Posted on 08/22/2012 8:48:38 PM PDT by blam
Going hungry in America: ‘Distressing,’ ‘humbling’ and ‘scary’
By Tim Skillern
The Lookout
Dave Krepcho, director of the Second Harvest Food Bank, checks inventory at the food bank warehouse in Orlando, Fla. In the past four years, food distribution to 500 pantries, shelters, and other relief agencies in the six-county area has jumped about 60 percent. In the last year alone, that amounted to 36 million pounds of food. Krepcho estimates about 30 percent of those seeking help are first-timers. They're blue-collar and white-collar, many middle class, even some upper middle class. They include college-educated couples and professionals. (John Raoux/AP)
Cheryl Preston knows that others are worse off. But she's still hungry.
As grocery prices creep higher and her income sags, rationing her family's food is a daily task. The 54-year-old mother of three and grandmother of three in Roanoke, Va., says there are days she skips meals so her husband and son can eat. If they notice, she says, she'll let them think she's fasting. She waters down the milk and juice to make it last longer. She visits food pantries, but it's not enough.
"Who would think that in the land of plenty, hard-working families would go hungry? But I am living proof it is true," Preston writes in a first-person account for Yahoo!.
In the last three years, she hasn't been able to replace a $500 loss in monthly income. Her husband's job can't always guarantee 40 hours a week; his second job lasted only through Christmas. So mealtime suffers: Her family eats in one day what they used to eat at one meal. Often, they manage on a nearly barren cupboard for five or six days until the next pay day. They sometimes skip family gatherings at restaurants because
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
So they cancelled the HUGE ever-growing Food Stamp, farm commodity (”Government Cheese”), WIC and other supplemental food programs while I was sleeping last night? You’d think there’d be a thread or two about it!! Buehler? Buehler?
It is sad what Obama and the Rats have done to this nation.
Interesting comments at the link.
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
Obviously we need more socialism. /s
"Americans are just starving--starving I tell ya."
Where are the parents of those three grandchildren and why don’t they help out?
Exactly. Extended families need to band together and help each other out.
Guess these guys never heard of a 10 pound bag of rice, a gross of pinto beans, salt pork and a bag of flour for ho cakes.
I’m sorry but this food bank stuff is getting on my last nerve. Even my daughter’s high school is begging for food bank pantry food.
I use to deliver boxes of food to needy families all donated from my church members. We knew which ones were really needy and those who just wanted handouts when they were detoxing.
Hope you are well 2DV!
>It is sad what Obama and the Rats have done to this nation.
No brother. It’s our sins.
OBAMA’S GENEROSITY
From Dinesh D’Sousa: “A few days ago I received a call from a man I recently met named George. He was a bit flustered, and soon informed me that his young son was sick with a chest condition. He pleaded with me to send him $1,000 to cover the medical bills. Since George was at the hospital I asked him to let me speak to a nurse, and she confirmed that George’s son was indeed ill. So I agreed to send George the money through Western Union. He was profusely grateful. But before I hung up I asked George, “Why are you coming to me?” He said, “I have no one else to ask.” Then he said something that astounded me, “Dinesh, you are like a brother to me.” - Actually, George has a real life brother who just happens to be the president of the United States. (George Obama is the youngest of eight children sired by Barack Obama Sr.) George’s brother is a multimillionaire and the most powerful man in the world. Moreover, George’s brother has framed his re-election campaign around the “Fair Share” theme that we owe obligations to those who are less fortunate. - One of Obama’s favorite phrases comes right out of the Bible: “We are our brother’s keeper.” Yet he has not contributed a penny to help his own brother. And evidently George does not believe, even in times of emergency, that he can turn to his brother in the White House for help. - By the way... George lives in a shanty in the Huruma slum in Nairobi, Africa. He gets by on a few dollars a month.
So much for “spreading the wealth around”. Well, only if it is somebody else’s wealth...
Interesting comments at the link.
Perusing those comments I get the feeling that they know, deep down, the Obamasocialists are to blame, but they (most) won’t directly say so. I do get the feeling that a tide is building and it’s not for Obinga.
Yep, especially poignant are the ones about how much we are spending in that cesspool called Afghanistan. There is nothing worth dying for.
Precious little in the ME worth dying for..
“I’m suprised that the MSM would publish a story like this so close to the election and a POS Democrat as president.”
It may be to give the impression that Repubs will make things worse; they have to stop Americans from reflexively responding to the “are you better off...” question by sending The Sultan packing.
Exactly.
I'm with you. In my area, there are constant exhortations to "feed the hungry" as if my part of the country has starving wraithes by the roadside begging for scraps of food. However, I see very few underfed people around here. In fact, most (including myself) could stand to lose a few pounds.
poor things...
Want to help feed the hungry, find a food pantry in your community and donate food only directly to them.
But Michelle is putting us all on a diet
Stories like that are exactly the reason for my tagline.
If you can earn $3/day, my A Buck A Plate blog will fill your belly 3 times a day. That’s just 25 minutes a day at minimum wage to eliminate hunger.
Something I found out recently which is the most disturbing of all about government hand outs.
When things get tough and people have trouble feeding themselves, the group that suffers most are the children.
Why?
Because there are parents out there who when benefits get reduced will take care of themselves first and let their kids go hungry!!
Nine years ago when my best best friend finally got married (we were in our 40’s at the time). Since I was her attendant, we decided to go out to a bar for a few drinks, a girls’ night out, shortly before her wedding. It had been about 20 years since we’d done anything like this and after the first drink we realized why we don’t do things like that anymore(;-)).
I met a woman in the Ladies Room who started talking to me about her 20 year old daughter. She’s saying how much her daughter hates her. I said something like that too bad (and realized alcohol makes you real stupid to confess such things to a total stranger). The woman replies that she doesn’t blame her daughter because when this woman was a young, single mom, she’s buy herself shoes so she could go out to the bars instead of buying food for her daughter. And this bar was a nice bar, in a nice restaurant, in a nice shoreline town, not a dive in the ghetto.
Anyway, FWIW, there are really scummy people out there who shouldn’t have kids, but what should we do about the kids who suffer if we cut off mommy’s benefits.
Come closing time every day, Panera Bread gives away all remaining stock (bread, bagels, pastries) to whatever charity will come get it. I take about 4 large boxes to a local church’s food pantry every week (and they still don’t have enough charities to take all daily leftovers). Don’t need a government program and confiscatory taxes, just need people willing to get it to the needy.
This should shock no one, ever. Marxists, especially those at the top of the "party," are among the greediest, most selfish people in all of human existence. They demand that they be given everything you have worked for and produced with no questions asked, so that they can live high on the hog. Look at any communist regime in history and tell me who has suffered the most? That's right, those who had the least to begin with, the ones who are supposed to be liberated and cared for in their glorious "Workers' Paradise." The ones who are supposedly suffering at the hands of the evil, producer capitalist bosses. My ass.
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