R
rdean
Guest
Broke and ashamed: Many won't take handouts despite need
Ashyle Horton had volunteered in the past for the program that runs the University of Arkansas campus food pantry, but showing up as a client was an entirely different experience.
I was very fearful and nervous, said Horton, 22. It felt so weird going to a food pantry to get help.
The graduating senior says she desperately needed the pasta, rice and other staples on the food bank shelves, but she worried that others might judge her, that they would think she ought to be able to get by on her own.
Still, 1 in 4 people who are eligible for food stamps don't sign up, on average, the USDA says. Participation drops sharply in certain subgroups, as well. Only 34 percent of seniors and 60 percent of working poor households who could receive food stamps actually do, the USDA says.
Thats largely because of the perceived shame of taking a hand-out, researchers say.
It remains a program that discourages work, rewards idleness and promotes long-term dependence, the conservative Heritage Foundations Robert Rector and Katherine Bradley wrote last summer.
Other critics argue that it should be the role of churches and charities, not the government, to provide food to people in need.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
On one hand, the article is rather odd. Remember the federal faith-based infrastructure put together by George Bush and the Republicans? Even stimulus money found it's way to religious charitable organizations. Doesn't Catholic Charities receive billions from the government?
So it's odd to say, " it should be the role of churches and charities, not the government, to provide food to people in need."
Hungry people don't get jobs. If you make yourself sick from malnutrition, you have a pre-existing condition.
It's too bad this stigma has been invented and "American helping American" has become socialism. I don't like what the right wing has done to this country. All the needless shame for what used to be considered "Christian". Making sure people are fed as they work their way out of poverty is a good thing. I don't know anyone who is satisfied with just a little food.
Ashyle Horton had volunteered in the past for the program that runs the University of Arkansas campus food pantry, but showing up as a client was an entirely different experience.
I was very fearful and nervous, said Horton, 22. It felt so weird going to a food pantry to get help.
The graduating senior says she desperately needed the pasta, rice and other staples on the food bank shelves, but she worried that others might judge her, that they would think she ought to be able to get by on her own.
Still, 1 in 4 people who are eligible for food stamps don't sign up, on average, the USDA says. Participation drops sharply in certain subgroups, as well. Only 34 percent of seniors and 60 percent of working poor households who could receive food stamps actually do, the USDA says.
Thats largely because of the perceived shame of taking a hand-out, researchers say.
It remains a program that discourages work, rewards idleness and promotes long-term dependence, the conservative Heritage Foundations Robert Rector and Katherine Bradley wrote last summer.
Other critics argue that it should be the role of churches and charities, not the government, to provide food to people in need.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
On one hand, the article is rather odd. Remember the federal faith-based infrastructure put together by George Bush and the Republicans? Even stimulus money found it's way to religious charitable organizations. Doesn't Catholic Charities receive billions from the government?
So it's odd to say, " it should be the role of churches and charities, not the government, to provide food to people in need."
Hungry people don't get jobs. If you make yourself sick from malnutrition, you have a pre-existing condition.
It's too bad this stigma has been invented and "American helping American" has become socialism. I don't like what the right wing has done to this country. All the needless shame for what used to be considered "Christian". Making sure people are fed as they work their way out of poverty is a good thing. I don't know anyone who is satisfied with just a little food.
