“Clean Your Plate…There Are Starving Children in America”

 Says parents in other developed countries across the world

Whilst perusing the internet I came across an alarming trend in cities across the US: bans on the feeding of homeless people. You think I’m joking? I wish I was. It sounds like something we’d expect from other countries like…nowhere else, ever. We spend billions in aid to assist “developing nations” across the world, in hopes of supplying them with education, food, medical assistance, and democracy – yet more than 50 million Americans (including myself) are uninsured, our public education system has quickly eroded over the last decade (in my opinion due to the coveted “No Child Left Behind Act”, but that’s for another discussion) and poverty in America is at an all time high in decades. As the federal government looks to cut back on social programs such as welfare and food stamps, the local governments are implementing budget cuts for education and prohibiting the homeless from being fed by charitable citizens who want to help a fellow countryman. 

While I was living in Philadelphia last year for 10 months, a few things happened. A homeless shelter that housed up to 300 men was shut down apparently due to lack of funding. African-American, democrat Mayor Michael Nutter implemented a law banning the feeding of homeless people in public parks and the Ben Franklin Parkway, because he claimed it made the city lose dignity. Philadelphia also initiated shutting down dozens of schools over the next two years. According to this Article “Philadelphia's School Reform Commission voted…to close 23 city schools and merge or relocate five others” for the coming 2013-2014 school year. This means more than 14,000 inner city students are at risk of going from a mediocre educational atmosphere to one that would be abysmal at best since thousands of teachers will be laid off, resources will dwindle and class sizes will increase. Also a few years before I moved to Philadelphia, Mayor Nutter attempted to shut down 11 of the cities libraries, and lay off many librarians, but thankfully his efforts were thwarted by a City Council with common sense. 

What I gather from the leadership in Philadelphia is they don’t want educated citizens (trying to close down libraries and schools), they want homeless people to go hungry (banning people from feeding them in public locations), they want homeless people out of the shelters, which costs money and perhaps into prisons, which would make money. This spring the Philadelphia powers that be announced the city would spend $2.3 million on land acquisition for a new prison. It was reported that mid April the prison system was holding 8,897 people, when it was built to hold only 6,500 inmates. Instead of educating the youth of Philadelphia and providing programs to support those in need, Philadelphia has made minority groups and those in in the lower socioeconomic bracket a cash cow for big businesses that thrive in the correctional facility industry.

Thurman Kirby (58) is a man who ended up in the now shut down Philadelphia men’s shelter after having two strokes, and barely making ends meet on a monthly social security disability check. According to This Article “Kirby applied at the Philadelphia Housing Authority for a Section 8 rent subsidy, but was told the wait would be years. The list for public housing was even longer. "We can't get proper housing, so how can we move out?" he said.” I tried to find his whereabouts online, but I was not successful. I can only assume he is either on the streets or in the prison system, unless his luck turned around and he somehow managed to get on his feet (we can only hope). The shelters are being shut down, and homeless people are being denied the access to food by gracious individuals and organizations because the government doesn’t want the city to lose dignity. I would say the city of brotherly love has just shown how unbrotherly they really are. 

Philadelphia is not the only American city to ban the feeding of the homeless in public areas. In 2006, Las Vegas became the first major US city to pass a law like this, and for the record, Las Vegas’ homeless population has doubled in the past decade to about 12,000 people.  According to this New York Times article the Las Vegas ordinance bans the “providing of food or meals to the indigent for free or for a nominal fee.” It then explains that “an indigent person is a person whom a reasonable, ordinary person would believe to be entitled to apply for or receive [public assistance].” How could one define an ordinary person? I know I am not ordinary by any means. I am also not destitute. As a teacher, after being taxed by the city of Philadelphia, PA, NJ and federal taxes, as well as paying expenses necessary to live, I was lucky to have $30 in my pocket at the end of each month. Then I either spent my savings on my students or my foster kittens. Violating Las Vegas’ anti-homeless ordinance by providing food of any kind to a person deemed “indigent” is punishable by a fine of $1,000 or a jail sentence of up to 6 months...or both. Bingo! The city is cashing in on people’s good will by either making them pay for a permit to feed the homeless, or the alternative of making them pay a fine, or go to jail. Hello new source of revenue, how are you today? 

The city of Orlando, Florida, home of Walt Disney World, aka the “happiest place on Earth” also enacted a law in 2006 that mandated permits for groups distributing food in parks within two miles of City Hall.  In 2011, twelve members of a food activist group called “Food Not Bombs” were arrested in Orlando “for giving free food to groups of homeless people in a downtown park” because they were “acting in defiance” of the city ordinance. According to the law, “Each group is allowed two permits per park per year” and Food Not Bombs had exceeded their permit limit, so by setting up their food tables for the homeless they were breaking the law and risked being swept away to prison. 

