The editorialists have a hornet in their bonnet
In case Chronicle readers didn’t get the point here, here and here, the editorial board has written a FOURTH editorial on Harris County schools not running summer lunch programs…all summer long.
Galena Park, for instance, served 13 percent of eligible children within its district. It had the means to feed them all. Spring fed a pathetic 0.3 percent of its needy children. Humble, which is open all but two weeks of the summer, nevertheless fed only 5 percent of eligible kids. A spokeswoman said the district is struggling to understand why more don't use its program. HISD fed 16 percent. To its credit it has pledged to do better next year and will decide soon on a new strategy.
What’s striking here is the editorialists' complaint: that school districts are feeding such a small percentage of eligible children. Here’s a thought: maybe the parents of the eligible children are (gasp) providing food for the eligible children.
Really! It could be happening!
Poverty, after all, isn't interchangeable with laziness. In Texas, a full 80 percent of low-income families are headed by a worker. Many of these breadwinners just can't earn enough to consistently buy food and still pay nonnegotiable expenses such as housing and transportation.
It’s amazing how much food one can buy at a Super Wal-mart dollar for dollar, compared to a regular supermarket. I’m guessing the idealists don’t visit Wal-mart very often. They are probably more like Whole Foods or Central Market kind-of-folks.
Last month, the U.S. Agriculture Department announced that Texas ranks No. 1 in "food insecurity" — the lack of certainty, even among people who work, that they can afford food for their families. Averaged over the last three years, this figure leaves out the estimated 10,000 children stranded in Harris County by Katrina. Now these youngsters, like Houston's own low-income children, can count on suffering still more this summer when regular school lunch programs close.
Some government agency did a “food insecurity” study??? Can’t you picture Thomas Jefferson thinking to himself, as he’s finding just the right words for the Declaration of Independence, “and someday government will do food insecurity studies.”
It’s hard to imagine a more irrelevant editorial page.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/04/05 08:32 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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