Much Ado About Feeding Children

USDA Summer Food Service Program

As schools close for the summer throughout the country, millions of children will start showing up at summer-feeding sites. This year, the federally-funded program has generated a lot of controversy on the internet after the radio commentator Rush Limbaugh recently bashed summer-feeding programs and suggested that kids "dive into dumpsters" for food.

According to a new report by the Foundation For Child Development, the rate of U.S. children living in poverty this year will be around 22%, which is up from 17% in 2006, before the recession began. At 19 Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) sites, as well as at nearly 1,000 neighborhood recreation centers, churches, schools and community centers, officials just started their summer battle against hunger on Monday, as the school year ended here on Friday.

Summer is the hungriest season in Philadelphia as it is elsewhere, because an estimated 150,000 public, charter, and Catholic school children who eat free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches during the school year are cut off. Estimates by the state Department of Education and others show that the meals distributed at these sites will feed approximately 80,000 children, which leaves around 70,000 children without free or subsidized meals.

Throughout America, more than 20 million students eat free or reduced-price breakfast and lunches during the school year; but just one in six will receive similarly subsidized summer meals. In South Jersey, where more than 70,000 students are eligible for free and reduced-price summer-feeding programs, there is little infrastructure in place to serve summer meals, advocates say. Making matters even more difficult, fewer people give to food pantries at this time of year because donors tend to believe that family food emergencies are cold-weather related.

Yet, the number of people flocking to pantries in the area continues to increase. People are hungry, struggling, and searching. Some parents will forgo eating, or eat just cereal for dinner so their children can have something more substantial. Some people have a hard time believing the situation is that bad, and one such person is Rush Limbaugh.

During his radio program last week, Limbaugh complained about summer-feeding programs to his huge audience. In order to help children find food, Limbaugh suggested they look inside "a thing called the refrigerator and in cupboards, where you're going to find Ding-Dongs and Twinkies. If that doesn't work, try a Happy Meal at McDonald's." He went on to say, "There's another place, if none of these options work to find food: There's always the neighborhood dumpster." He added that there are videos to help kids "dumpster dive and survive until school kicks back up in August."

Mariana Chilton, a child-hunger expert at Drexel University's School of Public Health, said she was livid. "What he said is calculated bigotry and, is there a word for hating children?" she said. "Fast food promotes obesity, and telling kids to jump in dumpsters conjures up the image of throwing children away."

Chilton said she finds Limbaugh's words especially galling given her research with Philadelphia women. Out of 40 women given cameras to document their lives, 38 took photos of empty refrigerators, freezers, and cupboards. "They told me how horrifying it feels to tell your children there's no food", Chilton said. She added that while the summer-feeding program is a short-term fix, the real solution is "paying parents living wages and giving low-income people access to credit to pull themselves out of poverty." Unfortunately, until that time comes, children will be eating at the summer-feeding sites funded by the federal government.

For more information about the summer food service program for children, click on the website screenshot or text link at the top of this post. If you would like to help in the fight against hunger for any and all Philadelphians who need assistance, go to Philabundance.org or call 215-339-0900. And, if you want to continue listening to the idiotic ramblings of Rush Limbaugh, go right ahead. But, once again, it seems to me that he is creating "Much Ado About Nothing!"