Childhood Hunger in the United States
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-07-22/childhood-hunger-united-states
One in four American children do not have enough to eat and that number is on the rise. President Obama pledged to end childhood hunger in the U.S. by 2015. A discussion about how new private and public partnerships might help eliminate childhood hunger in America.
Guests
Bill Shore
Founder and Executive Director of Share Our Strength, a non-profit organization working to end childhood hunger in the United States.
Margaret McKenna
President of The Wal-Mart Foundation.
Bill Ritter, Jr.
Governor of Colorado
Blanche Lincoln
U.S. Senator from Arkansas
Martin O'Malley
Governor of Maryland
Comments
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The problem is a lack of a safety net, poor diets and dare I say bad parenting. No child should go to bed hungry & the school cafeteria system was not designed as a source of a childs main meal. We need to educate parents on health, nutrition and food budgeting. We also need to teach people to cook again, as processed food is only a temporary sugar fix & it also leads to behavior problems in children. It's all related. We almost need to start from the begining & teach people how to be parents & raise children. I dread to think how much food that is wasted that could go to feed the hungry. I know our local grocery store donates bread and other goods to the Harry Chaphin food pantry.
I may have missed a comment on this issue below, if so, please disregard.
My comment is that if one lives either in a rural area (like Upstate New York) or a large city, if one lacks transportation it is very difficult to get healthy food from store shelf to your home. How many of us could carry a sack of potatoes or rice, a chicken or turkey, and a gallon of milk on the bus and several blocks to the front door? I am not thinking of only "food deserts" but even within a small town if the bus route ends half a mile from one's house, what can that person do?
If we can get an ice cream truck on every street in America, why can't we have milk and vegetable trucks in every neighborhood or food delivery sources? Could WalMart deliver groceries to neighborhoods that are inaccessible?
Thank you.
Lisa in Upstate New York
We waste too much time and money watching celebrities go to jail The time and money wasted on these people must be turned toward feeding hungry children.
Frank McGrath
Pleasant Valley, Md
West Virginia has passed a nutrition standard policy for the public schools and just this year presented a nutrition standard policy for child care providers. Both policies are on line at the WVDE web site - Child Nutrition Programs. Please take a look. WV also has 100 more summer food sites because of the extra funding provided by WVUSDA.
Please keep the dialogue opened. The more who know help is needed, the better chance we have to help the children.
I found it interesting that on a recent show where Jamie Oliver went to a town in West Virginia to help the schools learn how to provide healthy meals instead of French fries and pizza, he received a lot of push back from the town including a local radio host who initially stated no one should tell them what to do! This shows there is a lot of need for education in our communities! Especially for the people who are in charge of making menus for and cooking for our kids at school. They are still counting ketchup as a vegetable!!
West Virginia has passed a nutrition standard policy for the public schools and just this year presented a nutrition standard policy for child care providers. Both policies are on line at the WVDE web site - Child Nutrition Programs. Please take a look. WV also has 100 more summer food sites because of the extra funding provided by WVUSDA.
Please keep the dialogue opened. The more who know help is needed, the better chance we have to help the children.
It is alarming to realize how many people do not know how to prepare real whole foods. Jaime Oliver's show in West VA showed youngsters in school who could not even identify real food. When I was growing up home economics was required in jr. high. It was one of my favorite classes. Maybe this should be taught in the 5th and 6th grades when kids are old enough to learn the basics that they aren't being taught at home. It seems appaling that the corporate world is now trying to educate our population about cooking and food nutrition after they have all but destroyed it.
If Walmart is so concerned about childhood hunger, why can't they provide a living wage and health benefits to their associates?
Your guest recently dismissed the problem of dependency by saying that this is really an issue of feeding children. When I was in public school, I received free lunches. I filled out the forms myself to qualify. After I left school I had an attitude of entitlement that took a long time to overcome. I didn't realize that I was reponsible for my own life and living. These types of programs are not just teaching adults to be dependent, they are also teaching children at an early age. I just think that you need to address this and not simply dismiss it. If you want to help children, by the way, you might want to give them the papers and not their parents, who are often irresponsible from my experience.
Michelle
I am AMAZED that in the middle of discussing children who do not have enough to eat and/or able to get nutritious meals there are folks calling in the question the veracity of studies and complaining about the cost.
The tea party caller might want to explain how children should get food for themselves so they can break the chains of being dependant on money from the taxpayer?
sigh.
I have travelled to Italy twice and was struck by the number of private gardens. Every square foot of available land is used at apartment complexes to grow fresh food. I know that community gardens are on the rise in the US, but I would like to see my federal tax money used to bring gardening knowledge to low income housing projects. Perhaps HUD could team up with corporations to help build the gardens and master gardener volunteers to teach the residents how to grow produce.
Gayle in Dallas
We are trying to be all things to all people. Our schools, like many of our social services, are being flooded by immigrants, both illegal and legal, and by home grown needs that have burgeoned.
