Food for Thought

This is America. We are supposed to be a leader in this world and yet there is an article in the USA Today that school kids can't get lunch because their parents can't afford it.

According to this article, many student's families cannot afford to purchase their lunch while in school and because they allowed them to go ahead and get a meal for a few days without paying, there is now a debt owed to the schools. So, now, a child can only charge a meal for a couple of days and then if the family can't pay - no lunch. In some schools, an alternative lunch was offered (cheese sandwich and milk) but then that was discontinued because the children were stigmatized by the difference in lunches. In Des Moines, schools are even resorting to collection agencies to pressure parents to pay the past due balances for charged meals.

We know that we have a huge hunger and homeless problem in this country; and, that alone should make us ashamed. We also know, that when it comes to education, we are far behind many other countries. Now, we are going to add to this problem by not feeding our children while at school. In spite of the fact that there are numerous studies out there that show that a well fed child learns better and is better able to retain and use that knowledge, we see that when it comes down to money, money wins. Everybody's equal as long as you can pay.

In this same edition of the newspaper, there is an article about earmarks (special funding)that our lawmakers have put into the national budget. There is $600,000 earmarked for the National Wild Turkey Federation (a hunting organization) and $350,000 earmarked to promote specialty meat in Wisconsin. These are not the only earmarks in the budget but just an example of the frivolities that our lawmakers have the audacity to even consider spending our tax money on.

Just those two examples represent almost 1 million dollars that could be used to fund school lunches. Now, how about those turkey hunters donate their kills to the schools and maybe the Wisconsin specialty meat producers could donate some of their product. (Think of it as real time marketing specialty meat people). We could feed a lot of children with this plan. Or, how about you let me at that budget. I've raised a family and put kids through college on far, far less than even one of those lawmakers earns in a year. Bet I could show you a lot of other junk we should take out of that budget and put it where it really needs to go.

So, we have school kids going hungry at school and schools hiring collection agencies to harass already overworked and underpaid parents and ruining what may be left of their fragile credit and I find this such a sorry and disturbing state of affairs. When the hell are we gonna get our priorities straight in this country.

Alas, it isn't enough to rant and point out the ugly truth. We must be willing to put the outrage to use. We must be willing to step up and do something. So let this be a call to action. Ask your self what you can do to change even a small part of this backward process. Band together and let our voices be heard but let our actions speak louder.