"Please sir, may I have some more?"

I have had this blog in me, waiting to be written, it’s been in me for several years, it’s not a new idea to me and I have shared it in many public and private forums, including social media.  How do I politely put into written word this idea?  I don’t know, but here goes.

I stopped at Arby’s yesterday for a sandwich, just the chicken sandwich, no drink or fries or shake or turnover, just the sandwich.  There was couple ahead of me.  The cashier asked if they want to donate a dollar to feed the hungry children, and they proudly give, then they write their name on a tag and tape the tag on the window.  How nice, touching, heart-warming to see that spirit of generosity.  NOT!

Arby’s has a foundation with a mission is to end childhood hunger in America.  Toward that end, they are asking their customers to donate money.  It seems to me that if Arby’s wants to feed America’s hungry children that they would give away sandwiches to hungry children.  Oh nooo, they want MY dollar to accomplish their mission.  According to their website, one in 5 children in America struggles with hunger.  But this isn’t about Arby’s.

During the last congressional race, a local fella, whom I respect, included in his platform a statement that said one in six children don’t know where their next meal is coming from, they are food insecure.  I challenged him on Facebook and he quoted “reports.”  Another friend was on the board of the local food bank and we were talking about it one day; he also quoted similar dire statistics.  I challenged him as well.  I googled “childhood hunger in America” and found countless reports by nonprofits organizations.  These reports offer a similar picture of childhood hunger in America; it’s appalling, at least the reports are appalling. 

We have approximately 75 million children in this country, one third under the age of 5, one third of them 6 to 11 years of age, and another third are 12 to 18.  Of the 50 million school aged children, 20 million get free or reduced school breakfast and/or lunch; that is two meals per day, for half of their days between the ages of 5 and 18.  More than 9 million children, birth to 5, receive WIC supplemental nutritional services.  More than 22 million households, that’s households (not children), receive food stamps. In summary, of the 75 million kiddos, 59 million receive individual supplemental food assistance.  And many of them receive additional supplemental nutritional assistance in the form of food stamps.  Government reports contradict the reports of nonprofit organizations whose mission it is to stamp out hunger.  Who do YOU believe?

A few years ago our former congressman was hosting a town hall meeting that focused on the Affordable Care Act.  He too spoke about widespread hunger.  Being who I am, I spoke out, and I ignited the room.  Curiously, the general tone of the conversation that ensued supported my position. 

The conversation centered around treatment for such things as childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes and that’s when I burst into my rant, albeit a polite and subdued rant because it is, after all, a town hall meeting hosted by a congressman.

Here is my position.  I donate a tremendous amount to feed the hungry, even though I don’t see too many hungry people, with the exception of the homeless panhandlers I see on street corners.  I give to WIC, and SNAP, and USDA, and so on.  The US Department of Agriculture has several nutrition programs, including Women, Infants and Children, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Child Nutrition Programs, and others.  The purpose of these programs is to feed the hungry and they are highly successful programs.

How do I know they are successful?  The evidence is quantified.  One third of America’s adults and children are obese or overweight, and more than 65% of them are low to moderate income.  In fact, the higher Americans are on the income ladder, the more fit they are, and conversely, the lower they are on income strata, the more fat they are.  We have been feeding the hungry, it seems, with a fire hose!  They have ballooned and are feeling the adverse health effects of their weight gain.  The rhetorical question: are they really hungry?

I have heard the argument that healthy food costs more.  That’s simply not true, I know because I go to the supermarket on a regular basis.  A bag of potato chips costs more than a dozen eggs.  A bag of cookies costs more than a pound of chicken.  Soft drinks cost more than pinto beans.  Frozen corn dogs cost more than bananas.  Frozen pizza costs more than ground beef.  Milk is cheaper than designer tea beverages.

I was at Wal Mart one day, shopping for my adult daughter and I; I was a single dad at the time.  I have in my shopping cart fruits, veggies, fish, chicken, bread, and stuff.  The total of my shopping trip did not fill the bottom of the shopping cart, this was groceries for two adults.  In front of me at the check-out counter is an overweight family, bordering on obese.  Their shopping cart runneth over with all manner of unhealthy fare: pizza, cookies, chips, ice cream, cokes, corn dogs, etc.  I became angry at the site of the family’s dinner menus.

