Childhood Hunger

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Summary:

Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis’s comments extolling the virtues of childhood hunger demonstrate a disappointing lack of awareness of the issue. 12.4 million children in America—that’s one in six—are at risk of hunger, and that number is rising.

Share Our Strength has invested over $1M to fight childhood hunger in Missouri, which is one of the top ten states for food insecurity, with one in five children under 18 at risk of hunger.

In addition, summer food programs like the one that Representative Davis was criticizing, are actually an example of government at its best. In the 41 years since the USDA Summer Food Service Program has been around, it has helped fill the hunger gap for millions of children in need across the US who rely on the school cafeteria for free or reduced-price meals during the regular school year and who would otherwise not have access to nutritious food during the summer.

We urge Representative Davis to educate herself about the issue, and to join us in the fight against childhood hunger.

June 25

Oblivious to children's hunger

STLToday.com

In her June newsletter to constituents, Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis extolled the virtues of childhood hunger. Davis said, “Hunger can be a positive motivator.”Tonight on MSNBC’s Countdown host Keith Olbermann hammered Davis’ lack of compassion. Check out the video.

Davis argued that hungry kids should get a job, “Anyone under 18 can be eligible? Can’t they get a job during the summer by the time they are 16? Hunger can be a positive motivator. What is wrong with the idea of getting a job so you can get better meals? Tip: If you work for McDonald’s, they will feed you for free during your break.”

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.

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