The Food Channel, the Foodie Culture, Food Stamps and the Poor

 

There is a good article on Christianity Today’s website by Richmond pastor Erik Bonkovsky titled, Has Foodie Culture Forgotten the Poor?

http://www.christianitytoday.com/thisisourcity/richmond/has-foodie-culture-forgotten-poor.html

I can’t help but juxtapose Bonkovsky’s reflections with a congressional move to eliminate $40 billion from the Food Stamp program – I suppose congress thinks that the poor and hungry can always watch the Food Channel. Hunger is no joke and it is seldom a choice, it affects health, decisions, families, the crime rate (hungry people are driven to do things they may not otherwise do, just ask Marie Antoinette), and the ability to work.

People who think hungry people are lazy don’t know hungry people; people who think that the poor are lazy don’t know the poor, and people who think that employment is there for the asking are just plain ignorant and choose to be uninformed. And I might as well add that people who use a racial or socioeconomic profile when they think about these issues are the most ignorant of all.

This is a blog so my comments are limited by space, but let me tell you that it’s hard to find a job, it’s hard not just for an inner-city person to find a job, it’s hard for just about anyone to find a job – and it’s especially hard to find a job that will allow you to pay your bills, and it’s harder to find a job that will allow you to get ahead and move to a safer neighborhood, or keep the house or apartment you already have, and clothe your children, and purchase transportation or maintain the transportation you already have. And here’s a really big secret – if you have medical problems you have a choice – you can either go without medical care and suffer the consequences or you can seek treatment and face the bill collectors which in turn will affect your credit which will in turn affect your ability to find safe housing, purchase transportation, and to obtain many jobs. I read credit reports all the time in the course of my own job and I know what I’m talking about – I see what happens to people who are just trying to obtain the basics and who have medical issues – the myth that people at the lower end of the economic spectrum don’t have to pay for medical care is a joke – sooner or later they get hit with bills that most of us couldn’t pay. (While I’m on medical care, let’s not forget that a major catalyst for bankruptcy in the middle class is overwhelming medical expense).

But this is supposed to be about food isn’t it? But it isn’t just about food, it’s about our ungodly ability to compartmentalize society, to build firewalls between “us and them”. To ignore the hardships under which people strive to survive.

I often wonder what a starving person would think if he or she watched the Food Channel. I wonder how many hungry people our congressional representatives know. I wonder when the last time was a congressman or woman tried to find an average job. And now I wonder how I can translate my own words into action.