"More Americans are in poverty right now, meaning more children are going to sleep hungry at night. Nationwide, more than 16-million children live in homes with parents struggling to put enough food on the table.
Dr. Megan Sandel is at Boston Medical Center's unique "Grow Clinic." It specializes in treating underweight & malnourished children.
"People think about acute malnutrition and they may look at Somalia. What we see is chronic malnutrition, stunted growth, kids that are the size of a one year old when they're two years old. And they're not going to be able to make up for that for the rest of their lives."
Emergency rooms in Boston are seeing a spike in severely-underweight children ages five & younger. In other cities like Baltimore, Minneapolis, Philadelphia & Little Rock, Arkansas, the number of malnourished kids have doubled in the last two years many doctors say, because of the recession.
The latest numbers show that 46 million people are on food stamps.
Now, there's a renewed debate in Congress over what food stamps can and can't buy. For example, food stamps can't be used for beer, wine, liquor or cigarettes. They also can't be used for vitamins, prepared food from a store, pet food, or toilet paper. But soft drinks, candy, cookies, ice cream and birthday cake are allowed.
Now, some restaurants in Florida, Michigan, Arizona and California are permitted to serve the homeless, disabled and elderly paying with food stamps. Some fast-food companies want to expand that and allow people to buy fast food with food stamps.
Some advocates for the hungry think it's a great idea, while public health advocates think the program should be geared toward more nutritious food.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture runs the program.
Congress will be debating if a change should be made to what can and can't be bought with food stamps."
Hello...what part of FOOD STAMPS doesn't anybody get? Food is not toilet paper, or pet food, or beer, or soda, or chips, yet the foods that get subsidized the most are the ones that get funded--grains, meats, nuts, soy, etc., and all the food products made from those foods, like chips, soda, frozen pizzas, microwavable meals, KFC buckets, taco 20-packs, beer/wine, cigarettes, Big Macs, Happy Meals, IHOP short stacks, Denny's Grand Slam meals, and all other manner of convenience.
Poverty is supposed to be uncomfortable so nobody lingers on these programs for very long, but alas...some of us have adapted (too well), and use these programs as the basic building block they build their lives around.
Look around in your community--I did--and you'll find tons of places willing to help give out stuff to these so-called "poor". I found a 3-page website (yep, I printed it out) full of community resources right here in my area, and I'm willing to bet your area has something very similar. In short, THERE IS NO EXCUSE!
My printed-out list included places where you can get toilet paper and all manner of free toiletries that FOOD stamps don't cover, countless homeless shelters, food banks, countless churches serving meals and offering wintertime crash space, places to do free laundry, take showers, make phone calls, get subsidized bus and light rail passes, free HIV testing, get assistance for ID, and get assistance for signing up for all manner of programs (like the Section 8 housing program, and subsidized daycare), free help for homeless vets trying to navigate their way through a whole plethora of VA programs, and that's just within my own community!
I even found an LGBT shelter, and a church that makes bagged lunches for homeless people departing shelters for the day. There's also a whole page devoted to which church is serving meals when--including the day and time.
At the apartment complex I used to live at, some mothers (with rather artful nail jobs, I might add) used to gather around in the parking lot and plan out their route for getting all manner of free stuff for the holidays--who was going to what church(es) for dinner(s), who was signed up for the winter coat drive, Angel Tree, and canned goods drive, who had a car to carry home all the booty with, how much leftovers can who stand (the reason for going to more than one church for dinner), and who was signed up for the free heat program offered by the electric company. I heard them with my own ears as I was taking my trash out.
Let's not forget the countless programs sponsored by private companies, like the back-to-school supplies drives, the winter coat drives, the free heat/window unit air conditioning programs from the utility companies, the annual canned good drive by the Postal Service, Boy Scouts going door-to-door collecting canned goods, the Salvation Army collecting used clothing (even leaving you a big plastic bag to fill and await subsequent pick-up), a special day at the public swimming pools, skating rinks, and malls for buses of homeless kids, the annual Christmas Angel Tree for free gifts, the coliseum's twice-yearly free Doctor/Dentist/Eye Doctor treatment day, and even companies that take donated cars and refurbish them for use by recovering homeless families.
