I see in the fishwarp that Hilary Duff has been in town talking up some program that's designed to make sure kids get enough to eat.
In my way of thinking, any kid who is going around hungry these days (and I don't mean hungry like a teenager who hasn't had a snack for five minutes, I mean kids who are seriously not getting sufficient nutrition) is doing so because his or her parent(s) make piss-poor decisions about what to do with money.
How many homes in areas that tend to be poverty-line or below have big-screen TVs hooked up to cable or satellite? How many of those homes have a late-model automobile sitting in front of them? How many of the people living in those homes are wearing expensive NBA-player-endorsed sneakers instead of the cheap off-brands you can get at Wal-Mart? Or play video games on that big screen with a Wii or X-Box or PS3 hooked up?
And how many of those homes are getting food stamps? How many of the kids are enrolled in the free or subsidised school breakfast and lunch programs? How many of their parent(s) cook nourishing meals, as opposed to hitting Mickey D's three nights a week (and ordering pizza the rest)?
We went through some pretty lean years when I was a kid and Dad's business failed in the recession of the early '70s. We didn't have a color TV till 1976 and we didn't have cable until the '80s.* Eating out was a special treat, and our games were pickup baseball, riding bikes, and whatever board games or jigsaw puzzles were handy. Oh, and Jarts and model rockets.
But by God we got three squares a day and they were nutritious and filling. I never had a problem with my weight until after I graduated from high school and had a car (and thus access to food other than what was provided at home and at school).
I have nothing against what Miss Duff is trying to do. But the fact is that kids go hungry because of bad decisions made by their parent(s), and programs like the one she's touting do nothing to solve that basic problem.
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* And I should note, no broadband Internet until late 2001 where I lived, and not until sometime in 2002 or 2003 here at what was then Mom's house. I telecommuted at 28.8 for a LONG time.
"programs like the one she's touting do nothing to solve that basic problem."
No arguments there. But I can't object to the program in and of itself -- something about not punishing the children for the sins of the fathers. Couple free meals with constructive lessons on work ethic, budgeting and basic home ec skills, and you might be on to something.
Sure. As I thought I implied but possibly wasn't clear about, I don't have a problem with the program, or Miss Duff touting it, OTHER THAN the fact that it doesn't do anything to solve the underlying problem.
What was that story about giving a man a fish vs. teaching him how to fish? :)