Where's the outrage over hunger in this State?
According to the Globe and Feeding America a group of 200 US food pantries found an estimated 571,000 residents of this state, relied on food banks. In other disturbing facts, more than 1/3 of families surveyed had at least one working adult, 50% of food recipients receive food stamps, 79% of the surveyed with children under 18 lacked sufficient food, the percentage of clients aged 65 and older increased to 14%, up from 11% in 2006.
Our government has got to make more of an effort to provide emergency food relief now, as we do for every other country that needs help. What does it say about our elected officials?
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 1:58 PM
19 Comments
19 Comments:
I said this before on this blog and I will say it again. If everyone reading this blog picked up one extra item when they food shopped this week, a can of tuna, a box of ceral, a jar of tomato sauce, and dropped that off at a local food pantry, it would make a big dent. If every church attendee in every church in Framingham brought one item to church with them on Sunday to go to a food pantry, the shelves could be stocked for a few weeks. If every family in Framingham that still is employed bought one item for the food pantries in this area every week when they shop, no child in metro-west would go hungry. Tell me, why are we not doing that? The government has failed us, why are we failing each other?
good point CV
All that money we spent to bail out banks would have stocked the shelves in every food pantry in the country for several years, leaving no person in America hungry at night. Instead we put money in the pockets of the richest Americans. Where are our priorities?
To answer your question, it means we suck at taking care of our own. We rush millions of dollars in aid to Haiti but nothing to those whose unemployment has run out and nothing to help kids going hungry.
Pillsbury you are reporting on an issue that impacts the town of Framingham as well as surrounding communities. Nice job reporting it. Now what do we do about it?
Salvation Army spends all their money on big houses for the people running their shelters so no wonder they can not keep the shelves of the food pantry stocked. Sell those houses and feed the hungry people.
I know for a fact, that some, if not more of our readers have and continue to donate food and for that, I'm proud to know I have such conscientious neighbors.
But.. we are very small and our local input is certainly helping, but over 500,000 people is a lot of mouths to feed and at this point, it will take a huge effort among the ruling party to get relief now.
I'm writing to Deval and asking for a State of emergency in this crises.
The president is always chasing the issue, instead of getting ahead of it. He ignored everything but health care until he realized people were no longer supporting him because they were out of work. Now he is chasing jobs. But people who have been out of work a long time now can not feed their families, so they need food now so they can have the strength to look for a job when he gets around to creating some. So a year from now, when thousands of children in this country have suffered irreprable damage from the effects of malnutrition, which the health care system will have to cover for the rest of their lives, then he will do something about hunger. He is always behind instead of ahead. He needs to get with the program. Solving things too late is not solving them at all.
As Marie Antionette said “Let them eat cake”. And we all know what happened as a result of that statement.
Hope reading these statistics make you all realize how unimportant worrying about casinos and wind turbines are now. There are so much more serious issues to be addressing.
Seems you hit some peoples hot buttons here Jim. Looks like people pay more attention and have more to say about the causes that impact them and their neighbors, things we can all do something about. Hope you remember that come election time. Take a leadership position on this issue Jim. You are ripe for it and it is an issue that crosses party lines. You can make a difference with this Jim by keeping this fact in front of people so they never forget those who are hungry. Keep the issue in the public eye and the politicians will have to address it.
Great idea to write to Deval. I will be very interested to hear what his response is to that letter. Maybe some of the stimulus money he has not figured out how to spend yet can be put to good use feeding some hungry people here in MA.
This is why immigration is such a sore topic in this country. We take better care of others than we do of our own. Can you blame the nutcases who spend all their time condeming the immigrants when you see things like this? These types of issues here in this country are what fuel the fire on the immigration issues.
Finally a topic that is relevant! People, get with the program here. Read these statistics. If you can go to sleep tonight without wondering how many people in your neighborhood can not sleep because they are hungry, then you have no conscience. What are we going to do about this? Pillsbury, ideas?
Hey fellow bloggers how about doing something yourself instead of looking to others to do it for you? Make a donation to your local food pantry, food or money. Try being part of the solution instead of part of the problem people.
my letter to the Govenor:
Mr. Governor,
As I'm very sure you are well aware of the amount of residents who are going hungry today and as the economy struggles to get back to a new normal, how many more there will be tomorrow. As the study done by Feeding America in yesterday's Globe points out, 571,000 residents relied on food assistance last year. This number will only continue to rise this year and I ask that you declare a State of Food Emergency and do whatever it takes to help our children, seniors, veterans and every resident, no matter the color of their skin, nor political affiliation or the lack of, and provide emergency food relief to those providers who already are already doing what they can with the limited supplies they have.
Please, try to do something more than whats being done now.
Sincerely,
Jim Pillsbury
Nice letter. I am going to follow your example and do the same myself. Thanks for taking the lead here.
We should all follow Jim's lead and write to the governor, and anyone else at the state house, who might listen. Start with your state reps and work up.
I found this program which is very good for seniors and others, put out by the USDA. Please have a look at this if you need help.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/FSP/
An editorial today in the Globe points out something I had not considered. The stigma that had surrounded food stamps. As I understand now, you get a debit card, like a bank card. Not like the old days of paper food stamps. This card/program is accepted at all the big super stores like costco, walmart, etc.
I hope any of you who need assistance with food will take advantage of this program. I will post any info I get on any other programs within the State. And please, share anything you find out with us and your friends and family in these difficult times.
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