112th Week Update - Miles Neighborhood Food Collection Project

Hi Folks,

Teachers Say Most Kids Rely on

School Meals as their

Primary Source of Nutrition

For more than 15 years, Jeff Bridges has been a spokesperson for and an

active participant with Share Our Strength.

A new study found that at least 65% of the teachers in K-12 schools see hungry kids every day. To help combat their students’ hunger, four out of ten of these teachers spend an average of $25 a month buying food.

Not helping the situation are three huge teacher challenges: 84% name discipline as a major problem, 42% site lack of school supplies and 40% point to student hunger. And of course, hunger can and often does foster unruly student behavior.

Share Our Strength, the Washington, DC based non-profit authored the study in an effort to highlight the expansion of child hunger in America. But Share Our Strength also offers a solution. Their primary mission is to fully maximize the effective government programs that “provide nutritious food to children at home (SNAP, or food stamps, WIC, and nutrition education), during school (breakfast and lunch, and through nutrition education) and when school is out (afterschool snacks and summer meals).”

About 60% of the students who qualify utilize the lunch program and only 40% of the 60% take advantage of the breakfast program. This means there are funds available, $1 billion or more, but parents don’t know about the programs or are reluctant to join because of a perceived stigma for them and their children.

After viewing the Share Our Strength video on CNN, I scrolled down to the comments section and was a bit surprised by a number of “programmed” responses. “Parents are at fault.” “If you can’t feed your kids, don’t have kids.” “Make more money, save more money”

Stigma, I guess!

Hunger is Not a Fault
The one thing none of these opinioned folks considered was making money is a skill, not a process like breathing in and breathing out or running off at the mouth.

Some people are good at baseball, most are not. Some people are good at running a business, most are not. It’s the same with making money. Some, about 1% are good at making money, 99% are not. If someone makes a “good living” so to speak—say $100,000 or $200,000 a year—that’s an incredibility poor performance when compared to the 1% folks.

And what’s so great about the ability to make money anyway—because no matter who we are—we all end up in line at the Pearly Gates. There, bags of gold have absolutely no value, only bags of good deeds help pay the entrance fee.

Get the Hungry Kids Signed Up
If you know a family in the school lunch program, go talk to them about the breakfast program and the backpack program. Or call the Community Food Bank and ask them how you can help promote the food assistance programs at you neighborhood school. As my dad used to say, “It’s not a sin to be poor…just damn inconvenient.”

Decent Collection This Week Except for the Half Naked Popcorn
The exposed popcorn bag on top promotes itself as half naked but offers no further explanation. Checked out Google and still no clear description of even what clothed popcorn is. Perhaps one is supposed to eat this popcorn in a darkened room.

We collected a total of 152 lbs. of food, including 26 lbs. from The Axis Food Mart. The money we donated amounted to $59.50, $9.50 in cash and two $25.00 checks.


See you Sunday,

Peter