Hunger in Schools
* Re “Going to School Hungry,” Nov. 20:
Members of the West Covina school board who oppose feeding breakfast to hungry children should provide counseling to parents on how to budget, including how to feed a family of three on $4 a day so that their food stamps will last a whole month.
BERYL PALMER
Redondo Beach
* My mother explained about the children going to school without any food and how people were trying to decide who should feed them. The real point is that they are hungry. I think that if each class made a garden in the yard around the school then they could grow their own food and they would have enough to eat.
SABRINA ANDERSON, Age 5
Laguna Hills
* Quite simply put--pure heartache. A simple place to start--as with the American flag in every classroom--why not a large kettle of hot oatmeal in every school?
TERRY MORHOUS
Del Mar
* A lot of people are poor and it’s getting worse; but people have always been poor. My family barely had enough money to survive in the 1950s, but we managed. Now the emphasis is on “Where can I get another handout?” rather than “How can I take control of myself and my family?” I suggest to The Times that you stop writing bleeding-heart stories about the many unfortunate people wanting a handout. Write articles that will educate them on how to manage what they have. With smart buying and not wasting food, being poor and eating is the easy part to solve.
A whole fresh chicken, even a whole, already seasoned and cooked, roasted chicken in a supermarket deli can be purchased for the same price as hot dogs! A variety of fish, all easily purchased, for the price of a package of junk and sodium wieners. Chicken and fish can be prepared in an abundance of different recipes. Vegetables like fresh broccoli, string beans or zucchini served with potatoes cost no more than hot dog buns. This is a meal that makes more sense out of cents.
MARTI RISCHER
Los Alamitos
* Mike Spence and the conservative majority of the West Covina school board have demonstrated an extraordinary degree of callousness and cruelty toward the hungry children of their school district. Their behavior is even more disgraceful given the availability of unused state funds for school meals. I am outraged by their disregard of the suffering children in their district and by their feeble excuse that the school should not “usurp the responsibilities of parents.”
Nice rhetoric, but has Spence tried explaining this fine point of political doctrine to a crying 8-year-old with an empty stomach? Does he really think that he is doing anybody any good by his actions? I don’t see how he or the citizens of West Covina who elected him and the other conservative members of their school board can sleep at night knowing that they are withholding food from starving children.
DAVID HURWITZ
Calabasas
* It was heartening to read of the outpouring of food and support for the Edgewood Middle School (Nov. 22). Far more encouraging, however, would be a decision by the West Covina Unified School District board to implement the national school breakfast program in the district.
The lessons of the last decade and a half are clear: Private food donations, while valuable and necessary in the war against hunger, have only a fraction of the impact of government programs, such as school breakfast. The turkeys, rice and other foods that the generous citizens of West Covina are now supplying eventually will run out. A school breakfast program would be there for hungry children every day, not just in the aftermath of media attention.
SUSAN CRAMER
Associate Director and Grants Director
MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger
Los Angeles
* Thanks for running the story of Mae Raines, the Muffin Lady (“The Food Angel of 42nd Street,” Nov. 23). Her practical and unconditional devotion to distributing surplus food to the needy is very inspiring. Instead of engaging in philosophical debate over the causes of poverty, she rolls up her sleeves and helps save lives. Simple. Effective. Hard work. Fun.
If each household in the Southland did an inventory of their pantry and distributed their excess to the food banks each month, hunger would probably be eliminated.
Until housing costs come in line with the new, service-oriented economy, people will have trouble buying enough food. Don’t wait for an agency to solve this problem alone . . . the power is in each and every one of our hands. Bless you, Mother Raines.
RAND MOORHEAD
Birmingham, Mich.
