And who deserves to be fed?

I mentioned the summer food program training I had to attend on Thursday.

I don't agree with the politically correct bullshit (we must post a specific photo of the Statue of Liberty with the stirring phrase, "And Justice for All." within a certain distance from the food, for example. If we do not, "we are violating their civil rights.") but we're required to complete the exact SAME training every year in order to point to a sack lunch and say, "You must take a sandwich and milk. If you don't want a part of your lunch, you may place it on the sharing tray in ten minutes."

We heard several stories from people who've served lunches for years.
Examples of the things that can happen in your feeding program.

Many of the lower income apartment complexes run a USDA feeding program during the summer. I have ZERO problems with the idea of feeding children. In some cases, that will be the only meal the child gets each day all summer. There is no food available on weekends for them, either. That's NOT okay, and it makes me angry.
So the actual food is a good thing.

But it's meant to feed children.

The adults who own the kids often are hungry, too. We are to explain that the food is only for children, that they are not to take the food from the premises, and that no adult is to consume any part of a child's lunch. That's not us making up rules, that's the USDA.

So according to some people who administer the feeding program for a nearby apartment complex, there was a family that for the first two weeks tried to take the food with them every day. Not only did the people in charge have to remind the parents continually that 'the food is for the kids', they didn't want to stay and eat, they wanted to take it home.

The third week, they showed up on Monday and announced to the server that their religion now required them to wash their children's food in a certain way as they prayed over it, then they had to sprinkle it with holy water before the children could eat it. And that it could only be done properly in their own home.

Suddenly it was okay for the adults to take food AND to take it off the premises. Because RELIGION.

We're not qualified to decide whether it's a valid religion, ask any questions of the supposed adherent to the religion, or you know discriminate against them.

So this family took enough lunches for their children every day for the rest of the summer and there was not a thing the program could say or do about it.

So where's the problem here?

I think it lies with feeding only the kids. Perhaps allowing the adults to, you know, just eat or buy a lunch at a very reduced rate would be better.

Let's face it, this is not a gourmet meal. I eat a lot of crap, but I won't touch one of these 'meals'.

It's turkey turned into "ham." Or turkey that's just turkey. Between two slices of bread. With a slice of processed cheese food. A little bag of goldfish crackers or some other small snacky thing like raisins or celery or carrots. Sometimes a little packet of ranch dressing.An apple or an orange. No peanuts or nut products. 

This is not good, nutritious food. It's cheap, nutritionally void crap, paid for by you and me. And a great deal of it is wasted, the lunches that aren't eaten all over our city and your city and everyone else's city are trashed. Think about assigning a dollar value to that. Disgusting, isn't it?

So I guess I don't understand why people who are desperate enough to make up a story about their religion in order to score a bag of crap to eat shouldn't be fed by the same program we're paying for anyway. I am sure there is ample 'food' to make sure that none of them are going hungry. It may be crap, but at least it's a meal.

So I find myself pissed off on one hand that people are scamming, but then I think about what it is they're getting for their story. It would be a lot different if they were getting money or something of great value, but they're doing this because they are HUNGRY.

What a shitty state of affairs.

Justice for all indeed.