Posted on 08/23/2010 10:52:30 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
WASHINGTON (Aug. 23) -- Acknowledging that the hunger faced by millions of American students during the summertime is "a catastrophe," the top nutrition official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to experiment with a totally new approach to feeding poor kids during the months they have no access to subsidized meals at school cafeterias.
The idea: issue a seasonal electronic benefits card to families whose children are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches during the academic year.
In an interview with AOL News, Undersecretary for Food and Nutrition Kevin Concannon said the department has recently asked states to volunteer for a pilot project for the cards during the summer of 2011.
In participating states, the card would complement or replace a patchwork of summer food programs that reach only one in five of the children who qualify for subsidized school meals.
"We want to try it just to see if it can work out," Concannon said.
He expects that benefits would be paid in about the same amounts that the U.S. government pays to reimburse the organizations that run feeding sites during the three-month break.
(Excerpt) Read more at aolnews.com ...
Yet they all have cell phones flat screen tvs and play stations
If you cannot afford to give your child a decent breakfast, lunch and dinner, you have no right on this earth to have that child, period. We are faced now with feeding the offspring that qualify their no-good parent (yes, singular) for EITC...that is the crux of the problem.
But, but, but...these families live in Food Deserts - and only those with the swiftest Camels will be correctly feed/sarc...can ya' use 'em for Happy Meals?
This is just another scam to get taxpayers to hold still while the govt steals our money.
Well put!
Pelosi has stock in Dole, let em eat fruit cups all summer for free........
Having children you can’t feed, house, or clothe should be a crime punishable by ‘fixing’ both parents. Loving babies or puppies is no excuse for bringing life into this world you can’t afford....like all those toxic mortgages, hungry and parent-less children make for toxic beings and abuse. China understand this........
How about getting the parents to stop spending the welfare on smokes, booze and drugs? The card might help with that, but no additional bucks, just limitations on what they can buy!
Feed the homeless to the hungry?
Feed the homeless to the hungry?
No Food For Fuel ! ...bump
This is retarded (*nod to Jennifer Aniston*).
Seriously? WTF are food stamps for (which Obama just cut)?
No - let’s create an entirely new program that costs billions, isn’t funded, AND absolves parents of the basic responsibility of putting food on the table.
Scrap all handout programs. Military-style feeding of the poor. You want food, you show up at the mess tent.
I absolutely agree. I don’t want to overstate this, but I think these free school lunches are ridiculous. No matter how well intended this is a boon to irresponsible morons who breed like mosquito larvae. And don’t tell me it leads to better grades. We’re living in an age of impressionable morons the likes of which has never existed on earth. Everywhere I look I see gluttons who do nothing but consume massive quantities of food and gaudy baubles (crap). I made my own sandwiches (mom insisted on this) and I brown bagged it all through junior and high school. I’m sure many of you did also. Believe me, the problem isn’t a paucity of food, rather, an impoverishment of intellect and ambition.
Absolutely right.
But when you see the new cars pulling up to the school to drop the little parasites off for "free breakfast" you really have to wonder why we're paying for their food...
I thought they were obese. Michelle’s program certainly worked quickly.
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