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.
As an embarrassed citizen of the 19th district I hope that not only does Ms Davis step down from her committee-Special Standing Committee on Children and Families, but she also steps down from her position as a state rep., because she is an embarrassment to the citizens of O Fallon, she makes us look like buffoons for voting this uncaring women into office multiple times.
Perhaps she could donate her part time salary of 32,300 dollars to feeding the hungry children in our great state, because the certainly deserve it more than she does.
She needs to read some of the books that she carries in her Christian book store ”Back to Basics” located in O Fallon Mo, because Jesus taught us to take care of the poor and hungry. If people stop patronizing her store perhaps she will have a little more empathy for the poor, struggling, and hungry children in our state, and then she can get a job at Mc Donald’s to get that half price meal so she isn’t hungry.
Rep. Davis is right on this issue. All Americans are responsible for themselves and their own children. Governemnt didnt produce the kids, all you parents did, so pay for it out of your own money! period.
Pure and utter stupidity is a great motivator to get smarter, but I suppose in Ms. Davis’ case, we can make an exception.
This just proves that Ms Davis is not Pro-Life, but merely Pro-Birth; because she clearly doesn’t care about the children after they are born.
I hope that people that are in the market for Christian books don’t shop at Ms. Davis’s store Back to Basics Christian Bookstore - 1002 Highway K - O’Fallon, Missouri 63366 - (636) 281-3800, because she should be busy reading up on the books in her store. Jesus would be ashamed of Ms. Davis.
Ms. Davis obviously knows NOTHING about the summer feeding program, it’s purpose is to provide nutritious meals for children to be consumed at a congregate feeding site. I worked with this program in KY for 17 years and it’s probably the best of the nutrition entitlement programs, definitely the fairest. Now let’s look at Ms. Davis herself, is she a nutrition expert or does she just know how to eat (obvious from photo). It doesn’t appear she always makes correct food choices herself, and I am qualified to say that as I’ve been a Registered Dietitian for 31 years.
Montague at 1:52 pm June 23rd, 2009 wrote:
“Rep. Davis is right on this issue. All Americans are responsible for themselves and their own children. Government didn’t produce the kids, all you parents did, so pay for it out of your own money! Period.”
So, you are for sex education, free condoms and other birth control measures, or abortion? because that’s how you keep people from reproducing. You know, making babies? babies that you don’t want to pay for? Really. How odd. You say you agree with Cynthia “Bat-[deleted] crazy” Davis that everyone should take care of all their own kids, but you fail to notice that Mrs. Davis’s kids are living off of your state tax money too. Oh, and so is her husband. That piddly Christian bookstore of theirs makes no real money. That’s why the traffic lawyer gets the front half of the building. That’s also why Mrs. Davis loads up her purse with leftovers from luncheons and other functions.
Why else would she be pushing for her husband (a real mental case in his own right) to take her place in Jefferson City? She’s term-limited but she needs the roast beef sandwiches and cookies.
This is terrible from an editorial board. Many of the quotes they used are taken waaaay out of context. Her actual stance is a pretty hard line, but it’s a *lot* more reasonable than it’s made out to be here. Shame on you guys. Let’s have a discussion about the real issues. This kind of BS reporting is what gives journalists a bad name.
Oblivious is too kind a descriptor.
The American Academy of Pediatrics completely disagrees with Rep. Cynthia Davis stance on hunger being a motivator:
I wonder what her kid’s Pediatrician thinks of her comment….
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/110/4/e41
Study findings underscore the importance of clinical recognition of child hunger and its outcomes, allowing for preventive interventions and efforts to increase access to food-related resources for families.
She’s says that “children” (teenagers) between the age of 16 to 18 should get a job to pay for their own food. Big deal.