Thread: Why is there a hunger problem in the U.S.?

The County my wife and I reside in has about 90,000 people. Our food for the poor programs are County wide and County rule modified if the source of whatever is State of Federal in nature.
Until a few years ago the WIC program had several stores in the County. Making it easier for the women in the program to pick up what they needed, mostly milk, and formulas because only WIC items were in the stores. The stores ceased to exist a couple of years ago and now WIC product cards along with food stamps only work in the super markets of which there are 4. I have watched check out clerks on many ocassions remove products from folks checking out using food stamps.WIC cards. "Sorry this item is not allowed" is constantly heard. The grocery clerks are polite but firm when having items returned to stock. So that part of the programs seems to work well.

No items are allowed to be purchase in Liquor stores via these programs But there are several liquor stores where you can sell your food stamps and WIC issued cards. The local DA has told me the sellers are paid about 25 cents on the dollar. The result, of course, is liquor purchases, fast food items, and of course illegal drugs. Then the store owner resells the stamps and cards into what I am told are very well structured buying syndicates.

There are daily Catholic Charity give away programs, I think 5 or 6 in the County. One program store is two doors down from my favorite Asian fusion/sushi place. About 20 to 30 people in line everyday receive a cardboard box of produce items from local farms, mostly the items are not sellable by the farmers by virtue of minor damage or a cosmetic issue.
These give aways do not exist past the fall through to spring.

After these programs comes the Salvation Army and two shelters. These places serve one hot meal a day if you were lucky enough to be picked that day to reside in the shelter. If you are drunk or look stoned you will not be admitted.

After all of the above comes the homeless encampments out under bridges, over passes and along several of the local natural streams where the banks are over grown and provide a small degree of privacy. It is these folks who do the pan handling downtown and around our supermarkets. And it is the crack addicted of these folks who are responsible for the majority of snatch and run thefts. My neighborhood and several others are victimized by these thefts and ocassional assaults. I live on a cul-de-sac and spend a lot of my time in the garage were my razor working areas are as well as places to sit and enjoy a pipe or cigar.
The thieves most current MO is to cruise the neighbor hoods on bikes to check not only what may be in cars but watch for open garage doors. If a target is located a quick cell call by the bike rider brings a pick up or van and while the bike rider and van crew steal what they can out of the garages another member of the crew, on a bike, keeps an eye on the access streets into the area they are working and simply sends a quick text message to the bad guys who scatter. When I am in the garage I have a handgun and a 12ga sawed off just in case. Since I am out in my garage virtually everyday the bad guys pretty much just steer clear of our cul de sac. We have 8 houses, a couple retired cops, three Nam combat vets and a correction officer. We are all armed. We all have motion detector lights above our garage doors and most on our side door into the garage. Fence gates are locked. Two of the houses have camera systems that cover the entire cul de sac. That is life here and now. The wife and I were going to travel from here to the Spokane area and over into Glen's general area to consider relocating. My heart issues precluded our trip planed for this year but we will give it another go in late fall.
: P

I am constantly amazed that people are so against businesses and/or companies that create jobs. They complain about low wages, pollution, noise, benefits. And then, when the business decides to move to a better business climate, they scream bloody murder. It's not fair they say. What about our jobs, they cry! Boohoo! Too damn bad, I say! What the hell did they expect!

Yes, businesses provides jobs. At least, while they are still there!

Now these crybabies are going to demand free stuff from the government.


Mike

Originally Posted by mglindo

I am constantly amazed that people are so against businesses and/or companies that create jobs. They complain about low wages, pollution, noise, benefits. And then, when the business decides to move to a better business climate, they scream bloody murder. It's not fair they say. What about our jobs, they cry! Boohoo! Too damn bad, I say! What the hell did they expect!

Yes, businesses provides jobs. At least, while they are still there!

Now these crybabies are going to demand free stuff from the government.


Mike

Yea the old argument. let's roll back to 1900 when Companies paid slave wages and workers were basically slaves to the outfit. You don't come to work you don't get paid and the only excuse for missing a day from work was death and you better be thankful for the little you got. Regulations? who needs them. So what when the slag pile runs down the valley and wipes out a few hundred folks or folks get cancer from the water or air pollution. I mean, if you be a coal miner disasters and death and sickness are part of the job. Why should an employer have any responsibility for any of that.

