Thanksgiving messages

[GROUCHO MARX]

Every Thanksgiving I hear more messages about hunger and the number of people in the U.S. who don't get enough to eat.

This is the only time of the year I don't hear about the obesity epidemic in the U.S.

It makes one wonder.

 

[buster]

Good point.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

It's the "template" from the news. T-Giving & Christmas are THE times in a year where just about everyone can find a meal.

 

[duaneb9729]

plus a lot of fund raising is done this time of year, not that this is a bad thing.

 

[CivicFan]

Yesterday I was listening to the director of a local food bank. This is the season when they get the bulk of their donations but struggle for the rest of the year.

 

[rshaw125]

Has anyone else noticed how more people are on food stamps but there are zero summer gardens planted?? Why plant your own tomatoes, corn etc when welfare provides it.

 

[01rangerxl]

Work for food? What are you talking about?

I'm actually considering talking my landlord into letting us have a small garden in the backyard. The yard is huge and the grass is messed up anyway.

Some people who are on food stamps may not be realistically able to have a garden. If they live in an apartment or very urban area, there just might not be a place for one. However, a lot of it is just that people are unwilling to grow their own food. A lot of people probably never even think of it as an option because they are so used to getting food from a store.

And then there's the issue that gardens grow vegetables and fruit. A lot of people would rather have a bag of Doritos than that stuff.

 

[Gary Allan]

Originally Posted By: rshaw125
Has anyone else noticed how more people are on food stamps but there are zero summer gardens planted?? Why plant your own tomatoes, corn etc when welfare provides it.


Many of the alleged welfare programs are actually ag support projects in disguise. Here in PA they have some coupon/card/check thing going that gives qualified recipients PA grown fruits and veggies. WIC provides milk in excess ..which, naturally, subsidizes a local dairy and or/milk producer co-op.

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl

And then there's the issue that gardens grow vegetables and fruit. A lot of people would rather have a bag of Doritos than that stuff.


Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner.
Most people raised on government assistance wouldn't eat sweet corn if it was drowning in butter. Tomatoes? Cucumbers? Beans? Don't even try it.
They wouldn't know how to fix it and there's not enough fat or sodium in fruit or veggies to excite their taste buds.

 

[doitmyself]

Originally Posted By: Kruse
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl

And then there's the issue that gardens grow vegetables and fruit. A lot of people would rather have a bag of Doritos than that stuff.


Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner.
Most people raised on government assistance wouldn't eat sweet corn if it was drowning in butter. Tomatoes? Cucumbers? Beans? Don't even try it.


You guys present a jaded viewpoint. Of course there is corruption in any government assistance program by both the givers and the takers. But, don't underestimate how many needy families actually do consume fruits and vegetables.

In Michigan, community gardens are all the rage in urban areas. This video from our local Ag. University paints a different picture about the use of fruits and vegetables by needy families......over 200,000 POUNDS of left over research produce utilized just by the local community every year. And, it goes on during the entire harvest season, not just Turkey day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG33dTmEYpA

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

[Gary Allan]

Originally Posted By: Kruse
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl

And then there's the issue that gardens grow vegetables and fruit. A lot of people would rather have a bag of Doritos than that stuff.


Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner.
Most people raised on government assistance wouldn't eat sweet corn if it was drowning in butter. Tomatoes? Cucumbers? Beans? Don't even try it.
They wouldn't know how to fix it and there's not enough fat or sodium in fruit or veggies to excite their taste buds.


Sure. Forget raised on welfare, just being broke will lead to the same types of diet choices. Fresh veggies aren't cheap and you're less likely to have access to enough turf to feed yourself. My mother was a family of 9 including my grandparents and it was a more realistic version of "Ma and Pa Kettle". They didn't even grow enough to feed themselves. They did raise chickens for eggs and eating ..a cow and goats for milk ..and they even had more than enough turf to grow food. I'm pretty sure that the ample turf was used for hay/grasses to feed the milk/meat producing animals.


..beyond that... po folk like us usually were in a situation of keeping viable to go back the the sweat shop to shovel more humanity into the locomotive fire box to keep the train moving. Diet choices ..and your health in general, were prioritized along those lines.

That is, high quality food ..with all of their wonderful and robust flavors ..were so alien to me that I thought they tasted bad.

Yes, some people have been eating "bad" for so long they don't know what good is when it's right in front of them.

Canned peas. I don't think I'll ever eat another canned pea by choice. I do order my shrimp egg fu yung with snow peas

Now if you're a tightwad ..then potatoes and cheap greens fill the plate BIG TIME. If you're poor ..it's macaroni and cheese and cheap ground beef.

 

[MarkC]

Newsflash: In this country, if you eat poultry, pork or beef, you are most likely eating bad. It's disgusting the way factory-farmed animals are treated and how sick and degenerated they are.
No way out of it here, unless you raise your own, or know one of the very few real farms that raise meat animals.
Of course, having said that, I must now go prepare the brine for my genetically engineered, over breasted , barely able to walk, turkey. I'm sure it'll taste yummy.

 

[Steve S]

Originally Posted By: GROUCHO MARX
Every Thanksgiving I hear more messages about hunger and the number of people in the U.S. who don't get enough to eat.

This is the only time of the year I don't hear about the obesity epidemic in the U.S.

It makes one wonder.
You must be one of those people who actually thinks!!!!!!