We have dissipated a great deal of our capacity to provide guaranteed supports.
We have imported so many of the World's problems we have dissipated a great deal of our capacity to export solutions.
I share the love of America the melting pot but the pot is stressed by over population of needs exceeding means.
We should take care of our own children first, we need them to rebuild the capacity to provide solutions.
With the educational cuts a cross the board and the lack of jobs in Florida the low income families and now the middle income families as well being included in the mix our schools in Florida will only score lower and lower and now that we have such a bad outlook economically what will the Federal government do now that we are a third world country? Will the soup kitchens open up? and what about the food drops we do in all the other countries? Why not do that here in the USA?
I was dismayed to hear the comment about the culture of entitlement dismissed so handily. Yes, the children are food insecure, but they have parents and even grandparents steeped in dependence on government. Is it such a third rail of political correctness to suggest that the political poverty industry is a root cause?
The truth requires no defense!
I wish people would stop "parent bashing." Families that use food subsidies are often families with a one parent household or two working parents. And often the jobs they have do not offer the flexibility or luxury of much time home with the children. When your time is short and/or you are exhausted at the end of the day, you don't have the time or energy to spend cooking much. This makes picking up food very appealing. Also, it leaves little time to teach cooking skills to the children. I think that most parents would prefer better food and time to prepare meals, but have to make hard choices about how they spend time and resources. I wouldn't blankly chalk it up to bad parenting, but more to parents forced to make tough decision based on tough situations. They need support and education about how to make it work instead of being degraded and have another layer of guilt added.
"If we can get an ice cream truck on every street in America, why can't we have milk and vegetable trucks in every neighborhood or food delivery sources? "
But then, according to some posters and callers, those Americans would become dependant on those delivery drivers instead of going out and getting their food themselves. They will NEVER be able to break themselves from "stealing" from their neighbors via our tax system.
How will they ever pull themselves up by those bootstraps if they have trucks drive down their streets and bring the food to them?
The next thing you know people will expect the school to pick up and bring their kids back home everyday after school! And then you know what happens?
Yeah, the kids all grow up to be socialists.....
In virtually every Walmart Supercenter you will find a McDonalds restaurant. I think that is no accident. Walmart caters to low income people. McDonalds has capitalized on this and offers cheap un-healthy food. The e-mailer who commented on how Walmart does not pay their 'associates' a living wage is absolutely right. I know because I work for them.
We hear so much talk of deficit now, which was largely quiet during the last administration. Claims of protecting a growing deficit recently seriously delayed providing unemployment benefits for our huge jobless population. And we have talked since September 11 about protecting our citizens, developing questionable policies in the name of increasing intelligence and security. The latest iteration of "protecting our citizens" is Arizona's law regarding illegal aliens.
Shouldn't we see solving childhood hunger as a national security issue, as worthy as warheads in pushing up the deficit? We know fed children succeed academically, and that successful children are less likely to get involved with crime.
Feeding children provides an immediate safety net for those hungry children, and develops a more functional population for years to come.
I believe we have a moral, ethical, even Christian, obligation to care for the least of our citizens. The deficit should not be an issue when the health and welfare of our citizens are at stake.
Chuck
Washington, DC
Quality food for the kids. Yes!! The last two commenters hit the nail on the head. Can the bill be changed to include unannounced monitoring of what the kids REALLY get to eat? Is the bait and switch common? Many schools report meeting the mythical diet guidelines and post wonderful menus, while dishing out chicken fingers, army green vegetables and mushy fruit. Great deals for schools and agriculture department & industrial farmers receiving government subsidies, but not for kids.
I really don't see how a "fast-food lifestyle" would be cheaper than eating fresh food. I did the math, assuming $5 per meal. Total weekly cost would be $140 for 2 people, if they eat 2 fast food meals a day for 7 days. I don't spend that much on my grocery bill. Sometimes I do, if I am making something fancy. So the issue here is not money but time, education, and probably access. Families living in poverty are probably working multiple jobs and don't have time to go grocery shopping and cook. But still they need to be educated on how to make fast simple nutritious meals to stretch the grocery budget.
I grew up in a home where we had bacon only on Sundays. One peice per family member. Yes we fought over it. Dairy Queen was a huge event....we all got dilly bars...cheepest thing on menu. Coke was a novelty; my mom coming home from the store with a six-bottle container and we could hear the clanging of the bottles and knew we were going to get a treat that day. Sugar items were few and far between, and until I met my husband I thought a steak was a thin peice of meat you put in the broiler and burnt the heck out of it. Rice was a staple and so was salad. Neither me nor non of my family members(parents, siblings) are overweight. We could all use more exercise however.
I have a hard time understanding our country has a problem with childhood hunger. I have spent time in the school cafeteria with all of my children. The amount of food that is thrown away is quite overwhelming. The children are made to take something from all food groups whether they want it or not, then they spend a short amount of time eating, then they proceed outside for recess. On the way they pass by the trash throwing away full containers of milk, whole apples, unopened forks and various other items on their (thankfully)recyclable tray. At the highschool where I work students have free breakfast, free lunch programs. I see the same kids who are using these programs coming to school with expenisive clothes and cell phones. They are very wastefu with food and school materials.
