A social experiment with food…
image credit: Samantha Celera
“As the first crowd of customers filed into Panera’s nonprofit restaurant… only the honor system kept them from taking all the food they wanted for free.
Read more on Panera Cares: Eat what you want, pay what you can…
“Many summer food programs have been slashed during the recession leaving low-income children with fewer options, a report by the Food Research and Action Center said Tuesday.The budget cuts reduced participation in summer school food programs across the nation over the past years, the anti-hunger group said.This drop in participation comes at a time when more and more families need these food programs, the Center said. ‘When summer food participation needed to be rising, there instead was a dip of 2.5 percent — or 73,000 low-income children — from July 2008 to July 2009,’ the Center said in a statement… ‘While 17.5 million low-income children received school lunch during the 2008-2009 school year, only 2.8 million children got summer food when school was out,’ the Center said.That means only 16 percent of low-income students got the summer school meals in 2009.”
Read more on Study: Recession means more hungry kids, but less summer school food programs…
Over 49 million Americans are at risk of hunger. Food banks have experienced a 30% increase in demand. Learn more at HelpStampOutHunger.com. And join me in the fight against hunger by participating in the National Association of Letter Carriers’ Food Drive on Saturday, May 8th.
Read more on National Association of Letter Carriers’ Food Drive, May 8…
Leonard Pitts, Jr.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness …” — Matthew 5:6
Ultimately, I suppose, what we’re talking about is a clash between the sweet by and by and the fierce urgency of now.
Read more on Leonard Pitts Jr.: The Gospel according to Glenn Beck…
Sights and sounds from the 2009 Feast of Caring, including a prayer from the rabbi of Temple Emanuel.
“Let us realize that as long as there are poor in our community, as long as there are poor, then there truly is a lack of justice.”
– Rabbi Fred Guttman
Read more on Feast of Caring: Sights & sounds, soup & supplication…
The News & Record and WFMY report that the owner of the University Mart in Greensboro has been charged with food stamp fraud. He’s accused of making purchases at local grocery stores with food stamps that weren’t assigned to him. The University Mart is on Warren Street, near the intersection with Spring Garden.
Read more on Finally! A Greensboro store owner gets charged with food stamp fraud…
Hey Jeff Probst: Want a real challenge? How about for next season’s Survivor, you pit a team of homeless people against a team of homed folks? Even better, instead of a tropical paradise, set the show in the chaos of a crime-infested, metropolitan inner city.
Read more on Best Survivor idea ever: Homeless vs. homed…
The Myrtle Beach City Council has placed serious restrictions on group that feed the homeless in city (public) parks. Church groups are currently feeding the homeless and hungry in obedience to their faith — weekly in one park and monthly in another. A new ordinance will require them to obtain a permit and restrict feedings to four times per year. The ordinance is a response to neighbors’ complaints, such as perceived safety issues for children in the park, and crimes alleged to have been committed by some of the homeless people in the parks. But those who serve the homeless point out that children are among those being fed (children and families are homeless, too), and that homeless people will be in the parks whether meals are served or not.
Read more on Myrtle Beach restricts church groups from feeding homeless people in public parks…
A local blogger who likes to send me links to often unflattering articles about homeless or poor people emailed me this today:
Recently Michelle Obama went to serve food to the homeless at a government funded soup kitchen .
Read more on Making assumptions: Michelle Obama, a soup kitchen and a guy with a BlackBerry…
Tonight’s yummy dinner from Food Not Bombs:
Serving at 6:00 p.m. at the downtown public library. Garden salad, fruit salad, macaroni and cheese, bread, and more. Donated food, cooked by volunteers, served free!
Read more on Tonight’s Food Not Bombs dinner…
photo credit: Paul Morigi, Getty Images; inset photo: Reuters
Michelle Obama is catching flak for wearing a pair of $540 designer French sneakers to volunteer at a food bank. My reaction? Who cares? Isn’t it a little… judgey, maybe??… to cast aspersions on the First Lady for what she chooses to put on her feet while she serves others? I would never make a judgment on the homeless or poor people that I meet or minister to because of the shoes they’re wearing. Why should I care what a fellow servant wears on hers?
Read more on I don’t care which shoes the First Lady wore…
Operation Greensboro Cares, a fundraising partnership coordinated by the United Way, the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, the News & Record and other media partners, is raising money for emergency shelter (including winter shelter through the WE! program), emergency food assistance through food pantries, and emergency financial assistance with power and heating bills, to help keep families in their homes and help them avoid homelessness.
Read more on Operation Greensboro Cares raises money for emergency food and shelter…