The Challenge Of Feeding America’s Hungry
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-12-05/challenge-feeding-america%E2%80%99s-hungry
Americans are relying on what we used to call food stamps in unprecedented numbers. According to figures released in September, more than 46 million Americans, about one in seven, are getting government assistance for food, but it’s estimated that millions more struggle with hunger. The nation’s food banks, supported by private dollars and donations, are straining to fill the gap. Federal funding for food stamps is not on the line in the current tax and spending negotiations, but some believe new limits on government food assistance programs are needed. Please join us to discuss hunger in America and what we can do about it.
Guests
Stephen Moore
member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board.
Deborah Flateman
CEO, Maryland Food Bank.
Stacy Dean
vice president of food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Eric Olsen
senior vice president of government relations at Feeding America.
Comments
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Not Stephen Moore! Again! The author of "Bullish on Bush: How George Bush's Owenership Society Will Make America Stronger" in 2004! What, no follow up sequel Mr. Moore?
Note the odd but appropriate misspelling of 'owenership' for the book at Amazon. The man should never be asked for his opinion on anything to do with the economy again. Ever. Please drop this Republican spinmeister from your Rolodex Diane.
Suggestion: If you had enough food to eat for the past 52 weeks, walk into your local food pantry. Give them a check for $52.
Please ask the panel if the presence and contributions of NGOs helps or interferes with feeding the poor.
Having donated for years on a regular schedule to several food pantry programs, I wonder if they are effective or masking the problem.
Lets not forget to compare this issue to the amount of people in the U.S. who are obese...One Third.
Our government wants us to be totally dependent.....it starts with food stamps and ends with a cashless society and it's called totalitarianism.
So, are you suggesting we starve them to death so they will be slim?
There are stats on how many people who work at Walmart and other low wage jobs who need to get food stamps to make ends meet. What are those statistics?
Instead of cutting these folks off of food stamps why not legislate corporations like Walmart to pay higher hourly wages
SNAP now doubles as foreign aid. Here's how it works:
-Tom Vilsack aggressively promotes food stamps in the illegal alien communities
- The legal resident in a household of 8 or 10, mostly illegal relatives, signs up for food stamps
- The income from the others, illegals, which could have bought the food without food stamps, can now be remitted to Mexico instead
- The remittance to Mexico now helps the Mexican resident in Mexico buy her food in Mexico, relieving Mexico from having to fund its own food stamp program plus helps her pay her exorbitant phone rates, thus enriching Carlo Slim Helu even further
So there's even more than this hour's storybook tale to be happy about!
I suspect the work requirement hustler has relatives that go without rather than even ask, or sneak into his church's food bank. I know I do. He's covered, can't even begin to think that other's don't have computers, or computer skills, and get instructions a line at a time. He'd prefer them line up with their children in soup lines, and not have them in programs after school, etc., like his private schooled children. And, don't give to the Red Cross, because his Bishop warned them against that 'scam.' Oh, and don't contribute to anyone's funeral, "They all have that covered." These are the minimum wage, people in cage, show up or shut up, 'church program' types (And I don't mean all church programs, rather those who put forth the 'religious approach, where 'they must be seen,' and spout self-congratulatory bible verses.) We all have them in our families, and we in the 47 % pray for their family members.
So if we make people at the bottom of the economic ladder work for food stamps will we be making Wall Street banksters work for the taxpayer funding they have been provided with?
Diane, how about breaking the mold and inviting people onto your panel who know hunger in America from the receiving end. If you're discussing food stamps, talk to people that depends on them.
Stephen Moore is disgusting. Work requirement for food stamps? Please. Many people are on food stamps precisely because they can't get work. Finally hunger is just one symptom of the wider economy, with export of jobs, deskilling (and lower pay) of low end jobs and increasing educational barriers to high end jobs.
Food does not equal health, as America's obesity rate can attest. My husband's parents owned a grocery store in rural middle America for over a decade and were apalled at the junk, prepared foods and red meat that folks on food stamps were able to buy. Also, I have a family member in Baltimore who is a heroin addict and sells his food stamp card for cash to the same person each month, who returns it for a refill. This abuse is common among inner city addicts. While no person, adult or child, should ever go hungry in this prosperous nation, we need reform.
Kimberly
Dallas, Texas
I will never forget an article on Huffpost. A single mom said,I voted no to Union representation at my Walmart. I`m afraid of giving up my rights. I`ll get by with lousy wages and food stamps.......
This is the kind of thinking promoted by right wing nuts. Unions are bad...... And don`t take responsibility for yourself.
The average Walmart worker receives $1000 annually from government. Now Walmart is pawning off health care to taxpayers.
Diane, Thank you for a great topic for your Great show. I wonder why is it even a morally respectable position that somehow a human society and civilization should resort to hunger as an incentive to work? I really do not understand that as a society we cannot decide that the minimum standard for decent life is that anybody no matter his circumstances or even CHOICES is to have 3 decent meals a day???
Thank you and Regards,
Claude
Stephen Moore makes this program fair and balanced by representation of the ill-informed, the sadists, and the fascists who wish to devolve government into corporate feudalism.
A work requirement is ludacrous because many recipients are unable to work while many more are already employed. Forced labor at less than minimum wage would only displace others from the workforce. In NAZI Germany Hitler was heroic for putting people to labor at less than subsistence. (Notice how Stephen scapegoats all the hungry by describing a mythical cheater. May Mr. Moore soon go hungry himself!)
Many other nations subsidize the necessities of life to keep their lower income citizens functioning. This is a good explanation of why the Obama administration would point proudly to SNAP. And it does redistribute income and speed the circulation of capital. We have come to this situation because of structural unfairness.
