PLANK JULY 6, 2012
-
Read Later
READ LATERAvailable only to subscribers. SUBSCRIBE TODAY
-
Listen
ARTICLE AUDIO
- Font Size
Is it even worth taking on a Fox News discussion about whether too many kids are being fed through summer lunch programs? It is on a Friday afternoon in July when we’re staring down temperatures projected to feel like 108 degrees and all anyone wants to do is move into Snoopy’s Sno-Cone house.
Yesterday the Fox News program “America’s Newsroom” aired a segment titled: “Controversy Over Free Lunch Programs for Kids.” The report referred to the Summer Food Service Program, which is run through the Department of Agriculture and tries to fill the gap for kids who receive free or subsidized meals during the school year. Approximately 17.5 million kids eat breakfast or lunch at low- or no-cost every day that they’re in school through the National School Lunch Program. But over the summer, only a small fraction of those kids have access to free meals in the summertime.
The Fox News segment featured a representative of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association in California, who complained that summer feeding sites could end up helping kids who could afford to buy their own meals. As the Fox reporter Claudia Cowan summarized the position, “critics … wonder if this come one, come all invitation won’t have taxpayers feeding every child, whether they’re needy or not.”
Erring on the side of providing food for kids who might otherwise go hungry wouldn’t seem to be the worst offense. But even setting that aside, the real problem with summer feeding programs has been that there weren’t enough sites to service all the kids who benefit from school lunch programs. That’s one reason the Department of Agriculture’s Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships office started working in 2009 to get local churches and other religious organizations involved.
The faith-based office figured that thousands of churches in low-income areas host summer activities like Vacation Bible School and were already feeding kids who qualified for the summer feeding program. If they registered to become official Summer Feeding Sites, they and other religious organization could be reimbursed for the meals they provided or receive food that had already been allocated for the summer feeding program to prepare for low-income kids. Last year alone, 1400 congregations signed up as new feeding sites, and more are participating in this summer’s session.
This summer feeding program expansion would seem to be the rare government program that conservatives might embrace. After all, it recognizes faith-based groups for the work they’ve been doing and makes it easier (and cheaper) for them to continue serving their communities. But maybe they’re reading a different translation of the Gospel—the one in which Jesus means-tested the folks whom he fed with loaves and fishes.
15 comments
Yesterday AS (this one not the other one) appears out of nowhere, and I asked myself "will she or won't she?" Thank you.
- rayward
July 6, 2012 at 3:55pm
This reminds me of the saying (forgot who said it) that a conservative is someone who lays awake at night, worrying that someone, somewhere, someone might be getting a form of welfare who shouldn't
- CAinDC
July 6, 2012 at 4:03pm
Horrors! A few children might be fed who can afford to shell out a few bucks, maybe but no real proof a few bucks were 'wasted' feeding children. Meanwhile, a few billion in defense over-runs or needless weapons systems that don't work is nothing to worry about. More evidence that the pubery loves you when you're a fetus, wants you to die in a hole after you're here unless you're rich. They hate women and children. I hope there's a special place in hell for them.
- tmmats
July 6, 2012 at 5:11pm
I hate Fox News as much as the next person, but in this case I do think they have a point. I've volunteered for the summer lunch program for the past five years, and one of the things that irks me about it is that it *does* serve a lot of kids who don't need a free lunch. Obviously I think it's a great program overall -- otherwise I wouldn't volunteer for it -- but a lot of the distribution sites are at schools holding summer classes. Summer Food Service becomes the defacto free lunch option for all kids in summer school, not just the ones whose families are in need. The kids go straight from their classroom to the lunch line; apparently even well-off parents don't send lunch with their kids. Maybe it's worth it to capture more low-income kids who might otherwise be embarrassed to use the program, but if I let my kids take a lunch without chipping in a few dollars, I would feel as if I were taking advantage of a program not meant for me. A lot of my perfectly well-off neighbors send their kids to the program just to avoid making them lunch. Cracking down on eligibility isn't necessarily the answer here, but people concerned about waste have a valid point that's worth a more serious look than Sullivan presents.
- ekeizer
July 6, 2012 at 7:48pm
Yes, CAinDC, many rich conservatives are actually JEALOUS of poor people. As for those people whose kids get a free lunch when they can afford to buy them one, they pay taxes. What they do is not as bad as the staggering amounts of free government benefits that rich conservatives sometimes get, after they fight like hell to avoid paying every last cent of taxes that they can. People are people. Almost everyone is looking for a free lunch in one way or another. I wouldn't even begrudge a rich kid a free public meal. Kids should be fed, period. It helps turn them into decent citizens--most of the time.
- magboy47.
July 7, 2012 at 12:21am
Propaganda coup for O'bama here if he wants it. Is Paul Ryan/Romney in favour of free meals for kids? Cue picture of hungry child, followed by flag of America. In fairness, there's no doubt that there's waste here as well, as with all programs. My friend is a Primary School Principle, an inner city school with no canteen. They have ready made meals shipped in for the kids everyday and the school spends (has to spend) tens of thousands on it every year but the kids don't eat them. The food is binned every day. My friend would love to spend the cash on other things, like more home liason, etc. but can't.
- IggyPop
July 7, 2012 at 6:49am
(I should mention that I'm not American so the sample isn't accurate but still you get the point)
- IggyPop
July 7, 2012 at 6:53am
Waste occurs in any setting, including the private sector.. It's reflected in inflated prices of the products and services you buy, which the outsided pay packages of the guys at the top (who rarely deserve a fraction of what they're paid). And no one better preach it's the "free market", it's a rigged system at the top. But of course you won't hear that from FixNews.
- tmmats
July 7, 2012 at 1:36pm
When I first saw this article I feared it was a rerun of Swift's "Modest Proposal." Glad the children are safe from being eaten.
- skahn
July 7, 2012 at 2:51pm
Make that "which the biggest waste is the outsized pay packages of the guys at the top (who rarely deserve a fraction of what they're paid)"
- tmmats
July 7, 2012 at 8:35pm
The real answer is to deport the Murdochs back to Australia and then we can have a civil discussion about a lot of issues. How perverse do you have to be to deny hungry kids food? Murdoch is a wart on the face of humanity and whatever he has his entertainers scream at the mean of spirit should not enter educated public discourse.
- smabry03
July 8, 2012 at 8:36am
It's interesting that at least Fox picked up on this program and mentioned it. The Detroit School district has made the leap now and all kids, not just low income, get free lunches. There was a small debate about this but it quietly moved on. It may be small and petty to complain about this free lunch program for school kids, but it is kind of unfair that we have to shop and make lunches for our kids while these kids and their parents are eating for free. Hmmm.... Why not fix the schools, let the parents be responsible for their kids and stop the public dole? Nah, igve away peanut butter and jelly and keep pushing the kids through the grinder. Stop caring and send the money. It's a lot easier. A lot easier.
- CRS9TNR
July 8, 2012 at 10:02pm
They used to say: a Republican is someone who can't enjoy his own meal unless he knows someone somewhere else is going hungry.
- Curran1
July 9, 2012 at 2:31am
This summer feeding program expansion would seem to be the rare government program that conservatives might embrace. It's like adding sugar to get kids to eat their food. Maybe we can raise the top rate if some of that money goes to churches.
- Nusholtz
July 9, 2012 at 7:47am
Well make the kids grow their own food. This will be valuable job training, preparing them to be sharecroppers on Romney's plantation. Though to be politically correct, they must grow the food organically ... without Monsanto, genetic engineering, chemical fertilizers, or pesticides. Or the kids have to pick that cotton and then don't get to eat any for lunch.
- skahn
July 9, 2012 at 5:49pm