Their bill totaled $276 and the father handed over his Lone Star Card (food stamps in Texas), but the balance on the card did not cover the bill, so he produced another card cover the difference.  I was angered by what I saw, BEFORE he whipped out his food stamps card.  I was angered by the thought they were feeding this little girl, who was a preschooler, those awful foods.  Already she was quite hefty and the meals ahead of her were sure to increase her girth.  The parents were also voluminous, why must they impart those eating habits to this child? 

I was angry, and THEN they pulled out the food stamp card.  Not only were they feeding this child a diet of crap, but I was paying for it with my taxes.  Here is where I get in trouble, when I see something like this and I jump to conclusions with deduction and logical reasoning.  Stay with me.  They receive income assistance because their earned income is low.  Income assistance includes other benefits, for this argument I refer to Medicaid. 

Now let me state another more egregious example, this one at the 7-11 convenience store.  I am in line to make my purchase.  A family in front of me lays on the counter all manner of junk food, such as cokes, candy, chips, ice cream, etc. and mom pays for it with her Lone Star Card.  I’m next for checkout and I call out the cashier, “hey, is that legal?”  He tells me that it is legal and that it happens frequently.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to buy junk food with my taxes.  This store was adjacent to a public housing complex, more supposition on my part, they were a low income family.  These children are likely on Medicaid, the government’s medical insurance for low income children. 

Back to USDA’s “nutrition programs,” many of these children received the free, or reduced, school breakfast and lunch meals funded by tax dollars allocated to USDA to feed the hungry.  And they receive nutritional assistance from food stamps and WIC.  Why would I give a dollar to the Arby’s foundation to do what the government is already doing with TOO much success?

Stay with me.  These families are receiving too much of the wrong foods.  They get fat, and they get sick.  When they get sick, many of them get medical care with Medicaid.  Tax dollars over feed them and tax dollars treat them for the maladies caused by over eating the wrong foods.  That’s correct, we pay to make them sick and pay to treat them for disease that will likely require a lifetime of medical care.  You know, diabetes does not go away.  A musculoskeletal system injured by over stress does not return to it’s healthy state.  It’s madness. 

Ok, on the public side, with all the good intentions of the War on Poverty launched by LBJ and the Great Society, the country is making poor people sick.  Fret not, we will provide free medical care.  But now the private sector has jumped on the bandwagon creating a public health hazard, aided and abetted by the equally well intentioned nonprofit sector who offers up all these reports that contradict the government reports. 

Pull out your map, or your smart phone, and plot the locations of McDonald’s Restaurants and Wal Mart Super Markets.  Invariably, their locations are overwhelmingly in the low rent district.  I pick on these two because it’s easy.  They offer plenty of low cost, high calorie food for their target demographic.  You don’t find McDonalds or Wal Mart in the same proportions in exclusive neighborhoods.

The nonprofit sector, assuming it is well intentioned, but slightly misinformed, is a collaborator in this public health dilemma.  I attended a $100 per person soiree to feed the hungry.  The place was full of fat cats, including political candidates.  There was an art show, and a musical band, and several restaurants were giving away food, and of course, there was beer and wine.  Everything and everyone was there, except for the hungry we were supposed to be feeding.  What the fuck? 

I have been out in public, at a store or restaurant and have seen people who look hungry.  Recently, I stopped at a convenience store for refreshments.  I noticed a man sitting on a table in the store, counting his pennies.  I told my lady friend to select some food for him, I paid for it, and she gave it to him.  Very gratefully and graciously he accepted saying he needed food to take his meds.  No fuss, no muss, no scene, I fed that hungry person that day.  I’ve done that many times.  I learned that lesson from my mom when she invited a hungry boy into the café to join us that snowy day, and she bought him a bowl of hot soup.

