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Publisher's News Analysis: While Democrats and Republicans Duke it Out Our Children are Starving in America
- By Roy Douglas Malonson
- Published 11/25/2009
- Editorial and Opinion
- Unrated
Roy Douglas Malonson
Roy D. Malonson is publisher of the African-American News&Issues.
View all articles by Roy Douglas Malonson
I was mulling over the correspondence from the City Wide Club of Clubs, promoting the Thanksgiving Big Feast of Sharing, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2009 at the George R. Brown Convention Center when it dawned on me just how long that organization has been feeding the hungry. Most of us remember that the organization started with local high school and college students with the expressed purpose of wanting to give back to their local community.
The discussions, moderated by community leaders and professionals, centered around career goals, scholarships, drugs, teen pregnancy, crime and higher education. Over 600 students turned out for that first panel and when the CWCC office opened in donated space, they immediately had over 215 students and parents to seek services.
Now as a 501©(3) organization, the CWCC has declared War on Hunger and will provide thousands of people in Houston, free food baskets, clothes and dinner, as it has been doing for over three decades. The irony of its war on hunger struck me hard because I had just read a report from The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA) that said almost one in four children living in the United States are “food insecure.”
The report went on to say “there is a striking disparity in the prevalence of food insecurity among Black children. Nearly two million Black households with children were food insecure at least some time during the year, an increase of 25 percent over 2007.”
I won’t make this a Black issue only because in 2008, there were 3.76 million non-Hispanic White households with children that were considered food insecure. Additionally, 146,000 Black households with children experienced very low food security, all because the household lacked money.
However, the stats reflect 2008— not what has happened since the economy tanked. Vicki Escara, president and CEO of Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization, said, “It is an outrage that one in four children in this nation lives on the brink of hunger and doesn’t have access to adequate amounts of nutritious food.”
I don’t know if it is true or not that Nero played his fiddle while Rome burned, but in this case, it seems as though Republicans and Democrats are busy playing partisan games, while the lives of our children are at stake. Of course, jobs, the economy, financial stability, home security and healthcare are all issues that must be dealt with by the leaders of this country.
However, it is a grave mistake to leave out the problem of America’s hungry. Lest you get too comfortable, we are not talking about the homeless.
There are homes in America with nothing to eat. Literally.
That’s really something for most of us to think about as we sit down to our tables this Thanksgiving, eat a smorgasbord of turkey and sides, before retiring to our favorite recliner to catch a football game or two.
Feeding America says its 200 food banks feed more than 25 million people yearly and they are working to keep up with the increasing needs for food assistance. If charity indeed begins at home, perhaps the Donkeys and the Elephants should make erradicating hunger in America a priority.
But that will call for something novel, such as getting along in order to accomplish something worthy.
The discussions, moderated by community leaders and professionals, centered around career goals, scholarships, drugs, teen pregnancy, crime and higher education. Over 600 students turned out for that first panel and when the CWCC office opened in donated space, they immediately had over 215 students and parents to seek services.
Now as a 501©(3) organization, the CWCC has declared War on Hunger and will provide thousands of people in Houston, free food baskets, clothes and dinner, as it has been doing for over three decades. The irony of its war on hunger struck me hard because I had just read a report from The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA) that said almost one in four children living in the United States are “food insecure.”
The report went on to say “there is a striking disparity in the prevalence of food insecurity among Black children. Nearly two million Black households with children were food insecure at least some time during the year, an increase of 25 percent over 2007.”
I won’t make this a Black issue only because in 2008, there were 3.76 million non-Hispanic White households with children that were considered food insecure. Additionally, 146,000 Black households with children experienced very low food security, all because the household lacked money.
However, the stats reflect 2008— not what has happened since the economy tanked. Vicki Escara, president and CEO of Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization, said, “It is an outrage that one in four children in this nation lives on the brink of hunger and doesn’t have access to adequate amounts of nutritious food.”
I don’t know if it is true or not that Nero played his fiddle while Rome burned, but in this case, it seems as though Republicans and Democrats are busy playing partisan games, while the lives of our children are at stake. Of course, jobs, the economy, financial stability, home security and healthcare are all issues that must be dealt with by the leaders of this country.
However, it is a grave mistake to leave out the problem of America’s hungry. Lest you get too comfortable, we are not talking about the homeless.
There are homes in America with nothing to eat. Literally.
That’s really something for most of us to think about as we sit down to our tables this Thanksgiving, eat a smorgasbord of turkey and sides, before retiring to our favorite recliner to catch a football game or two.
Feeding America says its 200 food banks feed more than 25 million people yearly and they are working to keep up with the increasing needs for food assistance. If charity indeed begins at home, perhaps the Donkeys and the Elephants should make erradicating hunger in America a priority.
But that will call for something novel, such as getting along in order to accomplish something worthy.