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Hungry American Batkids Appeal to Make-A-Wish for Canned Goods
Before all the internet starts sending in comments in ALL CAPS, I am glad people care about Batkid. This blog post is not an OR statement, it’s an AND statement.We all love the idea behind the Make-A-Wish Foundation, especially around the holidays. They hear from children suffering incurable diseases and move mountains to make their dreams come true. That might be as simple as a trip to Disney, or the elaborate Batkid scenario we all saw recently in San Francisco. Some 10,000 people turned out in support.
But now let’s look at some other kids in our country. Child hunger in our America looks like this:
— Congress just cut food stamps (called SNAP now– supplemental nutritional assistance program). SNAP benefits will average less than $1.40 per person per meal in 2014. That’s a hard, hard thing to do to a kid.
— 16.2 million children live in households that lack the means to get enough nutritious food on a regular basis. As a result, they struggle with hunger at some time during the year. About one in five kids in the U.S. need some kind of food assistance; in many poorer areas, kids get two meals a day at school for free and are glad to have them because there may not be much of a third one waiting at home.
— Food insecurity, the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food, exists in 17.2 million households in America, 3.9 million of them with children.
— Rates of food insecurity are substantially higher than the national average among households with incomes near or below the federal poverty line, among households with children headed by single parents (35.1% of female-headed households with children are food-insecure) and among Black and Hispanic households.
If you want to drop off some food items at some donation site, that’s never a bad thing. But a comprehensive problem needs a comprehensive solution, and that is in large part why we have a government, ensuring the common good and all like it says in those old papers that created the United States. Individual efforts and charity can help, but when we needed a proper interstate highway system people weren’t told to all go out and build a half mile of road each in front of their house.
I know the arguments, people should work for a living, them kids’ parents if theys even got two of ’em is lazy, meebe takin’ the drugs like I seen on the teevee, this ain’t no socialist country, stop a’wastin’ my tax dollars givin’ things away, ain’t no bizness o’ the damn guvernment.
Right. Right? In a country that has so much, albeit so unequally distributed, we should not have to think in terms of paying for Batkid, or paying for other kids who are hungry. And if those hungry kids could contact Make-A-Wish, most of them would ask for something to eat, not for a trip to Disney or a day-long superhero fantasy.
We can afford to feed them all. We just don’t want to.
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Andrei said...
1It feels like at some point that American capitalism everyone was so proud about was replaced with social darwinism.
11/18/13 7:07 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
2The rich made a statement on their “Independence Day” from the poor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rw5MosKRm4
“What do you want US to do?”
“Die.”
11/18/13 12:07 PM | Comment Link
teri said...
3And when you do give to the food banks and food drives, please do not donate that old canned sauerkraut, cranberry sauce, expired stuffing mix, or last year’s leftover Christmas candy that now has some mysterious white gunk growing on it. If you and your kids won’t eat that shit, why do you think someone else would (or should)? Another little thought; please don’t snipe about how “those takers on food stamps” buy so much white bread and cereal. They are trying to buy as much to fill the kids’ tummies as cheaply as possible: carbs are way cheaper than fresh fruits and vegetables, which are simply unaffordable when you are broke. While you can’t donate fresh produce to food drives, you can drop them off at the local food banks or places that provide hot meals to the indigent. Believe me, it won’t get wasted.
11/18/13 1:14 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
4Employees at an Ohio Wal-Mart store are being asked to donate canned goods to help out co-workers who don’t have enough to eat at the holidays.
“Please Donate Food Items Here, so Associates in Need Can Enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner,” reads a sign near bins tucked away in an employees-only area at the Canton store.
Wal-Mart employees in Cincinnati and Dayton were scheduled to strike Monday to demand higher wages for cashiers, stock clerks and other positions at the retailing giant, which was the target of a blistering congressional report that found many employees were paid so little that they were pushed onto public assistance.
11/19/13 1:19 AM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
5quote:”SNAP benefits will average less than $1.40 per person per meal in 2014. That’s a hard, hard thing to do to a kid.”unquote
Indeed it is. Unless you are a scumbag politician who’s making $100k+ year, with health benefits unmatched on the entire planet, corporate subsidies and perks up the ass.
quote:”….people should work for a living, them kids’ parents if theys even got two of ‘em is lazy, meebe takin’ the drugs like I seen on the teevee, this ain’t no socialist country, stop a’wastin’ my tax dollars givin’ things away, ain’t no bizness o’ the damn guvernment.”unquote
Of course, Mr. Pond Scum politician will vote to give every despot around the globe a billion plus a year not to mention military aid, in trade for letting Empire run amok, all the corporate pal give-aways notwithstanding. But feed kids???
“Hey..whattaya think we are..rich?” right. I wish I could punch one of these motherfuckers right in the smacker. Youbetcha..right in the smacker.
11/19/13 2:42 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
6“Mr. Pond Scum politician will vote to give every despot around the globe a billion plus a year not to mention military aid, in trade for letting Empire run amok, all the corporate pal giveaways notwithstanding. But feed kids???
How many whores on the Hill fit this profile?
http://www.wikihow.com/Determine-if-Someone-Is-a-Sociopath
11/19/13 6:04 PM | Comment Link