I'm in the process of divorcing a man who abuses me. He's left bruises on me before and has broken a lot of our belongings when he's gone into rages. We have a child that I will have custody of due to the history of abuse. It looks like I'm going to have to go on food stamps in order to ensure my son and I are both fed because I don't make enough on my own to support us, though we were doing just fine financially as a dual-income household ore-divorce.

A lot of the clothes I currently have are good quality and nice (all bought pre-divorce). My 14 month old wears Nikes that were gifted to him by a relative and has another pair that are the next size up (also a gift). I have a nice Samsung Galaxy smartphone that is paid off. All of this is pre-divorce. So my son and I don't look 'poor' even though we certainly will be once the divorce is finalized. Without assistance, I would have $15 to spare a month for groceries after the rest of the bills are paid. I can't afford to move right now- no money for a deposit or application fee and I'm locked into a lease.

You're saying I need to be embarassed that I am doing what needs to be done in order to raise my son in a safe manner? I need to go through a huge pain in the ass in order to get him his needs? I already work full time and don't have enough time in the day to run my household and parent my son in the time I'm not working, I should have to go out of my way to some special place to get food instead of being able to go to the grocery store that's already located between daycare and home?

We need to have a compassionate system

What you're outlining isn't compassionate. It isn't realizing that for many people, they don't have it as easy as you may think. Struggles aren't always apparent. But they exist. Cases like mine are sadly common.