Food Is Nothing to Play With

As a former social worker in the General Assistance Program for the County of Orange and now a stay-at-home mother, I must tell you how distressed I was to read the recipe for Peanut Butter Play Dough in the article “Hitting the Mother Load” (Nov. 14).

Need I remind the Los Angeles Times and Children’s Hospital that, even in affluent Orange County, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of adults and children go to bed hungry every night?

The two main ingredients (1 cup of peanut butter and 1 1/2 cups nonfat powdered milk) would be put to much better use if donated to the many social service agencies and churches that service the hungry and the homeless.

I know that motherhood can be distressing and I applaud Children’s Hospital for offering this seminar, but food is not a toy!

At their next seminar, may I suggest that Children’s Hospital pass out the recipe mothers have been using for survival for thousands of years: mud pie.

ARLENE CASHEN GUBERSKY, Trabuco Canyon