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A thirst quenching podcast for the girls, gays, theys, & astrology baes where we talk about anything & EVERYTHING through an astrological lens.
Hi, guys. Welcome to another episode of Tea from the Galaxy, a thirst quenching podcast for the girls, gays, theys, and astrology baes where we talk about anything and everything through an astrological lens. So if you guys know anything about me and anything about this podcast, you know that this podcast is all about talking about real life shit through an astrological lens. So what is this podcast without addressing the elephant in the room and talking about real life shit? Alright.
Serena:Let's just cut right to it. SNAP benefits were taken away either in a full or partially from many Americans this past month, earlier in the month. The government has shut down. A lot of people are getting their pay taken away. I think we just need to talk about this.
Serena:This topic of discussion I hold very dearly to my heart because a lot of people who benefit from SNAP benefits are children. About 40% of the population who benefit from SNAP benefits are children. If you guys don't know what SNAP stands for, it stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. So this program helps feed a lot of people who need help. And a lot of those people are children.
Serena:Know, you can't help what kind of parents you come you are born into, what type of family you're born into. You are a child. You can't just get up and work and provide for yourself. You're you're dependent on other people to do that for you. The fact that almost half of the population dependent on this program to just help them eat are children and how more people aren't enraged about this actually breaks my heart.
Serena:Okay? If you guys don't know, I hold chill children very dearly to my heart. Okay? I've worked with disabled and autistic children during a brief time period of my life. And in the future, I hope to reconnect with helping children and families again.
Serena:I went to college for psychology, but a little background about me. When I first entered college, I originally wanted to be a social worker. And the more that I took child advocacy classes, the more that I realized how fucked up the system is and just this government in general was really discouraging. And so then I switched my, study into psychology with a focus on child psychology. Just like children's health and mental health especially has always been a passion of mine, just being there for children.
Serena:I think, you know, children is is the future of our society, and children can't help a lot. They're they're children. You know? They can't help the type of environment that they are born into, but we can help them, you know, be more successful adults by being there for them. So that's why I feel very passionate about this about this subject, and why I, you know, I have been very emotional lately about it.
Serena:If we wanna look at some statistics about who benefits from SNAP benefits, in a study in 2024, SNAP served around 41,700,000 people per month. That is equivalent to 12.3% of people, US citizens. Under that umbrella, children was about 40. People ages 18 to 59 was about 42%, and people 60 was 19%. A study in 2023 found that about 80% of SNAP households included a child, an elderly person, or a person with disability.
Serena:So, yeah. If you don't care about this subject, you're not speaking upon it, you're heartless. I mean, I don't really know how else to put it. This is actually one of the worst things that I feel like could have ever happened in our country. I think the fact that our president is blaming the Democrats for this is wild.
Serena:And I want to make it aware and make a note to everybody that if you're falling for this propaganda of it's democrats versus republican and it's red versus blue, you're falling for the propaganda. Okay? It is not one party versus another party. It is the wealthy in the top 1% versus everybody else. You wanna know what was also sickening that day?
Serena:The day that SNAP benefits was cut from everyone was a day that the president threw a great Gatsby themed party with all wealthy people. It was sick. It was like a sick joke. Like, I was I was sick to my stomach when I when I saw videos. I also wanna know who was at that party.
Serena:You're canceled. Who was at that party? Canceled immediately. Because what the actual fuck? It looked like a movie.
Serena:It looked like a nightmare. It looked like a horror movie. Like, we're in, like, the ultimate simulation. Like, I can't even describe how that felt. And this president is trying to kill the middle class.
Serena:And if you don't see that, then I don't even know how to describe that from you. They want the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. If you don't see that, you don't care about that, you really don't have a heart. I mean, I don't really know what else to tell you. I'm going back to what I majored in in college and what I have been passionate about for years.
