16 Million Hungry Kids

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I have mixed feelings on this program. Let's face it. It IS socialism. However, like most Americans, I don't want kids to go hungry either.

I too struggle with the urge to tell government "enough already, pretty soon you will be wiping my *ss for me" and my concern for hungry kids. Sigh. Why is being a grown up so darn complicated?

I can see where loading funds for the particular child onto a card would work, but would the food go to the child, or would it end up being used for the family as a whole. Part of the problem is reaching the 'working poor'. Parent needs to go to work, school age child is often home if they are "too old" for summer programs. Mine was deemed too old for Rec. Dept. afterschool stuff at age 12. The summer programs were for a fee. Not much help from a city funded program. About 30some years ago we had the Lunch Truck. Truck would come around to certain areas deemed lower income and just hand out lunches to the kids on the street. No questions, no paperwork, no language barriers, just come and get it. Sometimes they gave out leftover cheese too

If the parents are already receiving food stamps, I don't see the need. If these are predominantly the children of illegal aliens, sorry, my answer is no. My real question is who is trying to win votes this fall with this program?

Part of the problem is the federal school lunch program which is SUPPOSED to be run during the summer, but few schools actually do it. Our district does not because we cover 173 square miles & we cannot afford to bus students to the school every day. The federal government only pays for the food, not transportation of students or lunch lady labor. The money has been set aside for years and unspent. I think this is a much better solution that will actually benefit the kids. It should be noted that schools are not permitted to ask immigration status, so this will include students who are here illegally IF their parents are brave enough to take it. (Many of my illegal students in GA NEVER applied for any gov't aid b/c their families were fearful it would put them "on the grid." They went to school b/c they knew they could get away w/ it.)

Twenty years ago I lived in a VERY poor area in Sacramento, CA. The school my daughter attended had a student body that was predominantly below the poverty line. (Over 98%)

There was a program that gave out lunches to children under 16 at the park every day. One day, my friend and I had brought our children to the park, with their lunch packed. The people passing out lunches wanted to give them one despite our protests that we didn't qualify. They said they had 50 extra lunches that would be discarded and asked us to pass the word to the children in our neighborhood.

The program seemed to work out well. Any child under 16 qualified including toddlers. A lot of children got to eat that wouldn't have otherwise.

I'm not overly fond of the 'card' idea as we know that many people sell their cards or something like that. Don't know exactly what they do with them, but it's not buying food. I think the same thing would happen with the new cards. I like all of the ideas that get the food directly to the children. They need to find a way to expand them to reach more children. I don't want a single child to go hungry. That is a horrible thing. I don't care who their parents are or what they do or do not do or whether they are legal or not, children should not go hungry. But I also don't want the taxpayer's generosity to be bartered away and the children still get no food. Any program that gets food into the hands of the children is great. Food pantries are a blessing. Never been to one, but that is help for the whole family in times of need. I know there are people who take advantage of any program, but you can't ditch a program that helps those who need it most just because there are some losers out there.

My husband used to give me a hard time for giving small amounts of money to panhandlers. We don't see many here, but I will not tell them no. My husband says they are probably just scammers. I told him he could very well be right, but I would rather risk giving money to someone who was scamming me, than to not help someone who really needed it. I have no way to know. The money I give that person could provide them with the only meal they get that day. After I explained it that way, he never objected again. Like I said, it's not something we see here often, so it's an easy decision to make.

I think the cards are a good idea. The lunch programs in my town are only in certain neighborhoods. There's probably quite a few single moms or people having financial difficulty who don't live in these areas of town, and can't get their kids over to some nearby park or church for lunch. If it's supposed to be done along with the free lunch program, then why not get the cards started. The free lunch program has been going for years now.

I know for a fact that in the high school where I teach, school lunch is the only hot meal some students eat each day. Of course they're high school students, and they usually choose fries and burgers to eat, but I imagine at younger schools kids get a more well-rounded, nutritional meal.