Ok Jaime, now what?  What do you suggest that we do?  We have options.  The government can get out of the War on Hunger, but that is politically untenable.  Actually, I believe that ONE government program got it right and most of you have seen it at the supermarket where certain food items are noted as “WIC Approved.”  That’s the ticket.  Eliminate from the SNAP program all those foods do not have nutritional value.  I know, what is nutritional value?  Let’s go the other way, what is NOT nutritional value?  How many of you will argue that frozen corn dogs are nutritional, or Oreos, or candy, or Gatorade?  I’m not saying that poor people can’t eat those things, I’m saying that taxpayers should not pay for it.  They can buy all the junk they can afford to buy with their own money.

Nutritionist and allied health experts have established nutritional guidelines for us.  WIC and school meal programs should be coordinated with food stamp benefits to provide Americans a supplement.  A supplement is intended to provide that extra assistance needed to reach optimum intake.  It is a supplement, not a sole source of calories; and when taken in combination, calories from WIC, the school nutrition programs, and/or food stamps should be less than minimum caloric requirements.  Yes, less than minimum caloric requirements because these programs are intended to supplement the nutrition provided in the home.  Oh yeah, the home, where home cooked meals are prepared and eaten at the dinner table.  I don’t think anyone intended that the government should be the sole source of food for low income families. 

Yes there will be those families who cannot afford  home cooked meals. That’s where nonprofit food banks can play a minor supporting role, as can food pantries sponsored by churches.  But this current frenzy to feed the hungry children is unhealthy and insane.

Now, a little about me, the author of this blog, I have some personal experience with this subject.  I grew up poor; how poor you ask, so poor that our cockroaches went next door to eat.  We had nothing.  Mom raised 5 of us, alone, a single mom with the meager wages she earned in the food service industry.  She was too proud to apply for the school lunch program or food stamps, we ate what she purchased and prepared, supplemented by the occasional leftovers she brought home from the cafeteria where she worked.  All that poverty, and I never considered myself hungry, or poor for that matter.  Mom prepared meals, we ate beans, oatmeal, eggs, two baloney sandwiches every day for my school lunch for 12 years of public school.  We ate humble food, but we ate.  Hunger never interfered with my learning.

I became a social worker and have been in this profession for 34 years, in one of poorest communities in the country, with a population whose per capita income is well below the national average.  We have a huge percentage of the population that is classified by government standards to be below the federal poverty levels.  Given my profession, in THIS community, why do I not see these hungry children everywhere every day?  I run a nonprofit organization that helps children and we have a childcare center where we have a cross segment of the local population, mostly low to moderate income.  I see them every day at work.  Yet, they don’t “look” hungry and judging from the amount of food that is placed in front of them that they DO NOT eat, I conclude they are not hungry.

So what is the problem?  Where are all these hungry children that we are throwing food at?  I’m sure there are some out there somewhere.  In great part, I think, the social problem is created.  It is created by some not so well meaning people with the aid of some very well intentioned people.  Agri-business has a huge stake in this dilemma.  WIC, SNAP, school meal programs, and government commodity give away programs create a huge market for America’s farmers.   Did you know the largest purchaser of “pink slime” is the US government and the government channels the “pink slime” to public schools for your children to eat, whether they are poor children or not?  Did you that EVERY child’s public school meal is subsidized by the USDA regardless of that child’s income status?

Let me summarize my blog this way.  You and I, as represented by our government, are feeding Americans with a fire hose, creating a public health hazard in the form of maladies caused by over eating.  The low to moderate income Americans receive the greatest amount of food, most of it of questionable nutritional value, and the food makes them chronically ill. You and I, as represented by our government, are treating these same folks for the illnesses that we created with the massive quantities of food we shoved on their plates.  The nonprofit sector, ignorant of these facts, solicits massive amounts of charitable donations to combat a problem that does not exist.  The private sector capitalizes on the situation and markets to the same target population foods that contribute to their illnesses. 

Here is my challenge to Arby’s, if you show me these hungry children, I will put them into my vehicle and drive them to the nearest Arby’s store where you can give them a sandwich.  At Denny’s, they also ask for money to feed America’s hungry, but the sign the on the window says kids eat free on weekdays.  I didn’t find Denny’s strategy to spend the money they  collect as donations, but I saw the sign on the window.  However, I found on Arby’s website mention of their tour bus.  So with YOUR donation, they bought a bus and are on a cross country tour to educate us about childhood hunger and their bus is great advertising for Arby’s.  “Please sir, may I have some more.”