Last week I wrote about how things will never be exactly the same after the COVID-19 virus goes away. I've been thinking that maybe somethings will be better in the aftermath.
We live and learn and we try to improve things as we go along. Kind of like Gomer Pyle's old saying of 'fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me'.
Last Thursday I went up to New Beginnings Worship Center in Brewton as they handed out 15,000 pounds of food to the people in the community. The center plans to do the same thing today (Thursday) if it doesn't storm and wants to continue do so through the pandemic as long as the funds are available.
I watched as people loaded boxes full of chicken fajita strips, beans, potatoes, fruit bowls and peanut butter into the back seats and trunks of cars that came through the line.
Flomaton will be holding its first food giveaway this Saturday beginning at 12 noon at the Flomaton Community Center on McCurdy Street. My bet is the menu will be about the same – nutritious food to help feed people during this crisis.
Over the years I watched many churches fill up boxes and bags of food to give to people who need it. It mostly consists of canned goods, beans, rice and potatoes. Around Thanksgiving there may be a can of cranberry sauce.
What I didn't see last Thursday at New Beginnings and I don't expect to see this Saturday at Flomaton is these food banks handing out candy bars, ice cream, potato chips, soft drinks and energy drinks.
Why not? Why not include that ice cream sandwich, a six-pack of soft drinks and a couple of energy drinks filled with caffeine and a big ole candy bar?
Those are all items our federal government let people purchase with their EBT cards or food stamps so they must be healthy since the program is designed to put nutritious meals into the bellies of people who are struggling. If the federal government thinks junk food is healthy food for people, why do churches and towns deem them otherwise?
I looked in those boxes last week at New Beginnings and I could have fed a family of three or four for a week.
Junk food with food stamps has always bothered me. If the goal of the program is to feed people those items need to be eliminated like beer and cigarettes.
You can go into the Texaco Station in Flomaton and buy candy and soft drinks with an EBT card, but you can't walk 30 feet to Subway and buy a 6-inch sandwich. Something about that doesn't seem right to me. You can't use the card to purchase a ready-to-eat sandwich, but to make sure people have enough to eat healthy, you can use that card to have a lunch consisting of M&M's, a candy bar, bag of chips and a soft drink.
Maybe after we get over the pandemic and things get back to some level normalcy, the federal government needs to take a hard look at what it allows to be purchased with food stamps. If the goal is to give people something nutritious to eat, allowing junk food is not the way.
Maybe the government can take some guidance from the faith-based communities and learn how to really feed the hungry.
