For I was Hungry

[unhappycamper]

I was reading thru the Maine papers this morning, and came across this series which was written last month. I started to put this in the Poverty forum, but thought you guys should see this. The series is well written and gives one cause to think about hunger. We read about it (and see it daily on the streets of our cities and towns), but we rarely think about it.




GOOD FRIENDS: Sandy Kalloch, left, and Georgia Wrona get together frequently at Kalloch’s kitchen table to chat.

July 23, 2007: Faces of hunger: retired workers, vets and children

July 24, 2007: Hunger in Maine: It’s growing, and a shame

July 25, 2007: You must feed children to educate them

July 26, 2007: State should mandate school breakfasts

July 27, 2007: In bad times, food pantries are booming

July 28, 2007: Food stamps: $1 a meal too little

July 29, 2007: All it takes is decency

The following is snipped from the July 29 series finale:

~snip~

From a biblical perspective, all who are hungry are the children of God, first among equals and more deserving because of their suffering.

From a political perspective, the hungry cannot achieve the promise of America — “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” To be hungry is to live an incomplete life, to be enslaved to one’s most basic need, to be sad and defeated and lacking in dignity.

~snip~

From a pragmatic perspective, hungry children, hungry workers, hungry seniors and hungry veterans cost us money. Hungry children don’t learn well, hungry workers don’t perform well, hungry seniors and veterans get sick and need to be taken care of, often with our tax dollars.

~snip~

In this series, we have brought you the faces of hunger in Maine. They are not the faces of an alien tribe in our midst. The only difference between the hungry and those who are not is that the hungry don’t have enough food.

Our purpose in this investigation has been to help Mainers understand how pervasive hunger is — and how hidden. In its very ordinariness, its wholesale acceptance by us as a fact of life, hunger is a rebuke to our morality.

We must become intolerant of hunger. It must become as dreaded as high taxes, as repulsive as sexual predators, as reviled as terrorism. It must become as unacceptable as all the other things we rail against daily. But first, we must resolve among ourselves to see hunger, to count it, to take its full measure and respond to it wholly and in a sustained way — not simply by pitching a quarter into a donation jar.

[unhappycamper]

1. A kick to get off of page two.

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

2. K&R; unhappycamper, thank you so very much for posting this!

:hug:

Also from a biblical perspective...

"When the Son of Man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory.

And before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.

And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, `Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I hungered, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in;

naked, and ye clothed Me; I was sick, and ye visited Me; I was in prison, and ye came unto Me.'

Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, `Lord, when saw we Thee hungering and fed Thee, or thirsty and gave Thee drink?

When saw we Thee a stranger and took Thee in, or naked and clothed Thee?

Or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee?'

And the King shall answer and say unto them, `Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.'

"Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, `Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I hungered, and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink;

I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in; naked, and ye clothed Me not; sick and in prison, and ye visited Me not.'

Then shall they also answer Him, saying, `Lord, when saw we Thee hungering or athirst or a stranger, or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee?'

Then shall He answer them, saying, `Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me.'

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal."


- Matthew 25: 31-46

And vehemently repeating the excerpt included in your OP...

We must become intolerant of hunger. It must become as dreaded as high taxes, as repulsive as sexual predators, as reviled as terrorism. It must become as unacceptable as all the other things we rail against daily. But first, we must resolve among ourselves to see hunger, to count it, to take its full measure and respond to it wholly and in a sustained way — not simply by pitching a quarter into a donation jar.

[PatSeg]

11. So many fundamentalists conveniently overlook pretty much

EVERYTHING that Jesus said and his lessons were really quite clear. I particularly like "judge not, lest ye be judged" - it generally shuts them up for a few minutes.

[northamericancitizen]

3. An other Kick &R poverty and hunger are not going to disappear

if nobody cares.

keep the good work unhappycamper

[Blue_Tires]

4. k+r

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. But it needs to be more than "just food"

It should also be nutritious food. When I was involved with our county group that, among other things, ran a free food pantry, we found that some folks came asking for food--and then wouldn't take it because what we had didn't include things with high concentrations of sugar. As a person who has blood glucose issues and is carbohydrate sensitive, I knew that these people were "sugar junkies"--and that the craving for sweets could be as bad as the craving for anything else. I only wished we had had funds for a free clinic to screen and educate these people about proper diet before they developed all the problems that can come with excessive sugar consumption. Sadly, the poor become addicted to the junk food that is often cheap and all they can afford.

