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Originally posted by OttoSig:
Drugs, Shitty Parents.

It's not a supply issue.

Pretty much this. You gotta really try to go hungry in this country.

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Originally posted by smschulz:

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How can people, especially children in this day and age go hungry?

So exactly who is going hungry?

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I Bring this up because I was watching on the local news how a food bank in our area are not seeing nearly as many donations as they have seen in the past.

How is that "children going hungry"?

Are you being serious? It happens everywhere in this country. I live in a "nice" area and still see it all the time at work, and also have friends who are foster parents. One couple just finished adopting a pair of kids who were so malnourished when they came to them that they are going to have lifelong medical issues as a result.

It's not because these people don't have access to food or financial support. There are plenty of resources available to help them, both public and private. They're just meth/heroin-addicted losers who care more about maintaining their own habit than they do about cleaning their house or feeding and bathing their kids. I've been in some horrible, horrible houses that I want to burn my clothes after leaving. Literally shit, bugs, trash, rotting food, you name it. And those are the "good" ones who are simply neglectful...not physically abusing their kids or pimping them out for dope.

I posted a thread back around 2017 or so where I worked a stint at a gas station, and a skinny black dude with long hair, designer clothes, and dragon lady finger nails put a twelve pack of Corona on the counter and wanted to pay for it with an EBT/SNAP card. I was obliged to complete the sale. He had “cash on the card,” as part of the benefits program, and it can be spent on alcohol. I’m pretty sure it was an Escalade he got into when he left. The thread was fairly lengthy, and one guy actually got banned out of it after going on an abusive tirade about how I was such a villain for judging the guy.

As long as government money can be spent on beer, candy, soda, energy drinks, and anything with a nutritional label (that’s part of why they do that, to indicate the product has “nutritional value” and thus eligible under the law), then the system is broken, people who actually need food are going to starve. Besides, our government doesn’t care about that, they care about campaign donations from mega corporations and arms manufacturers who want our government to extend the might of our military to protect their business interests globally. Poor people can’t launder billions of dollars, and until they can, they can eat shit and die.

We, as decent, moral, ethical people do all we can to help these kids.

But, we cannot and should not bear the guilt which should be born on the shoulders of the parents that produced these children.

Fuck fighting amongst ourselves for the failings of the aforementioned, do what you can and walk away.

Losing your soul over things you cannot change won't feed or comfort any child.

Life is tough, get a fucking helmet.

(then do what you can, and move on to the next starfish...)

I’d say Monkey perfectly laid it out with the above post.

I have done missions trips with my church to Webster Springs, West Virginia.
The loss of the coal industry and of course the opioid crisis down there wreaked havoc on the towns.
We donate our time to fix houses in the summer and and also give out Thanksgiving baskets in November.
I have never been an addict nor been so poor I cant feed my family. But I know there is plenty of food banks down there but its hard for them to keep a good supply.
People often say they should sell their house and move out to an area that has jobs. No one wants to buy a $10k house.
But I get it, some people just dont give a shit, yet some others do but just cant get ahead.

Shitty guardians/parents 100%

My wife was a children's counselor and had to travel to clients houses and told me stories you would not believe. Fancy cars parked outside but no food in the house for the child. Brand new huge flat screen TV's in the house but the child is sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

I know two elderly ,retired people who quit volunteering at food banks because of the few spoiling it for the many.

Giving shit away without vetting the recipients is wrong for society.

To quote these two class of "58" guys,
Any right minded person would be sick to their stomachs after seeing what goes on in these food bank's .


They claim that people are making money and getting tax breaks at the expense of the indigent.

I live in a decent neighborhood. Mid to upp mid class. New developments have gone up behind us that are very nice. At least 500,000, which is doing pretty ok for our neck of the woods.

One of the brand new houses there has a few kids bikes laying around on the drive, a bunch of toys scattered carelessly in the yard, 3 very nice cars parked in the driveway, yet the person whose home it’s listed as shows up at the food shelf every month. If it were for a month or two, maybe I’d understand- you know, in between jobs or laid off or something. But this is consistent. Seems to me it might be time to sell a car instead of taking from those who TRULY need.

I knew another guy that used addresses all over town (for verification in that area) and went to the food shelf in each neighborhood, packed his car full of groceries and brought them home. Every month. He has no children, to my knowledge.


There was a backpack program at the schools here where every weekend, kids in need were sent home with a backpack of food for the weekend to tide them over till the following week. A lot of parents were taking the backpack from the kids as soon as they walked in the door at home, and either eating the food or selling it for drugs. They still have free lunch at the schools during summer, but the kids have to get there. And the scammers on Nextdoor have already listed which schools and what dates so they can move from facility to facility for the meals.

Heck, I’m aware that there are a lot of people who like to shop at Costco or Sam’s during specific days or when they have food tasting..so it does seem hard to believe that anyone with a little proper prior planning can go hungry, but not everyone has a membership, or their wits about them (again, addictions, etc).

These are just a few examples of how trying to help feed people can get really frustrating. Scammers, druggies, users. People prioritizing the wrong things. Very disheartening for those who truly want to help.

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Shitty guardians/parents 100%

Agreed. The safety net in this country is far too wide and deep to let it happen. And I have no problem with it, but abusers of the system need to be severely punished.

While there are some truly needy out there that have found themselves in dire situations through no fault of their own (or very little), a large percentage are the same old story.
Now that it's been enabled for so long there are second and third generations that never knew better.
Some tough love for the masses would bring the problem down to a much more manageable size but I don't see that happening any time soon.

Meanwhile, I won't donate anything to large charity groups. If it's a situation where I can't meet or see those I'm donating to/helping it's a no go for me.

I used to be involved with a service club while living in a fairly affluent Metro Detroit suburb. For special needs children we sponsored participation in an equestrian program for these kids, think we paid about two hundred dollars based on family financial need.

We had one applicant and while I was not in the interview process approval was put up to a vote after the report was given to the membership.
Interviews done in home by two members, both retired LEOs, one was a U.S. Marshal and the other a Deputy Chief.

Father was an engineer with one of the Big Three. Mother stay at home. One child. Large new home with new expensive furnishings. Basically it came down to while the parents could well afford the participation fee her opinion was “if it’s free it’s for me”.

No they didn’t get approved. They had to pay.