No one is against companies and jobs but if you want the little guy to take it in the shorts to keep outfits here let them move cause that's what they will do anyway because no matter what the Govt does or doesn't do they can always produce cheaper in the Far East.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

No one is against companies and jobs but if you want the little guy to take it in the shorts to keep outfits here let them move cause that's what they will do anyway because no matter what the Govt does or doesn't do they can always produce cheaper in the Far East.

They don't always move to the Far East.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...in_london.html .

Oh, and Canada has a nominal corporate tax rate substantially less than the US. All this is after getting a 5 million dollar federal tax break a few years earlier.

Talk about taking it in the shorts.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

They don't always move to the Far East.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...in_london.html .

Oh, and Canada has a nominal corporate tax rate substantially less than the US. All this is after getting a 5 million dollar federal tax break a few years earlier.

Talk about taking it in the shorts.

Bob

Of course. It happens within the U.S too when outfits leave the Union States and move to the South so they don't have to pay the higher wages and benefits.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I wish the Food Stamp program were run like the WIC program. That is, restricting the FOOD that can be purchased to actually healthy stuff. IF you truly are hungry or your family is hungry, then good quality nutritious food should be the only thing you should be buying. That means no soda, no chips, and no candy. I know that the argument has been made that they should have the right to eat whatever they want but that should NOT be the case when it is a handout.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Not to be harsh, but gee, it ain't that hard to cook real food. The key is to buy 80% of your food from the produce section. Peel it, chop it, and put it in a pan.

Ah. If only it were that simple. The biggest problem is getting that real food to the food banks on a consistent reliable basis. There's also not enough of it around. Why? Well let's open up that big ass can of worms.

Would it surprise anyone to know North America throws away approximately 40% of it's food supply every single day. It's the second highest component of landfills. It equals 20 pounds of food per person per month. Are the scrapes from your plate the problem. Wrong onion breath! It's grocery stores. Why? Because most people won't buy food items that are one day past their due date. Is this date determined through scientific evidence compiled to help determine the real shelf life? The answer is sometimes. Other times it's just an arbitrary date picked by the food company. Gee no possibility of funny business there right?

Turning back to the food banks. Unlike the one in gissixgun's community a lot of them won't take past due date products even if the grocery store would deliver it to them for free (which in most cases they won't). So if we really want to solve whatever starvation issues exist one of the first areas that need to be addressed is how do we effectively divert the portion of the 40% wasted food that is still actually fit for human consumption to the food banks and to the people that need it.

Funny thing about that date on the can. It doesn't mean anything except what the manufacture wants to put on it. There is no control over what and why the date is there. I know people eat can goods 5 years past date and guess what ? Never sick from it. It's a joke on you so you throw good food away. Back in the early days of commercial canning spoiled food was a problem from time to time. It's not a problem anymore.
Just a note France recently made it illegal for stores to throw food away. If they don't sell it they have to give it to charity. There are little glimmers of common sense in this world I just wonder why it isn't spreading. Oh Yeah , profit and attorneys. Don't want somebody to win 2 million in court because they ate food 2 week out of date. Got to make sure there is at least 5 years buffer on that date to make it through a court case.

Don't worry, there will be many Starving mouths to feed in the near future if the powers that be get their civil war started, I hope all of you have at least 6 months of food stored and means to defend it.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Yea the old argument. let's roll back to 1900 when Companies paid slave wages and workers were basically slaves to the outfit. You don't come to work you don't get paid and the only excuse for missing a day from work was death and you better be thankful for the little you got. Regulations? who needs them. So what when the slag pile runs down the valley and wipes out a few hundred folks or folks get cancer from the water or air pollution. I mean, if you be a coal miner disasters and death and sickness are part of the job. Why should an employer have any responsibility for any of that.

No one is against companies and jobs but if you want the little guy to take it in the shorts to keep outfits here let them move cause that's what they will do anyway because no matter what the Govt does or doesn't do they can always produce cheaper in the Far East.

Now we are back in the 1900's? Sheesh! Same old argument, go back to the past. We used to have slaves back when also.

Mike

Originally Posted by mglindo

Now we are back in the 1900's? Sheesh! Same old argument, go back to the past. We used to have slaves back when also.

Mike

false equivalents-can't you do better?