Serena:I picked up an anthropology minor when I was in college, and a class that I took that opened up my eyes to people who have disabilities was I had to take a class or I or I took a class of I forgot the name of the class, but it was something about just learning about, what people who have disabilities go through on a daily basis and how this world was not made for people who have disabilities. It really opened up my eyes to see how much of a harder life that people with disabilities actually live, and not even just because they have a disability, it's because this world is not made or catered to them at all. As little as or quote unquote little as, building a place that doesn't have a ramp, only has stairs, walking into the place. Alright. That's that's excluding so many people who have disabilities.
Serena:And when I was in college, there was a area up of all parking spots that construction roped off all the parking spots that were for disabled people. And I wrote a paper about how that was so wrong because there's disabled spots closer to a store or closer to, you know, a building or a university or whatever for a reason. These people need these spots. So the fact that it was all roped up was wrong. You know?
Serena:Another reason why I always put captions on my videos. If you see a video without captions, I either forgot, and I'm sorry about that, or there was something happening with my video that I just I couldn't put a caption on it. But, yeah, captions for videos, closed captions, those are needed, you know, for people who have disabilities to make them feel included. A lot of things are built in this world that exclude people who have disabilities, and it's wrong. These people are humans.
Serena:So a lot of people who benefited from SNAP benefits were disabled people. You know? They they need help too. You know? It it it should be always an equal plane of people in this country.
Serena:It's never I'm better than you. We're all human, you know. So and if you are more blessed, then we should be helping people who aren't so blessed because you don't know where people came from. You don't know people's life stories, and everyone deserves a plate at the dinner table to eat. So I don't really know what type of people you guys think.
Serena:And I'm not saying you guys, whoever's listening. But people who aren't taking this seriously or who judge people who benefit from SNAP benefits. I don't know what kind of person you think this is who benefits off of this, and you're like, fuck that. I don't really care. Like, this doesn't bother me.
Serena:This doesn't include me. This doesn't affect me at all. I saw TikTok videos of, an elderly disabled couple. One was a disabled veteran. And, you know, they got their stat benefits taken away.
Serena:I saw another video of a college girl working many, many jobs. She grew up, like, in poverty, and she is a hard worker. She's a a plus student. She's going to college. She's working on these part time jobs, but she still benefits from snap benefits.
Serena:Like, she she needs that in order to be successful because she's so focused on college and school. And it's hard as an adult when you don't have a family backbone, a family safety net to fall back on, and you're just working these part time jobs, it's not enough. When you're in full time school and working these part time jobs, it's not enough to survive. You know, that $100 a month that she was getting from SNAP benefits helped her and helped, you know, feed her. So, another percentage of people who benefited from SNAP benefits, 35.4% of those people were white, 25.7% were African American, 15.6% were Hispanic, 3.9 was Asian, 1.3% was Native American.
Serena:So I don't really know what type of people you guys are assuming are benefiting from these SNAP benefits. I don't know if you think it's the illegal immigrants that are coming into this country or or what. I think your mind is all bottled up from all that molly that you took. Okay? I don't know if your brain is all scrambled from, like, all the molly you take.
Serena:I don't know what type of propaganda you guys are falling for. I think it's crazy. And like what I said, not saying that you guys who's listening to this, most likely if you're listening to this, you're not the type of person who's falling for it. But I need you to spread this message to people around you if you're seeing people not care about this subject or have a very skewed version of who they think SNAP benefits are benefiting. Other people who benefit from SNAP benefits, you know, foster parents, parents who have children with disabilities too, a household where you're caring for your elderly parent and you just need a little bit extra funds to help.
Serena:We're just gonna see so many children be hungry at school and just a lot of people be hungry. And that if you think this isn't affecting you, it is. You're gonna see a lot more people on the street, a lot of peep a lot more people hungry and irritated, angry, and survival they're trying to survive. What do you do when you're trying to survive when you're hungry? You're gonna do anything that you have to do, and that could get ugly.
Serena:I mean, you want us to have babies, but you don't wanna take help us take care of the babies. You know, this also spills into WIC, women, infant, and children. It's, also another benefit program that helps mothers when they have babies. The WIC program is running out of funds with some states actually considering a pause on new applicants. So, you know, this is spilling into all areas of funding that help families raise their children and raise healthy babies.
