The Heritage Foundation is trying to tell us there's no hunger problem in America

[LongTomH]

The Heritage Foundation has a long, dishonorable history of trying to tell us that the poor in America are really well-off and we don't need to worry about them or spend tax money on them; especially, don't spend tax money on them. I got another dose of this yesterday while waiting at my doctor's office; I glanced at a copy of the Wall Street Journal. The editorial page carried an op-ed titled: The Myth of Starving Americans. Here are a few excerpts:

We take it as a given that hunger stalks America. We hear it in the news, we see a myriad of government and private organizations set up to feed the hungry. And we are often reminded of the greatest of all ironies—in the richest nation on earth, there are still those without enough to eat. But are these media portrayals of hunger in America accurate?

A hungry child is the ultimate third rail in the entitlement debate. Few candidates—Democrat, Republican or independent—would even question conventional wisdom on this particular issue because that would make them look indifferent to hungry children and that, of course, is political death.

<snip>

In a report published last September by the Heritage Foundation, researchers Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield asked that very question. They found that, according to Census Bureau data for 2009 (the most recent year statistics are available), of the almost 50 million Americans classified as poor, 96% of the parents said their children were never hungry. Eighty-three percent of poor families reported having enough food to eat, and 82% of poor adults said they were never hungry at any time in 2009 due to a lack of food or money.

Stuart Varney, of Fox News has been hyping the Heritage Foundation report, and Media Matters is taking him to task for it.

The damndest thing is: The Marketwatch website, which is associated with the Wall Street Journal, is carrying a press release from Vicki Escarra, President and CEO of Feeding America: Nation's Largest Hunger Relief Organization Responds to State of the Union Message:

This evening President Obama delivered his State of the Union Address to Congress and the nation. The President spoke about the need to restore the American values of responsibility and fairness for all in order to ensure opportunity for all Americans.

Those values have been compromised in recent years by a struggling economy that has left 1 in 6 men, women and children in America at risk of hunger. There is no greater evidence of the need for long-term solutions to restore opportunity than the number of Americans struggling to put food on the table, including a number of middle class families seeking food assistance for the first time.

[Warpy]

1. Now that poverty has reached deep into the suburbs

The Heritage Foundation is making itself look sillier to more and more people, most of whom have experienced a lot of belt tightening if they haven't actually experienced hunger. People who have lost job after job in a bad economy are certainly aware of the possibility of hunger down the road. And they're aware of the shame that goes along with being broke, shame due in a very large part from the efforts of Heritage and other right wing stink tanks to criminalize poverty, even that coming from plain bad luck and/or managerial screwups.

These well funded stink tanks are starting to make themselves irrelevant now that they've achieved a lot of what they set out to do simply because this type of thinking can only be tolerated in a good economy. We can't afford it in a bad one.

[Jim__]

2. 4% of 50 million is 2 million.

So, even accepting their numbers:

They found that, according to Census Bureau data for 2009 (the most recent year statistics are available), of the almost 50 million Americans classified as poor, 96% of the parents said their children were never hungry.

the implication is that 2 million parents said their children were hungry sometimes.

18% of 50 million is 9 million:

Eighty-three percent of poor families reported having enough food to eat, and 82% of poor adults said they were never hungry at any time in 2009 due to a lack of food or money.

So, even if we accept their numbers - personally I doubt their accuracy - we still have millions of hungry people.

[ieoeja]

3. Using Heritage statistics 18% of poor adults, or 9 million people, reported going hungry in 2009.

Apparently hunger is only a problem when 50% +1 go hungry.

[CRK7376]

4. If the Heritage Foundation saying

hunger no longer exists in America, why is Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwestern NC taking my monthly contributions? They never send my money back. Maybe because we have hungry kids in our school systems, and my money goes to support Second Harvest Backpack program where hungry kids take home backpacks with food over the weekends and holidays.

[HopeHoops]

5. Fuck that. I'm hungry and it is HOURS until dinner.

But seriously, I've seen it first-hand and in really rough conditions. My wife's first job was a kindergarten teacher in rural South Carolina. She did voluntary home visits and saw the conditions most of the kids lived in. In one case, the family lived in a two-room house (small) with a pile of clothes in the center of the first room. A pig was coming out as she stepped down two feet into the room (dirt floor). The mother's room just had a mattress on the floor.

I visited with her (one of my professors gave me a bunch of toys to take down) at another house. They had, best I could tell, one electrical outlet with extension cords providing electricity to a single hanging light bulb and a 10" or so B&W TV. They were shelling beans that they had grown and wanted to give us about half of them. We politely refused but I think we ended up taking a small handful to be gracious of the offer. I don't remember.

Lunch was the only really solid meal these kids got. The cafeteria workers were mostly grandmothers of the children at the school and they made the best damn food I've ever encountered in not just a school cafeteria, but ANY cafeteria. The cornbread was to die for and there were always a variety of greens, meats, vegetables, taters, and grits. Those kids ate well - THERE. These cafeteria workers did this on a budget that most school districts would laugh at. They worked their asses off to feed the kids and used raw ingredients to create beautiful meals at minimal cost. They served them on plastic plates with stamped steel tableware and washed them by hand after lunch - no disposables other than napkins. This was a school with no paper products (including toilet paper) in the bathrooms and nothing but nubs of crayons, monster cockroaches (black with red heads) everywhere, a rats nest in the wall, etc.

She also taught HeadStart in PA and while the conditions were better, lunch at the classroom was the best meal the kids got for the day. She's also taught at elite schools and now teaches at a private kindergarten/daycare. Most of those kids have a worse diet but aren't hungry - they just eat McFood when they aren't in school and most barely touch the nutritious lunches some days. When I visited her in S.C., there was never a scrap of food left on any plate.

Yes, there is hunger in America - a SHITLOAD of it. Most people haven't seen it, but it is there and in greater quantity than I suspect any of the estimates show.

[CRK7376]

6. Forgot to add my link to

Support Second Harvest Food Bank in Northwest NC.

http://hungernwnc.org/how-we-work/food-to-kids.html

[hyphenate]

7. If we took away the SNAP program, there would be deaths in this country

from starvation, and there is a high percentage of people who have very poor diets and who need further sustainable foods. The rise in diabetes alone shows that an all carbohydrate diet, with few protein or [good] fats on a daily basis is detrimental to a large number of people. Indeed, while some might complain that there isn't aa great deal of people "starving," it's obvious that a great many people can't afford high protein meals, which would be much healthier, and are often left with no alternatives than to eat large amounts of low glycemic index foods, which repidly lead to more calories, more chronic conditions, and less nutritionally sound eating habits.

In addition, what constitutes "hunger" for people? Some of us would be appalled at what constitutes hunger in this country: some of us eat a great deal more than others, often leading to more obesity, while others can and do live with very little amounts of it. Regardless, however, there is always the problem of eating foods with enough nutriental value in the RDA to keep us healthy.

I could survive on a couple of cupcakes with little else to eat or drink, and I wouldn't be hungry. But such a "meal" is hardly sound or meritorious. We see a constant barrage from commercials to eat junk food that a good diet is farthest from the mind.

Hunger is highly subjective. One could be eating several thousand calories a day, and while their bellies are getting filled, they are slowing dying of hunger from lack of the proper nutrients.

[librechik]

8. conservatives HATE our winning issues

because they are true and honorable and persuade eople to help others. All things they don't EVER want to do--that's why they imagine they are being FORCED to help when taxes pay for food stamps. Conservatives are greedy selfish and evil people. Period.

[dajoki]

9. Robert Rector is evil n/t

[SomethingFishy]

10. So... Jesus said "ignore the hungry"?

Got it.