First off, this is a rant. Why because I can contain it no longer. There is a certain commercial that has been playing on the radio where I live now for about a year. I will not name the organization or its web address because I don’t want to promote them. This organizations commercials usually feature a pathetic sounding child (sometimes an adult but mostly children) talking about how they struggle with hunger. They quote some statistics then talk about how they were told they could grow up to be anything they want to. The ending line is literally “I want to grow up to be someone who doesn’t go to bed hungry at night”. Then an announcer starts talking about who you can donate money on their web site and that each dollar you donate provides seven, yes you heard right, seven meals.
Ok, let’s start with the statistics. In the commercial they claim that 1 in 4 children in America “Struggle with hunger”. How do they get that number? Doesn’t that seem a bit high? I have a theory about how they get that statistic (aside from the fact that, as anyone who has studied statistics would tell you, you can make statistics say whatever you want them to say) and I am going to share it with you now…
Time – 5:45pm Setting – Jessica (age 11) is on the phone in her home while her parent is busy cooking supper.
Caller: Hello little Jessica, how are you today?
Jessica: I am good, how are you?
Caller: I am doing well, thank you for asking. Jessica, I want to ask you a question and you can answer me honestly. Have you been hungry in the last week?
Jessica: I am hungry right now, but-
Caller: Thank you Jessica, That is all I need to know.
Jessica looks confused as the caller hangs up on her.
Maybe I am being mean or maybe not, but I really find the 1 in 4 hard to believe. I am not denying the fact that there are children that go hungry here in the USA but, the fact remains that we as a nation have the world’s fattest poor people. Now you don’t get fat (at least not the type of fat that we are) by going hungry… Unless… There is a statistic that says that 1 in 6 adults are morbidly obese… Hmmm… Couple that with the 1 in 4 children struggle with hunger… Eureka! I have got it! All the adults are eating the food for themselves instead of giving it to their children! Yes I know I am being ridiculous, but I am just expressing how ridiculous I feel these commercials to be. Like I said before, I know that there are children in America that go hungry and my heart goes out to them, really, but I think that this organization is a fraud.
Let’s look at the other huge problem I have with this ad, the line about every dollar you donate. If food was that cheap nobody in America would have to worry about penny pinching when it came to buying groceries. This line is just ridiculous. If they were really serious about feeding people, then they would be asking for non-perishable food items to fill food banks that they could then give out to families in need before asking for money. The fact that they only ask for money sends red flags up for me. I can understand the organization wanting money, after all you have to pay for a way to transport the food, store the food and pay the people to do all the work that comes with all that food. But the fact that they don’t want food, they just want money? It seems suspicious to me, just saying.
Now on to what I think is the true heart of the matter. If there are this many children in the USA “struggling with hunger” then why haven’t the states stepped in with DHR and removed those kids so that they can go somewhere that they will be fed? Also, what about the school systems? Children from “under privileged families” (I always hated that term, but that is a whole other rant) have programs where the get free breakfast and lunch at school on the taxpayers dollar. The schools in most places will even feed them when school is not in session. On top of that they are talking about implementing a program to cover supper as well. Guess the next thing to happen will be that the schools just let the children live there, call is a taxpayer funded boarding school.
Also, what about the communities that the hungry children live in? One of the things that used to make our country so great was the generous nature of the American citizen. What has happened to that? Once upon a time, if a community knew that it had a family that was suffering from hunger that was a part of that community, then the people came together and helped that family out as best as they could. Not everyone in that community could afford to help with money or food, but they could at least give time if nothing else.
What has happened to the generous nature we had as a nation? I personally blame the Government. The reason for this is that once the government started raising taxes so that it could step in and provide services like child welfare, WIC and food stamps, the people of the community saw two things happen. First they saw that they had less money with which to provide help to their neighbors in need. Second since the Government was handling the responsibilities of the community, they saw that there was no need for the community. This broke the communities and neighborhoods down to the point that the people in them started to ignore one another as well as the needs of those around them. I don’t mean to say that this applies everywhere or to everyone, but it does apply to more than not and to make matter worse, it is getting worse with each generation.
We as a nation, as a people, need to learn to come together once more and support those that are in need. We need to elect people into office who will have the guts to stand up and shut these programs down that have only served to make up more dependent upon the Government, then have the integrity to also lower taxes so that we the people will have the money that should rightfully be ours anyway. I am not saying that this is a change that needs to occur overnight, it needs to be done slowly so that the people of this nation have time to adjust back to where we came from. I believe that if that were to happen, we as a nation would learn once again what it means to be a community which will in turn make us stronger.
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