Serena:And if our babies aren't healthy and our children aren't healthy, we are creating a sick society. I mean, I don't understand what people aren't understanding about that. You want us to bring children into this world that is fucked up. You want us to bring children to where we can't afford to to raise these children. And then what happens when you can't afford to raise these children?
Serena:They go through a lot of trauma. They go through poverty. They have all this trauma that they're they're bringing into adulthood. It's gonna create a fucked up society. I mean, I just don't know what's what's not clicking about that.
Serena:The more that we can create a healthy, better, safe environment for children, the better that it is for the future betterment of our society. It just goes like that. You know how much I learned about development of children in school and how early development from infancy to childhood and your teenage years really affect who a human is in adulthood. And the adults are are are the ones making the decision upon our society. Now what happens when all our children are hungry and angry and sad and depressed and anxious and just eating shitty food or no food at all.
Serena:They're gonna turn into very traumatized adults. Now we have traumatized adults traumatizing other adults and making traumatizing decisions, creating a fucked up society. I mean, I just don't really understand what people are understanding about that. But yeah, guys. It's been very hard recently.
Serena:I can't snap out of it. Like, I I can't turn my brain off of how fucked up this country is. I mean, the world, period, but this country, because I live in this country, United States Of America. And how blatantly it's right in her face the evil, like that Great Gatsby party on the day that millions of people lost their SNAP benefits. I mean, that was, like, sick.
Serena:That was sickening. There is nothing that you can say that makes me think this president gives a fuck about anyone, and I want a list of people who are there. You're canceled. Canceled. We really need to start coming for these big corporations, and we need to stop supporting them.
Serena:We need to start making their pockets hurt. Alright? That is how we're gonna make change. That is the only way people fucking listen. It's hard to turn my brain off in these tough times where a lot of people are suffering.
Serena:I mean, in the past, I feel like I was able to do it a little bit more easily. Like, these days, I just I can't turn it off. Like or I try to, and then I'm snapped back into reality. Like, today today was one of those days. I knew I was gonna make this podcast episode.
Serena:I knew it was gonna be about this, but today was just one of those days where I'm just like, wow. I just I really can't get this out of my head. Like, it doesn't even feel right. It's so trippy where people are, like, hungry and the holidays are coming up and people aren't gonna be able to celebrate the holidays. Like, I just always go back to the children too.
Serena:Like, growing up as a kid, I loved holidays. Like, I because of the food and getting together with family. Now people are just trying to survive. They don't have money for food in general, let alone holiday food. So I just think about the children and how sad that is.
Serena:You know? And I don't know. It's it's been really tough of just going through life, knowing that a lot of people are are suffering now and especially children and elderly elder people and disabled people, I feel really bad. And that's why I wanna make this podcast episode. I kinda wanna raise awareness about this and talk about how to help.
Serena:Because if you are relating to me and you are feeling these similar feelings, let's brainstorm ways that we can help. So number one thing, donate to food banks. Alright? Let's think of the types of foods that we can donate. Recently, I've also heard that, honestly, donating money goes a longer way.
Serena:Donating food to food banks is perfect. It's beautiful. It's one of the best things that you can do, especially during these times. Number one, canned protein. So, like, tuna, chicken, salmon, beans, stews, low sodium, veggies, and fruits and juice.
Serena:Alright. Let's try to make these what we're donating also on the healthier side. That's like another thing that I feel like I want people to remember too. I mean, you you throw in your snacks and throw in your your your junk food here and there. You know, people like everyone is human.
Serena:Everyone deserves to eat. Everyone deserves to eat healthy, and everyone deserves to indulge in a snack if they want. Alright? That's a human fucking right. If you think that's not, and then you're heartless.
Serena:Alright? Then I don't wanna see you ever eat a fucking cookie or a slice of cake ever again if that's your view. That people shouldn't use Snare Snack benefits to buy an Enderman's cake. Like, go fuck yourself. Like, honestly, if if that's your if that's your view.
