion in federal P-EBT going to California students who usually wouldn’t qualify for federal reimbursement for free breakfasts and lunches,” RCP added.

Needless to say, this came as a surprise to the families that received the cards, given that they've never received -- and never had need to receive -- food assistance from the state or federal government.

These developments come at a time when Republicans in the US Senate successfully blocked a funding bill for COVID-19 relief, The Daily Wire relayed.