I work in the relief area in NC and it is wrenching to see the hard choices the working poor are forced to make. The cost of keeping a job itself is becoming sizeable. Some jobs are a net loss when you have children.
I am tired of this sick framing of poverty... as with the T-partiers (Terrorists) who cannot be satisfied in balanced budget discussions unless millions of the most powerless people are injured by draconian cuts.
Hello,
I am wondering if the Food Stamp program can be tied into WIC to create a single, streamlined program? Food items good for women & children are good for all of us. One thing I do not like about Food Stamps is their use for purchasing non-nutritious foods. Thank you, Love your show, Jane in N.C.
Several caveats/notes to the "$1.00 to $1.50" per meal benefit:
It's the frozen meals with the worst nutrition (trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, processed flour) that this sum will purchase.
The "food ghetto" issue makes the situation worse. While those meals may be $10 for 10 at a supermarket they are 2 to 3 times that at the only stores in the 'hood.
Moore's crab legs story resembles the old Reagan welfare queens with Cadillacs canard. Don't recipients occasionally deserve a treat -- my clients would be able to afford a $7-8 bag of frozen shrimp or so on once a month. If they bought lobster all the time they'd starve by the second week of the month.
So who cares if a food stamp recipient buys crab legs if they really qualify for food stamps. What would your guest rather have that person buy for protein cat food in cans? I will never forget when in 1965 students at Antioch in Yellow Springs Ohio were doing research on how many poor people in Dayton Ohio were buying pet food to eat themselves for protein sources? They found a large percentage of people who were food insecure and not on food stamps were regularly buying pet food to eat themselves to get by. This should not be happening in one of the wealthiest nations on this planet
Stephen Moore seems remarkably unsuited to today's discussion.
Many of us are already well aware of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board's opinion of any government program that doesn't benefit the already-rich.
Instead of having him on, you could have just mentioned at the start that the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board has announced that since food assistance is for poor people, they are against it.
He's not adding much more than that to the discussion.
In 2007, I was a multi-millionaire with a high 6-figure income. By 2009, I was unemployed and broke and by 2011, I was homeless, unemployed, broke, and on food stamps. I think I have a unique perspective on the program and I would do one simple thing to improve it. It's all very well to say that there should be a work requirement, but if I could have found work, I wouldn't have needed SNAP. What I would like to see is a token co-pay. That is, to buy $1 worth of eligible food, I would have to pay, say, 5 or 10 cents and SNAP would then pay the rest. This would at least give the recipient some "skin in the game."
Mark in Houston
When my husband left our family and the house was soon to be foreclosed, the food stamp program saved my children's well being.
Your guest says that college students should live off of peanut butter & jelly, but when I was in college the first time, the Regan administration stopped most of my college funding which kept me from completing my degree.
I was a hard worker, so lack of degree did not make a difference until middle age.
I personally believe that giving people a hand-up gives great benefit to families long term well being.
I went back to school and have been greatly helped by food stamps. But if I had finished my degree the first time, I would not have had to go back in middle age.
Claiming fraud by fear mongering anti-President representatives, is a waste of time.
Yes, I believe that there should be limits to the purchase of junk food and gourmet items.
And I am aware that most states have a work requirement for receiving food stamps over a period of time.
Food & healthcare & work programs are an excellent support system allowing families to move through to the next financial level.
Diane, to your guest who was disturbed by someone buying crab legs with food stamps - he knows nothing about their health or diet. What if there is a medical health reason he's purchasing this particular item? I suppose he feels that the poor are only entitled to buy low grade foods? "Should they buy lobster?" is he implying that food stamps should only be for cheetos? What a classist.
Stephen Moore is a fossil and is trying to perpetuate a Fox News myth about the poor. If it were up to him people in poverty would exist in a Dickens' nightmare that would "decrease the surplus population." His fervor might be better served if he were to vilify corporations whose profits have increased as exponentially as their workers pay has decreased.
problem is that rent its not taken into account when determining a poverty level
with a college degree I can't even get a job at walmart
His man- Bush- destroyed the economy and put millions ON foodstamps. Why give a man like this a forum? Would you have a white supremacist on to discuss civil rights?
problem is that rent its not taken into account when determining a poverty level
with a college degree I can't even get a job at walmart
Stephen Moore scoffed at the idea of people buying lobster while they are on food stamps. However, in my local supermarket outside of Boston, lobster is $4.99 a pound, cheaper in many cases than beef or chicken. Why wouldn't this be a good, economic choice for people on food stamps who want to give their families a good meal?
problem is that rent its not taken into account when determining a poverty level
with a college degree I can't even get a job at walmart
As a middle class tax-paying citizen, I don't know all the details about requirements for Food Stamps. All I know is that I see people using food stamps in the check out line of the grocery store. I agree with the "crab leg" story. Just this weekend, I saw a woman hold up the cashier while paying with food stamps, so she could answer a call on her smart phone. Then I watched as she walked to a newer vehcile that I own. As I said, I am a middle class tax-paying citizen, and I don't have a smart phone or a new car because I balance my budget each month WITHOUT government assistance.
I also know indiviudals who are on food stamps, yet they also have cable televsion. Again, I don't have cable televison, so I can balance my budget.
What are we teaching our citizens if we continue to give free handouts?
Mary Fox
Hello, I just turned on the radio and heard someone saying food stamps and lobster don't go together. Lobster has a bad rap since restaurants over process and over price it and call it a luxury food. I'm from New Hampshire and we eat it like non-New Englanders eat hamburgers. There is plastic on the table and mallets in our hands. We have it at road side stands and we boil it in our kitchens. It's just food. And I think people using food stamps should be able to eat it if they want to. What do you want them to buy? Frozen macaroni and cheese? Is that better for them? I don't think so.