Serena:I will say, I do want these people to have more healthy food options. And being that me, I am someone who I eat more gluten free. I had a good friend who has celiac disease. Like, she cannot have a lick of gluten. It's very important to also cater to people who have dietary restrictions as well, so I do wanna make that point as well.
Serena:I know I will be, I'm gonna be donating to a food bank and volunteering on Thanksgiving because I'm not going home for the holidays, so I don't have family where I'm at. And that's definitely something I'm going to do this year. I'm going to be don donating a lot of gluten free things because, you know, people who have dietary restrictions, they need help as well. More options. Soups, stews, chilis, things like pasta, rice, oats, cereal, pasta sauce for the pasta.
Serena:But also like cooking supplies too, like cooking oils, you know, that's a little pricey. Okay? Spice, spices, things to cook with, salt, pepper, you know, garlic powder, onion powder, you know, things like that. Peanut butter and jelly, shelf milk. So shelf milk, but also like almond milk, oat milk, stuff like that.
Serena:A lot of that is on the shelf. Healthy snacks, like what I said. Let's start bringing some healthy options in there too. Let's not forget baby food and formula, diapers and stuff like that. That's very important.
Serena:Hygiene products like toothpaste, soap, shampoo, conditioner, feminine products like tampons and pads as well. Laundry detergent, toilet paper, you know, these are all necessities that we need to live on a daily basis. Alright. Deodorants, just something that I remembered as well. Remember not to bring expired foods.
Serena:I saw a video that broke my heart. It was actually the one that I mentioned earlier today about the disabled elderly couple, the one who was a veteran. And he was showing that he just returned from the food bank. You know, his SNAP benefits got taken away. And he was like, this is what we got from the food bank.
Serena:And all the shit was expired. Like, all his breads and baked goods expired, like, from October. One was dating back. It expired September 21. I think that's sick.
Serena:I think that's sickening. And so donate expired foods. And yeah. I mean, that's the best that I could say. Another way to help out right now is organizing or participating in your own food drives.
Serena:So I have been seeing a lot of TikTok videos about this too recently, like people organizing their own type of food drive. You know, you everyone and as an individual has their own community of people surrounding them. Even if you have a couple friends and they have a couple friends and they have a couple friends. You get that you gather your group of people. Imagine if everyone gathered their own group of people and organized their own like food drive and donated it to a food bank.
Serena:You know how much of a change could happen with that? Like, we need to stop thinking that we are just a drop in the ocean because the more, you know, that we come together, the bigger waves that we create. And I think that is something that is going to be really helpful during this time. I know as you guys know, I'm a bartender. I work in Downtown Fort Lauderdale.
Serena:And, you know, the event coordinator in my job, you know, I reached out to her and she reached out to me. And we are thinking about running a food drive or a fundraiser at our own spot and, you know, in exchange, you get a free drink or something like that. So I'm really urging you guys to reach out to your companies too. See if you can do something with that because, you know, what company doesn't like good exposure too? You your company is running a something for charity, helping hungry people, children, family, elderly, veterans, disabled people.
Serena:If they say no, let's fuck that. Okay? Gaslight a little bit. Manipulate a little. It's time to start manipulating bad people.
Serena:You don't wanna do a food drive and help hungry people? You're fucked up. Alright? I don't know. Let's just start manipulating, gaslighting people about that.
Serena:But I really think that is a route to go. Shout out Nikki if you're watching this Nikki. But yeah. Let's see what she says. I'm very excited.
Serena:This is something that I would love to partake in and volunteer, and I think it's a really good cause. Volunteering at a local food bank is another way, like what I said. Another way is to contact representatives and urging officials to restore SNAP funding. Like what I said, the WIC women, infant, and children funding is also starting to deplete as well. A lot of states are considering a pause on new applicants for them, which is just terrible.
Serena:You want us to have babies and then people who need help with that, you tell them to go fuck themselves. You do not care about children. You care about regulating women's bodies, and no one will ever change my opinion about that. Go fuck yourself, honestly. And, like, how to, you know, contact your local representatives about this is called 5calls.org.
