Urban Exile: Memorial Day Feasts Versus Every Day Childhood Hunger in Michigan

by Erika McNamara

A quick review of the menu for Memorial Day grill extravaganza left me wondering if hotdogs, short ribs, steak, and all of the side dishes that accompanied the main meat feast this year would all be enough. Well if it weren’t, then we could always just nip out to the store and get more, right? But all of this thinking about food, not only makes me hungry, but also leads to me to reflect on the recent comment made by GOP Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich.

Mr. Gingrich said in a speech made at a GOP dinner fundraiser in Atlanta that, “President Obama is the most successful food stamp president in American history.”

Besides being a blatantly racist remark, I have to really wonder what is wrong with providing food to those individuals, families, and children in our country that do not have the means to purchase a basic human requirement: food. (Some would say human need, but food is required for humans to continue to live, therefore it is a requirement not a need.) I also have to wonder how much a plate cost at that GOP dinner.

It is estimated that 14 percent of our country’s population, about 44 million people, uses the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) to purchase groceries every year. That’s means about 65,000 children in the state of Michigan participate in SNAP. In Michigan, according to the 2010 Hunger in Michigan Report produced by the Feeding America Network, “The FA system in Michigan provides emergency food for an estimated 1,173,700 different people annually.” That’s one out of every eight Michigan residents. According to the report, the majority of recipients are white, and “34% of households include at least one employed adult.” Food assistance in our state is, primarily, for the working poor. If you think they don’t live in Ann Arbor, you’re dead wrong: 60 percent of the kids who attend Mitchell Elementary qualify for free or reduced price lunch.

This does not count all of the children who are eligible for the SNAP program but do not participate. In our state we have a very large number of children who may not have enough to eat on a regular basis.

So what’s our Governor’s problem with feeding children who are hungry?

Some pundits say that people that receive food assistance are not ashamed or embarrassed by it, and programs like this even “make being poor just comfortable enough that you don’t want to escape it [poverty].”

Since when has being poor been comfortable?

Governor Snyder has repeatedly said that we all, citizens of Michigan, must make a “shared sacrifice” to fix the economic woes of the state of Michigan. However, over the course of the past few months there have been numerous reports that this “shared sacrifice” is to be borne mostly by the poor and those living at or just above the poverty line. This sacrifice will most definitely be what is not on the dining room tables and in the homes of the individuals in our state that cannot afford to sacrifice anymore. These are people that work, but do not make enough to cover all of the expenses a family has to survive. Or are elderly neighbors, who did work all of their lives, living on a fixed income that if there is a change at all to the income will force these individuals below the line of poverty. These individuals are faced with the reality that they must turn to food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters.

In Ann Arbor there are many organizations that assist those individuals with food. This is especially true of St. Andrew’s Breakfast Program a place you will find me on most Friday mornings pouring cups of coffee. Every morning for nearly 30 years St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church has opened its doors at 7:30 a.m. to individuals in our community for breakfast. These individuals are not all homeless. In fact the majority of those that partake in the breakfast of hot or cold cereal, juice, fruit, sweet roll, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are employed and are hard working. They work as dish washers at local restaurants, clerks in gas stations, maintenance crews, and supermarkets. Imagine working at a place that serves fine food or at a supermarket and not being able to purchase the food there for yourself or for your family.

These individuals squeek by, and stretch every dollar until the end of the month so they do not become homeless. It is food programs such as Food Gatherers, and local food pantries that help feed thousands of people in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, and keep them off of the social welfare benefits that so many politicos are so quick to rail against and cut.

The brutal plan, devised by the Governor and the Republican-dominated Michigan Legislature, limits social welfare benefits to 48-months for individuals in a lifetime—this law is to be retroactive. So if there is an individual who has already accrued the 48 months in her/his lifetime this individual will be cut off immediately. It is estimated that approximately 12,000 Michigan families will be immediately cut adrift. Where and what are these individuals going to do? What are the social organizations that help these individuals going to do? There is no safety-net in place for these families in Michigan or in Ann Arbor. The burden will fall to non-profits that provide food, clothing and shelter to those that are indigent.

Last July, Food Gatherers ran out of food and sent out an emergency call to local churches and synagogues.

However, the burden may get even harder to bear by those organizations, because there is also a plan to eliminate the homeless shelter/food bank small donation tax credit in Michigan. So not only is Michigan’s governor and state pols planning to eliminate social benefits, but these people also plan to, in effect, discourage citizens from donating to organizations that are able to help those people in crisis.

By slashing these social welfare benefits programs out of the budget, the Legislature will most certainly create an even larger problem than just a budget shortfall and money issues. The State of Michigan will effectively marginalize the already marginalized.

So much for “shared sacrifice,” or the idea that Governor Rick Snyder was a “moderate” Republican—as many Ann Arbor Democrats who supported him were naive enough to believe.