Oblivious to the needs of Missouri’s hungry children
State Rep. Cynthia Davis offers a tip to hungry families.
State Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O’Fallon, is staking out a strong position on child hunger: She’s for it.
“Hunger can be a positive motivator,” she notes in the latest edition of her newsletter.
More precisely, Ms. Davis is against summer feeding programs for poor kids. They are an excuse “to create an expansion of a government program,” she says.
Ms. Davis chairs the House Special Standing Committee on Children and Families. In that position, she might be expected to have insight into child hunger in our state.
She might know, for instance, that about one in five Missouri children lives with hunger. That ties us with Louisiana for the nation’s seventh-highest rate, according to a report released last month by the hunger-relief charity Feeding America.
Or that the recession has pushed the number of poor Missouri kids who qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches by 8.3 percent this year, well above the national average.
Apparently not.
”While I have not seen this as a problem in my district, it is entirely possible that the (summer feeding) program is designed to address problems that exist in other parts of Missouri,” Ms. Davis says in her newsletter.
“The right way to solve this is with more education. If parents … don’t know how to serve nutritious meals, let’s help them learn to do that.”
In that spirit, she offers some helpful hints:
• “Families may economize by choosing not to waste hard earned dollars on potato chips, ice cream or Twinkies.”
• “Laid-off parents could adapt by preparing more home cooked meals rather than going out to eat.”
• “Tip: If you work for McDonald’s, they will feed you for free during your break.”
About 100,000 more people are unemployed in Missouri today than were jobless in 2007. Food pantries across the state are struggling to meet increased demand. The United Way of St. Louis and more than 100 area companies are participating in a food drive this week.
And the plain, tragic fact is some children have parents who aren’t particularly interested in caring for them. Ward Cleaver and Cliff Huxtable are off the television airways.
But Ms. Davis is skeptical about the need to feed poor children during the summer when schools are closed.
If — if — there really is one, she says, “churches and non-profits can do this at no cost to the taxpayer.”
Or maybe not.
“Most of our 18 (summer feeding program) sites are churches,” explains Rosemary Terranova, who oversees the program for St. Louis County.
“We’re trying to support churches that want to offer some kind of summer recreation program for kids,” she says. “They supply the staff, we supply the food.”
The program “has been a real blessing to us,” says Caroline Crenshaw of Bethesda Temple in Normandy, where 40 children attended day care last week while their parents worked.
The summer feeding program’s cost is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which pays about $1.81 for each breakfast served and $3.18 for each lunch.
Last year, 3.7 million meals were served by the summer feeding program at a total cost of less than $9.5 million. That’s a pretty good use of federal money.
In the same generous spirit as Ms. Davis, we’d like to offer a suggestion.
• Tip: When you chair a state special committee on children and families, you probably ought to learn something about the needs of children and families.
Tip for Missouri: The reason why you have the 7th highest child hunger rate is because you continue to support wingnut whiners like Davis. This is absolutely pathetic. Just stay in Missouri and don’t infect the rest of the US, you know the parts that actually have intelligence and care about kids.
Ms. Davis looks well-fed to me. I wonder what SHE had for breakfast and lunch today? How often has SHE gone hungry due to poverty?
Looks like she buys into the theory that FAT PEOPLE are responsible for all our Country’s problems. Not War, not Thieving Banks & Corporations, not Corrupt Politicians and Religious Leaders.
Oh Never! It is the FAT PEOPLE who are to blame for everything.
Note to those who think Davis is so right: Not all poverty is the fault of the people suffering from it.
I presume that there are people in Missouri working at McDonald’s because their factory job got exported to China?
Or who have too many kids to feed because the school board killed sex education programs?
Or who have to work (and shop) at Wal-Mart because none of the other stores in the area could compete, and so all their money goes to Bentonville instead of staying local?
And yet, you continue to vote Republican, despite the clear, consistent and ongoing proof that none of them care about anyone but the hyper-rich.
I think I’m going to stop telling people that my dad was from Missouri. With idiots like Davis, and bigger idiots like those defending her in these comments, I’m honestly ashamed to have any connection with you people.
