Support your local food pantry

Today I shopped at Marc’s especially for groceries to take to church for the Thanksgiving service.  I’ve volunteered there so I know what is useful (at our pantry the clients get to choose from a variety of foods, and most know what they can and should eat, like low sugar, low salt, etc.)  I didn’t buy Thanksgiving type food because the holiday will be over by the time these items get to the shelves, also many of the clients are different nationalities, and what we like might not be enjoyed by them.  Also, I avoided glass jars, because bags break and sometimes the clients are on foot or using the bus. Here’s what I selected.  I bought about 20 items and spent about $30.00.

Pasta

Spaghetti sauce, traditional

Canned fruit

Canned vegetables

Large container of applesauce

Single serving meals which include meat and vegetables  (not everyone has a family)

High quality soup, low sodium (if you don’t like watery tasteless soup, they won’t either)

3 different types of cold cereal, unsweetened (we don’t eat this, but many families with children do)

Boxed mashed potato mix (a bag of potatoes is much more economical, but you don’t know the cooking situation)

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/20/Food-Pantries-Overwhelmed-As-Obama-Economy

For the life of me, I don’t understand the “pantries overwhelmed” message, since record numbers are signed up for food stamps, the unemployment rate supposedly is under 8%.  Food pantries are run by volunteers—mostly by churches--with some paid staff, and most of the food IS NOT DONATED, it is purchased, and farmers and producers and food processors are paid by the government—it is a huge business.  Our local food bank gets a lot of support from foundations and non-profits.

http://www.midohiofoodbank.org/img/PDFs/Know-Get-The-Facts/MOF-History-timeline.pdf

Profiting from poverty—the alliance between the federal government, banks and corporations

Banks and retailers make a lot of money from poverty, but not in the way you might think. The unemployment figure is not that much higher than four years ago, but under Obama SNAP was $72 billion in 2011, up from $30 billion just four years before. Banks which manage the cards charge the poor fees just like they charge us. The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) reports:

"SNAP benefits are accessed via an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card that is processed using electronic funds transfer technology. EBT cards look and operate like bank-issued debit cards. SNAP benefits are accessed by swiping the EBT card on a point-of-sale (POS) terminal at an FNS retailer location and entering a personal identification number (PIN)."

It's a sweet deal. The poor go to the polls to reelect their savior believing he's helping them, and the corporations that make money from poverty funnel money into his campaign to keep them poor.  Ignore the fact that this report I cite is anti-big business and successful retailer like Wal-Mart.  The problem is the government, not capitalism, which is supposed to make a profit.

http://www.eatdrinkpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/FoodStampsFollowtheMoneySimon.pdf

There are 210,000 SNAP-authorized retailers nationwide, ranging from liquor stores to superstores to farmers markets. But there are rules--yes, you buy the food with the EBT card, and the alcohol and cigarettes with cash.  They may be poor, but they certainly aren’t stupid.  And as long as a liquor store also sells appropriate food items, it can accept EBT cards.

As unemployment decreased during the recession (which actually ended in June 2009), food stamp enrollment (SNAP) increased. From 2010 to 2011, enrollment jumped from 40.3 million to 44.7 million.

Free stuff. Works. It buys votes.

Food Crisis Worsens in Central Africa

Read between the lines of this New York Times "green" article and do a little research, and you'll find food aid is often the cause of the crisis in these intractable hunger areas. Their governments use the food aid to hold the people hostage and to relocate them at will; the food aid depresses prices driving farmers from the land.

Food Crisis Worsens in Central Africa - NYTimes.com

Today's WSJ reviewed a new book on the outcomes of money gathered from the feel-good Live Aid concert. The government of Ethiopia killed more people than the famine through forced resettlement. You can read sections of the book at Google. "Famine and foreigners, Ethiopia since Live Aid," by Peter Gill.

As Gill notes, aid agencies (generally foreign) have been involved (and/or meddling) in Ethiopia for decades now, as have foreign governments, and the roles of these often very well-backed foreign governments and institutions has played a part in the course various famines (and periods where famine was a threat) took. In the mid-1980s, for example, the Derg imposed a mass resettlement policy, trying to move people from one area of the country to another. They often did so forcefully, and the policy divided both the nations providing aid as well as the aid agencies with their differing policies of non-interference and conceptions of sovereignty.

As Gill repeatedly notes, many aid agencies did very well by the famines -- in getting cash, raising their profiles, becoming players. While avoiding outright condemnation, Gill does note that, for example, Oxfam in particular not only expanded rapidly into a dominant player, but eventually also was closely tied to the British Labour government -- and that its self-interest seem to have influenced at least some aid-decisions, such as silence on the resettlement policy. (On the other hand, he seems to approve of Médecins Sans Frontières' (Doctors without Borders') focus solely on conditions on the ground, and indifference to stepping on anyone's (and particularly any government's) toes.) Link

Corruption in the UN World Food Program

Now there's a shocker. UN contractors are corrupt--and in Somalia! Denise Brown, borrowing the Charlie Gibson line when she learned of the investigation, said she was unaware of the probe and is quite happy with the current system for tracking the food. Let's see, there are 3.5 million recipients, and the US alone donated $124 million in 2009 through USAID for food aid for Somalia. That doesn't even count what all the other European countries donating, who are investigating the corruption. I wonder how the farmers and small business people of Somalia compete against free food, or even corrupt food, distributed by family members of the most powerful business people, who are awarded the contracts?

I think I've received e-mail from some of those folks working for peace and stability in Somalia, if I'd just co-sign for $100,000 until they can get uncle the prince out of jail.