Full Table, Empty Table : On a day of feasting, pause to consider the importance of government food aid

On this day of plenty, most families will give thanks for a traditional feast of turkey and dressing and perhaps a dozen other foods. And most Americans will finally push away from the table too stuffed to do more than watch a football game on television or chat with friends and relatives. Tragically, that scene contrasts sharply with what awaits far too many Californians.

An estimated 2 million children are hungry every day in California. Perhaps the only exception is today, Thanksgiving, when charities admirably feed countless needy people. It’s a sad fact that nearly a quarter of the youngsters who live in one of the nation’s richest states go to bed hungry most nights.

The young are not alone in their misery. As many as 8.4 million Californians don’t get enough to eat to maintain proper health, according to public health experts at UC Berkeley. These scientists, in a report published earlier this year, said that the increase in hunger is attributable to the state’s lingering recession, shrinking public assistance grants and financially strapped charitable organizations.

An astounding one in 10 Californians must now depend on food stamps. These federally provided coupons are a lifesaver for the working poor who can’t make ends meet no matter how hard they try, for unemployed men and women, welfare families, seniors living on small monthly checks and people receiving disability checks or other government aid.

This crucial assistance will be reduced if the budget reconciliation legislation now pending in Washington becomes law. The food stamp program would be cut by $37 billion over seven years. In addition, federal nutrition programs for children would be slashed by $6 billion.

Of course charities and churches will make up some of the gap if harsh reductions come to pass. But in California, many food banks already are running out of food because the demand is so high. It is for reasons such as this that food assistance programs, which offer direct help in alleviating hunger and promoting health, represent federal expenditures that are among the easiest to justify.

So today, do give thanks for bounty if you are among the fortunate. But also take a minute to think compassionately of those who, at least in terms of food and other material goods, have little to give thanks for. Better yet, give something to them through your charities. And if anyone tells you that America can survive only if it trash-cans all its “giveaway” food programs, remember that the pain of hunger is a holiday visitor at many tables in this plentiful land.