Oh, and then there's the free breakfast/lunch programs at school, free after-school care, free summer school feeding programs, and some lady out in New Jersey started a summer weekend kid-feeding drive a few years ago that sends backpacks full of donated junk foods home with each kid every Friday.
Yes, poverty has become TOO comfortable! If kids are going to bed hungry, its because the parents aren't signed up for enough free stuff out there. If they're REALLY going to bed hungry, it's because they aren't getting enough water and fiber in their diets. This is what happens when you subsist on junk foods, and make poor choices at the grocery store with the food stamps you already get.
No safety net? Try again--the safety net has become a comfy hammock swinging in the breeze. You can practically live for free these days--it won't be in the comfort and convenience you used to know, but it's free.
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I hate, hate, hate how right you are about this. And I would like to suggest that far too frequently the reason is not really poverty, so much as incompetence and ignorance. Both could be eliminated, but probably won't be.
Once food stamps are approved for fast food they won't have to worry about all those underweight kids anymore, because they will all become fat. They will still be sick and malnourished, maybe even more so, because cheap industrial food and a free ride is not the answer.
I've met those mothers, too. They were in the maternity ward of our local hospital, discussing the "raise" they had just "earned" on their "paychecks" and how their latest episode of Friday Night Splayed Leg Syndrome had just jumped them to the head of the line for immediate subsidized housing because social services would not make these single mothers share a bedroom with their newborn infants. Ours would share our bedroom for eleven months without social services ever giving a damn. How curious.
Now these mothers climb out of a cab to get their convenience items at the food bank, texting their zillion friends and accessing social networks (without marring their decorator nails),and proudly displaying their bejewelled multiple piercings, body art, trendy clothing, salon cuts and colours. But they apparently can't afford food, especially the kind that has to be washed, peeled, cut or cooked. I have to pass the food bank on my way to the grocery store. Wish I didn't because it pisses me off.
Starting in mid November, the local newspaper will feature a photo of one "disadvantaged" single parent family each day, along with the wish list, which will include all kinds of pricey electronics to jack up the power bill for people who supposedly cannot afford to eat. We even have a free store where welfare kids can go shop for a gift for their parent. All donated. No dollar store bath foam here - this is good stuff that makes the kid proud to be able to give it. You know how important it is, when you are four, to give a gift you can't afford to buy, that was paid for by someone you don't know, so you can have self esteem.
As long as you are willing to pimp yourself (or your kid) as the special project of someone who wants to boost their own ego by playing big shot, there's no chance of having to suffer the natural consequenses of your own actions. And no reason whatsoever to change your actions. That suits the big shot because they get their jollies from recognition of the transaction. Repetitive transactions are not cause for concern because there is no genuine concern for the recipient.
My response to nearly daily requests for donations to endless handout organizations? A cheery "No, Thank-you". I have no choice but to fund some of this garbage with my taxes. I'm not going to voluntarily fund a cent more than I have to. I'll have formaldehyde free fingernails, natural grey in my hair, a tatoo and perforation free body, no hand held electronics, five year old thrifted jeans and T shirt so I can get my family's food that needs to be washed, cut, peeled and cooked. I will use butter and cream and eggs and red meat. I will still share and trade with those I know have less, just like they have shared and traded with me when I have had less. But I will not enable more deliberately stupid choices.
This is why I find ways to avoid paying taxes--I'm tired of funding this garbage, plus I'm tired of funding the garbage of politicians, like turtle tunnels, or shrimp museums, or toilet museums, or the one-man John Murtha airport that nobody but he used (and now that he's no longer in office, absolutely nobody uses), or bridges to nowhere. I'm also tired of funding the $16 muffins and other outrageously-priced food at department get-togethers:
http://news.yahoo.com/16-muffins-8-coffee-served-justice-audit-023623142.html
I'm also pretty peeved at the Running of the Idiots at WallyWorld every Christmas, because who gets those cheap flat-screen TV's? People who should be too poor to afford them, let alone the required TV feed (cable, dish, etc.) to hook up to them! If they were EVEN smart, they'd be killing themselves over a laptop computer, which can do more than just a TV for a lot less initial cost + internet hookup cost.
Bill Clinton aimed for cutting off generations of welfare rats by changing the rules of the game--now the rats have adapted, and the game goes on. Maybe somebody new will get elected and cut the hammock rope permanently!
Reparations? They've been getting them ever since the
New Deal was created.
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