Reply #71: When I taught in an Appalachian poverty area twenty years ago,

[DemBones DemBones]

95% or more of the kids were on free lunches and on welfare of some sort but apparently they were ashamed of eating commodity foods because they'd pitch a fit when the lunchroom ladies cooked pinto beans or macaroni and cheese. "I don't want no welfare cheese" was a common remark. These were 6th, 7th, and 8th graders I was teaching.

That was my only experience with government cheese and it was fantastic. I could have eaten that mac and cheese every day for lunch!

My own family went through some hard times financially when I was small but we were a military family so we may not have been eligible for commodities. When I was very small, we had a big garden, chickens, rabbits,and a pecan tree, and we went fishing and crabbing a lot, plus my mom made my clothes out of the feedsacks the rabbit & chicken feed came in. When we got transferred to an urban area, I think we lived in public housing for a time and got Navy Relief.

It seems to me that most families in this country have a hard time making ends meet, and that this goes back generations.