While it's true that some will abuse the program, as they do food stamps, the fact that kids will get a decent meal over the summer makes it worthwhile.

Our school district does have a summer lunch program, and it's very successful.

I like Snackcakes66's idea for the lunch truck which handed out sandwiches.

Trino said:

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/artic.../19598805?icid=main|main|dl1|sec1_lnk1|165497

I have mixed feelings on this program. Let's face it. It IS socialism. However, like most Americans, I don't want kids to go hungry either.

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There's nothing wrong with Socialism, per se, except that like Capitalism, it is a disaster when taken to an extreme.

The goal is to find a balance between the two, one that doesn't stifle personal initiative but also doesn't abandon those in need.

This is certainly understood in Europe, and it was even understood here during the Depression. But then we won a war, our industrial competition was all devastated, the world was our oyster, and for a few decades we could pretend that everyone (meaning only we wealthy Americans) can prosper under unchecked Capitalism.

After the past few years, we ought to know better.

There are multiple programs in America that are socialist, and nobody ever berates them. We've got parks, libraries, the military, and medicare. I like to think that feeding the hungry and caring for the sick sets us apart from lesser countries. If children are going hungry, they should be fed. If their parents can't or won't do it, then why not have a socialized program that will?

Mr. E said:

There are multiple programs in America that are socialist, and nobody ever berates them. We've got parks, libraries, the military, and medicare. I like to think that feeding the hungry and caring for the sick sets us apart from lesser countries. If children are going hungry, they should be fed. If their parents can't or won't do it, then why not have a socialized program that will?

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ITA with all you posted. The only thing that concerns me is the BBM underlined portion of your post. I have been in a position where it was necessary to receive LINK (food stamp allowance). The area I live in is very poor, and almost everyone is on at least one form of government assistance or another. A LOT of my neighbors (not my block but surrounding ones) are in the regular habit of trading their LINK money for 50 cents on the dollar in order to obtain cash to buy beer, ciggies and drugs.

I think the concern that the alot of the money meant to feed the hungry children may well be misused in order to benifit the parents skewed proirities and not the children at all. No such program would be needed if the majority of those childrens parents weren't mishandling the money already being alloted them through the LINK program.

I am not saying all people on public assistance are druggies, bad parents, drunks, etc. I AM saying there are many of them that are. This is a known fact to me, in my area, in my own life's experience. As I stated, I myself have needed assistance and I do no hold the position that assistance is a bad thing. I just wish it were regulated and managed better so that misuse was less.

I also freely admit, I know people who are struggling to get by and just barely make too much money to qualify for assitance. Their situations are very hard and without food pantries to pick up the slack, their children would be hungry.

I wish I had all the answers, but I don't, just concerns.

I am also worried that our society, through it's endless aid programs are creating an entire generation of adults who are becoming infatalized with no real clue or ambition to WANT to be self sufficiant.

I, too, have been on food stamps. We used them when my husband was getting his Ph.D and our kids were small. He brought in very little money and was a student; we needed food stamps to feed our family. I think that the program works, but of course, like you say, some people will take advantage of it or misuse it.

In our society, there are lots of people who do the wrong thing. It's human nature, and some people are just dishonest. I don't think that's a good enough reason to throw a bunch of hungry kids under the bus. "Sorry, no lunch money for you, your mom might use it to buy drugs." Just as often, someone will benefit from the program, then go on to become a contributing member of society and give back somehow, even if it's just by becoming a taxpayer.

I agree, we have a lot of programs that could lead to our newest generation expecting something without having to work for it. Maybe because of this we need to continually work on the programs to fix loopholes. We've become so freaked out by the word "socialism" that I think many people have forgotten that there are a lot of good things that come from it.

agreed Mr. E,

Like you, I can't see throwing hungry kids under the bus due to the possible bad acts of their parents. I just hope they are giving alot of thought as to how this program will be structured in order to keep misuse to the minimum.

There are so many things wrong with this idea.