I’m awfully glad to live in a state where we actually feel some responsibility to help those who need it. Not that we always succeed, but at least we care enough to try.
“Hunger can be a positive motivator.”
This woman should have her ovaries revoked. You kinda expect men to be this clueless and cruel about child hunger but this thing is a woman and a mother. Unfit to be a Representative, unfit to reproduce.
SHE IS FAT. MAYBE SHE COULD DONATE HER FOOD TO A HUNGRY KID.
All I have to ask Rep. Davis and others commenting here….
WWJD?
As soon as Rep. Davis is willing to change the House of Representatives salary to $5,000 annually, (thus saving the taxpayers millions), then I would be willing to hear her opinion on people who also make under $5,000 a year. Till then, she she should be required to apologize, in person, to every taxpayer who is injured by this “oversight” capacity. I believe the best way for her to check would be door-to-door. Starting in O’Fallon.
Yet another leader demonstrates not an unwillingness to help– but such an ignorance of the actual problem they campaign to make it worse. As a Community Partner with the Harvester’s Food Network in KC, MO, I have become educated on how chronic hunger is defined by the US Food & Drug administration– a concept defined by MORE than obesity which occurs in SOME cases– not all as Davis generalizes. When addressing the needs of a child living in poverty, one must understand the culture of poverty and the resources unavailable to people living in it. So many of the illustrious and judgmental statements below indicate the same ignorance Davis portrays– it is neither a choice limited to beans over twinkies at the check out line nor is it how food stamps are spent. The problem encompasses a lack of emotional and spiritual resources, and paucity of support systems and acquired skills which perpetuate the cyclic nature of the problem. I hope that Davis develops a desire to better understand the issue and educate herself—or that some “taxpayer” she seems so bent on protecting fiscally but not, I daresay, socially decides to run for office in her stead. Our communities, states, and nation cannot grow and evolve on a global level by telling others how to fix the problems themselves. Neither will they grow by throwing money at the problem. Rather, we must create effective support systems, discipline, and relationships which foster trust and growth for those who need it most—again, a concept elusive to Davis, an employee of the taxpayers. Now THERE is a waste of my money.
Wow…reading the posts here makes me feel like I have gone back in time…”limousine liberals”…really? “Great Society social engineering”….have you people been living without TV, radio, or access to newspapers for the last 30 years? Reagan ran against welfare queens, won, and dismantled many of those “leftist” programs that you are attacking…the ones that he didn’t get, Republicans stripped the funding for with Clinton’s support in the 90’s. What remains is not enough to live on even if you are gainfully employed…several cable news shows have done stories on people, including a few politicians, trying to live on food stamps…they found what a few of the posters here pointed out…the only things that you can afford to buy are starches…potatos….not fresh vegtables…not lean meats….healthy foods are expensive.
I am sure that most of the posters here who defended this ignorant woman consider themselves Christians…have you learned nothing about Christ’s teachings…the basic tenants of Christianity include loving thy neighbor, charity, and above all protecting the children, the sick, and the poor.
How can you sleep at night knowing that children are going to be hungry in Missouri? Hunger is a “motivator”…how heartless and how ignorant.
It would be helpful if the government didn’t pass laws or require fees restricting people’s ability to be self-reliant. Once upon a time in this country, the working poor in this country could go out and hunt, fish, grow vegetables and raise chickens in their backyard. A woman could open a salon in her own house. A man could have a shop out of his garage. Today, only one of those activities is still legal and without fees charged…but lawmakers are openly talking about restricting that, too. Some are even talking about putting higher taxes on basic food stuffs because we might turn a bag of flour into a 50 cent loaf of bread. Once upon a time, a man could even build his own house without the government sticking their nose into his business.
And equally the same, two minimum-wage jobs 50 years ago got you into a middle class neighbhorhood….two minimum-wage jobs today still keeps you below the poverty level.
The government created the poverty in this country. And don’t blame lefties or righties…they’re just two hands of the same body. They’re both responsible. And neither are going to fix it because they love for us to HAVE to turn to them.