[Sapphire Blue]

8. Indeed it does; from the second entry of the 7-day series...

Hunger in Maine: It’s growing, and a shame
Tuesday, July 24, 2007

~ excerpt ~

And we don’t talk about hunger because it’s physically invisible to most of us. Hunger in America isn’t skinny, rickety children or gaunt adults with sunken cheeks. It’s not starvation, the way it is in many other countries.

Instead, hunger in America is obese children whose parents can afford to buy calories, but not nutrition. It’s seniors ill with a vitamin deficiency whose symptoms mimic Alzheimer’s — but who, unlike Alzheimer’s patients, can be cured by eating less canned food and more fresh food. It’s working parents debilitated, humiliated and discouraged by the daily, unmeetable challenge of feeding their families.


http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/1111459552.html

[acmavm]

6. I'll happily kick. But I want to make the point that hunger is not something

that's new to this country. Believe me, sometimes when we were little we didn't get meat for weeks. Or we'd either live on pancakes (something I hate to this day) or fried potatoes and eggs and toast for days on end because there was no money for food. One of the most vivid memories I have as a kid was my mom making homemade tomatoe soup on a barbecue grill because tomatos were all we had and she could charge milk and butter with the milkman. My dad had taken off and disappeared for parts unknown (which I found out later turned out to be his mother's basement) and the gas company had turned us off for non-payment. ANYWAY, we were not the only people in this sinking boat. And that was 40+ years ago. And our country hasn't learned a damn thing. And they sure as fuck haven't become more compassionate. Because more people are hungry. More people are homeless. More people are sick with no medical care. More elderly are living out their last days alone and uncared for. More people are leaving their kids alone because they can't afford daycare. And now we have the housing collapse.

This is not a compassionate country folks. Never was. Things may have started to get better for a very short while, but Ronnie Reagan and the greedy republican party put a halt to the 'Great Society' movement. And every damn president since has contributed to the decline of our society, and that includes some people's hero, Billy Clinton.

P.S. Don't anyone post any sympathy threads regarding what I posted please. I figure that we lived, although some really shitty things happened, but we are what we experience. And while our lives were hard, it is nothing compared to some people's lives. I only used what I KNOW to illustrate that the richest country in the world, the country that likes to cash in on its reputation for goodness and 'Godliness' has had a piss poor record of taking care of the weakest amongst us.

[bread_and_roses]

16. I'll second all that. (n/t)

[Booster]

7. K&R and bookmarked to read the entire thing. Thanks for posting

about this most important issue.

[Sapphire Blue]

9. After reading the entire series, I need to thank you again for posting this; it is Pulitzer worthy!

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[Jack Bone]

10. K&R

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

12. Kicking back to the top!

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[Chulanowa]

13. And there are those who say, "They should have planned ahead!"

I often wonder if people on the right have parents, or grandparents. I really do. Can't it be even remotely possible that the people who would shrug their shoulders at this, that these people have no relatives, or truly don't care if they do? There is simply no way that can be possible, in my way of thinking.

Yet it's how they act. Hunger, poor nutrition, depression, lack of electricity or heating... To so many people in our nation, these are not health issues, but are indicators of moral worth. If you lack the right food, if you have to live off of social security, if you have to huddle under blankets just to keep yourself from freezing, then you are not someone to be felt for and taken care of - you are a tick wedged into the asscrack of America, to so many people.

It's the greatest, deepest, and most pervasive thing that is wrong with our country - that degree of wealth is used as a direct measure of the worth of a human life.

[waiting for hope]

14. Here's a kick and a rec!

:kick: and a :thumbsup:

[DesertRat]

15. k&r Thank you for posting this.

[Tsiyu]

17. This is an excellent overview

of why we have hunger in America. Low wages, high cost of living.

Thanks for posting the links.

Some of the comments were disturbing.

VivaBusho: wondered why people are having so many kids.
Maybe cuz you Repukes have practically outlawed contraceptives? Hmmmmmmmm....


It's sad to read so many callous comments made by people.
What a heartless land this is sometimes.