Serena:I've just learned about this website. This is a great website. It is a five zero one nonprofit that helps the public make their voices be heard. So you literally just put your location in the website and it gives you all the numbers to the local offices that you can call. So they literally have a script for you of what you could say.
Serena:You could literally read off the script when you call them. You're like, hi, my name is Serena. I live in Da Da Da Da I'm a resident of Da Da Da Da. And I'm urging blah blah blah. And it literally has it divided if you're a republican or a democrat.
Serena:Like different things that you could say as well. But I think that is a beautiful website that we should all take advantage of. Even on the site they say calling does more. When you call, it it makes more of a difference than versus like an email or a fax or anything like that. Like, calling straight ahead, you know, it forces people to be more head on about the changes that they make.
Serena:They cannot ignore all these calls. Right? Another thing that you could do is just raising awareness. Like, similar to what I'm doing on this podcast right now, raising awareness of what is happening, ways to help, gaslighting nasty people. Raising awareness of the types of people that benefit from SNAP benefits as well, what's going to happen to people when who don't benefit off of SNAP benefits, how this wave and this domino reaction is going to affect everyone.
Serena:Because even if you don't benefit from SNAP benefits, you are going to be affected by these benefits being taken away by from people, point blank period. So I think a lot of raising awareness is really important. You know, I am grateful and thankful I never had to benefit from SNAP benefits before, but I am really appreciative of people who are getting vulnerable, real and raw on TikTok and Instagram and stuff. And they're they're making videos about their experiences right now, how they have benefited from SNAP benefits, what they look like. Because I think we need to start shattering people's glasses of what they think people who are benefiting from these, benefits, what they look like, talking about what's really going to happen when people go hungry and starving for too long.
Serena:It's already tough to survive in this country. Right? Like inflation is crazy. It's so expensive to live on your own or to provide for yourself, let alone children, if you have children, let alone disabled children or disabled family members or elderly family members. You know, it's it's a lot to to have on your plate.
Serena:It's even hard and expensive to rent a place these days, to buy a house. People my age, I'm late twenties, we can't even buy houses anymore. It's so fucking hard. And it's just hard to survive. It's hard to live on a day to day basis.
Serena:And, you know, most of the people who are benefit from SNAP benefits, who aren't disabled or children, they are working people, you know. These aren't lazy bums on the street getting money for free. So I don't really know what you guys think is happening here. But, yeah. I mean, another thing is spreading the word about meal delivery donations.
Serena:You know, delivery services that are helping people who are getting their SNAP benefits taken away, like DoorDash, HelloFresh, Instacart. So, I know DoorDash, to access this offer, you have to enter your Snap EBT card. And when it's added to your DoorDash account, you can place an order at a Snap enabled store. I think like Sprouts, Dollar Tree. There's a whole bunch of stores, but that accept Snap benefits and, your Snap EBT card.
Serena:So I think DoorDash has been waiving all delivery fees. And I love that meal delivery services and big named companies who have millions and billions of dollars who they make a year are doing things like this to spread awareness and to help people who are in need and that need help. So, I definitely do love that and support those companies as well. The biggest thing that we can do is to spread awareness and to help each other. And just to be extra kind these days.
Serena:You never know what people are going through. You never know who people have to take care of. You never know what type of path people have walked down. And you just don't know. So being kind and compassionate and empathetic goes a long way.
Serena:You can't teach empathy. You gotta you gotta just have it. And I'm not here to teach anyone empathy. If you don't have it, you don't have it. But I'll be here to gaslight you.
Serena:Yeah. I I just don't understand people who are who aren't feeling kind of very similar to to what I'm feeling right now. And whether you donate one time or you fucking bring a can of green beans to a fucking food bank, at least you did that, you know. You donate some money. Especially around the holidays too.
Serena:Like, I think a big thing right now too, and a lot of like maybe good food options that we could bring to food banks as well, is holiday foods like mashed potatoes, you know, green beans, sweet potatoes, stuff like that. I think that is gonna be really helpful. I can go to the grocery store and shop for a whole family and donate that and spare it for the month. You know, like, a lot of you guys can too. And that will go such a long way for a lot of people.