“I’m here because I murdered someone, what are you in for?”

"I’m here because I gave a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to the homeless”

"Oh, you’re a danger to society! Stay away from this guy!”

As major cities across America (such as the cities I mentioned above, and also Dallas, Houston, New York City, etc.) are increasingly preventing kind souls from feeding the homeless in parks or other locations a larger problem is brewing. 

Food stamps are a thing of the past. The US government now has a program cleverly referred to as “SNAP”, or the more long winded version known as the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” which supplies debit cards instead of stamps or coupons. Last week the Farm Bill, which incorporates how the SNAP program functions was heavily debated. Ultimately, the House bill is now going to be cut by $2.5 billion a year, which is about a 3% trimming of the program. This program is relied upon by about 1 in 7 Americans, and now as many as three million Americans in need would be cut off from food assistance. According to Dorothy Rosenbaum and Stacy Dean of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, these major cuts will "cause significant hardship to several million low-income households," including “280,000 children from low-income families [who] will lose access to free school lunch.” Entirely due to the plummeting economy over the last several years, the number of people who have relied on food stamps (SNAP) increased 70% only since 2007.  After voting to drastically slash the budget for SNAP Rep. Reid Ribble (that is seriously his name!), a republican from Wisconsin said, "I want poor people to have food…I want children to eat well." He certainly has a funny way of showing it!

Speaking of children eating well, Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake, personally benefited from social programs to assist the poor as he was growing up. He was a recipient of the National School Lunch Program. Flake just so happened to be one of five members of congress to vote against “reauthorizing funds for childhood nutrition programs” in 2004. Now here’s the All-American dream...grow up as a poor southern boy, work hard, become a politician to help serve those who don’t have a voice by being a civil servant, and then take away the very avenues you had to thrive in becoming a productive member of society. What you don’t have makes you stronger, right Flakey boy? Such as a nutritious lunch provided for you by the government. His government funded school lunches allowed him to fully function in school, so he could go on and attend a Mormon college. Flake’s Mormon views have no doubt been the backbone for his embarrassing voting record of trying to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage (because it’s against the Book of Mormon!) and trying to ban the feeding of poor, hungry school children like he once was. I haven’t read the Book of Mormon, but a quick Google search showed it was not against the Mormon religion to feed poor children. 

Rep. Juan Vargas, a democrat from California used the Christian rhetoric that we often hear from Conservatives against liberals by quoting the Bible in opposing their insistence upon slashing a program that millions in America rely upon. Vargas quoted the Book of Matthew by saying, "When I was hungry you gave me food. When I was thirsty, you gave me drink." I can only imagine he did this to try and use the same jargon Conservatives utilize for every other social issue at hand (Gay people are bad because the bible says so!..Sexism is okay because the Bible says so!..Americans deserve their right to bear arms because the bible says so?...)

During the discussion of not being responsible for the poor in America, several Republicans talked about their Christianity and said “the Bible encourages people to help each other but doesn't dictate what the federal government should do.” Doug LaMalfa, a California rep. went on to say "We should be doing this as individuals helping the poor." I would say this is hypocrisy in the purist form. If this is so, then individuals should be able to feed the homeless…and the governments should stay out of it. The Bible does not specify word for word that the American Federal government should help thy neighbor; therefore, the American Federal government will not help thy poor neighbor/constituents. Unlike what most Christian Americans would like to believe, the Bible was not written for just Americans, as a matter of fact the USA was not in existence when the Bible was created. Side note: Jesus wasn’t White! (*gasp*)

Rep. Jim McGovern, a democrat from Massachusetts said, "Christians, Jews, Muslims, whatever - we're failing our brothers and sisters here.” No kidding.

Don’t ask don’t tell: Don’t ask me not to feed homeless people, and then tell me you won’t do it because only individuals should be helping the poor and not the government. 

OxyMORON. 

Whichever way you look at it, the government is trying to prevent poor people from receiving food they need to survive. Whether through individuals, groups or government aid, there are people who need help. Making it illegal for people to help, alongside government cuts to food assistance programs can be likened to handing out a death sentence or paving the way to life in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. 24601

For more information about Poverty in America, and how the government is doing nothing to help the issue check out this site: 100 Million Poor People In America And 39 Other Facts About Poverty That Will Blow Your Mind