The only children I have seen who truly look like they may have a hunger issue are the recent immigrants we have at the school from places like Central America, Asia and Africa.
Please comment on how government subsidies for farm products such as corn and sugar contribute to keeping the cost of processed foods so cheap while fresh foods are more expensive. If our government is serious about creating a healthier diet for children we need to subsidize healthy alternative and not continue to pay for foods that we know contribute to obesity.
How is it that any fast food hamburger is cheaper than an apple? One guest mentioned how much companies such as ConAgra are donating, but subsidies they receive contribute to the problem.
I have not heard anyone mention the efforts of British chef Jamie Oliver in (West) Virginia to improve the quality of school meals (as seen on a fairly recent TV show). What are your guests' comments on such efforts?
First I want anyone reading this to be clear that I believe that no-one should go hungry and for a nation that produces so much food, and is so prosperous - it is a shame for us to not only have hungry citizens, but to be so incredibly wasteful. That being said, I do not believe that school provided breakfasts and lunches are the clear-cut answer to the hunger problem. My husband and I have seen the huge waste of food from in-school programs whether it been junk food or healthy, nutritious food. I think that even if you hired a chef to prepare the yummiest food possible that a good portion of it would still end up in the garbage. People simple do not appreciate or value food.
After a discussion with other family members, we have collectively decided that two parts of the problem with providing food (that ends up going to waste) to children in schools is that despite hunger, children nor their parents seem to truly value food, and that there is a lack of education as to what food actually is - how it is grown and created. I think that a better solution than simply providing meals is to involve the students and parents in the food creation process. That is, children and their parents could be spending time growing the food, and preparing the food for consumption. This creates an educated society of people who learn about plant growth, food production, food preparation, and proper nutrition. Only then, I believe, that people truly begin to value food.
A few weeks ago I read about Ms. Rehm's brave fight to keep her speaking voice and the agonizing preparation that she must go through daily to produce her show. I also read about how she is understandably concerned that the frailty of her voice might adversely affect her performance. For me nothing could be farther from the truth. Ms. Rehm's intelligence, sensitivity, and depth shine through on every single show. One day the voice we hear now will become yet another sterling example of what Ernest Hemingway called "grace under pressure."
The Yuletide Kid
Please address what I see as the continued, blatant hypocrisy of Walmart giving billions to child nutrition programs when:
1. It unapologetically refuses to provide a living wage for its employees (for the sake of corporate profit) as heard again on this show.
2. My neighborhood Walmart has a MacDonald's inside of it - right at the entrance of the store.
Perhaps they could replace the fast food chains in these stores with ready-made whole food alternatives for its shoppers and be a model for the country.
Agreed! My first thought!
milliemew wrote:
If Walmart is so concerned about childhood hunger, why can't they provide a living wage and health benefits to their associates?
The total volume of food available from local food pantries can be vastly increased if people would donate cash instead of canned food.
This is because many food pantries are member agencies of regional food banks and can buy food at a huge discount. For the cash value of a couple cans of food a food pantry can get a whole case of food from the food bank.
Check out the explanatory (and humorous) rap video at http://CashFeedsMore.org
It kills me to hear of the extent of hunger in our own backyard, and then how much the newest movie took in over the weekend, or what the hottest new player in the NBA will be making not only next year, but for years to come. Oh, please! Our priorities are dangerously out of whack. And the public drives both of these scenarios. Just imagine if only a small percentage of ticket sales, from these two mammoth industries alone, were redirected to food programs for our kids.
The importance of proper nutrition is hammered into our minds daily. Anyone who reads a newspaper or magazine, listens to the radio, and/or watches the news - or just Oprah or Dr. Oz - has been made aware of the importance of eating fresh fruits and vegetables daily, consuming enough protein, calcium, vitamins and minerals, and limiting saturated fats, sugars, and excessive carbs. The evils of high fructose corn syrup, white flour, and trans fats are front and center in our information-rich culture.
And yet the eating habits of Americans, both rich and poor (though I do think the poor are the most affected) do not reflect this knowledge. Why not?
One place where healthy foods can and must be presented is in our public school system's breakfast and lunch offerings. However, I worked in a public school last year and was appalled at the food offered to our children. White sugar, white flour, processed meats, pre-packaged cereals and heavily cooked, fat-laden, and salted vegetables filled the menus. The excuses of cost and ease of preparation don't suffice. Serving our children unhealthy food is criminal, irresponsible, and detrimental.
In spite of our vast knowledge about nutrition, fast-food (and other)restaurants continue to poison the American population. The education system of this country, funded as it is by the national government, should not. Nutritious meals must be provided to our children. Since this responsibility has not been embraced voluntarily, it must be legislated.