Serena:So instead of barking at each other in this country, that's what they want. They want us to go head to head. They want us to hate each other. They want us to be divided. And they want us to fight with each other because if we're down here fighting with each other, they're up there profiting off of that, the top 1%.
Serena:And I think it was so fucking obvious when he I I can't stop talking about this great Gatsby party. Like, that was a sick joke. That was literally a movie scene. Like, there's gonna be documentaries about this in the future. It's gonna be in textbooks.
Serena:Or children's textbooks about this. Like, fucking sick joke. Like, it's very interesting because astrologically right now, Venus is squaring Pluto. So Pluto is a planet that rules things of, like, power and people in power, control, manipulation. It's a it's a deep and dark planet.
Serena:Venus rules things of, like, money, our financial situation. So a square between the two planets' energies shows tension. So that's actually been the vibe the whole first week since SNAP benefits were, you know, taken away from people. So it's very interesting that it's like people in power are controlling or manipulating people's fucking financial situations. And the full moon in Taurus that just passed, you know, this past week, the November, was definitely highlighting and putting a spotlight on what brings people security, stability, comfort, people's jobs and living people's jobs and job situations, how they're making money, how they need to start saving more, budgeting more.
Serena:Maybe they need to find a new job to make more money, and they need more streams of income because those are things that Taurus rules. Taurus is ruled by Venus, and those are things that, you know, Venus rules our financial situation. So the ruler of this full moon was Venus. Venus is being squared by Pluto. So there's a big tension of people's financial situations happening, the first going into the November.
Serena:So it's just very interesting that a lot of people's money is being controlled and manipulated by a lot of people in power. So big theme that's happening. This month, also, Jupiter is about to station retrograde in cancer. So a lot of reevaluating, things that you know, your living situation, home life, family matters. Also, cancer is another, like, comfort zone thing.
Serena:Cancer is also all about, like, what makes us feel secure and safe. Cancers love to feel protected. And when Jupiter stations retrograde, it is definitely a time for gratitude and showing, gratitude for things that you do have because it's very obvious and evidence of everything that's happening in this world right now that, you know, something that you do have, a lot of other people don't. And showing gratitude for that is going to go a long way, and being nice to other people and giving to other people will take you a long way. It will actually bring a lot more abundance and blessings into your life when you, you know, give blessings to other people.
Serena:So that's going to be a big theme when Jupiter stations retrograde this month, and it's gonna be retrograde for a few months after that as well. So very interesting that the planet of luck is station chase station in retrograde just means that the luck isn't flowing as as flowy as it should be because Jupiter wants us to turn inward at this time and really see what we are grateful for. Oh, Uranus is also station retrograde right now too. With the Uranus retrograde, we are reflecting on our society, on what our future looks like, on how we want to move forward, on revolutions, and innovations, and inventions that are being brought out into the world and into society right now. And what does that look like for us?
Serena:So this is a big time. There's a lot of retrogrades happening. Mercury is about to station retrograde right now too. The reason why I think everything with the airport situation and planes getting delayed and the government shutdown, I don't think that's being solved anytime soon. I think it's still going to be happening over the next couple weeks, especially while Mercury's in retrograde.
Serena:Flight delays is just very Mercury retrograde on par for that. And there's a lot of retrogrades happening this month. There's a lot of needing to turn inward, reflect, reevaluate, and rest too. But a lot of reflecting on what's happening right now and how we need to move forward. But I'm definitely urging everyone to move with a lot more compassion, a lot more empathy to help your neighbor, help other people, help family.
Serena:And, yeah, I mean, I hope you guys are relating a little bit to what I'm saying in this episode. I know this episode wasn't really so much about astrology, but it's talking about real life shit, and we need to talk about that. And I hope, you guys benefited from this video, learned some things, and I inspired you to go out and help people, especially around the holiday season and do it for the people that need it, the children, the disabled, the elderly people. You know, these people need us. So love you guys, and I will see you in next week's episode.