[Propertalk] Illustrations for 3 Advent

[joeparrish at compuserve.com]

Hi Bob,
We find about 10 percent of those who eat with us on Sundays are very young children, and their numbers grow weekly, monthly, now.  
They seem not to be actually starving, but families will wait for more than an hour for the hot meal, and will even come to Vespers.first(!)
And as best we can discern, food stamps are not helping them nearly enough; so the administration needs a new plan, it seems to us.
Peace and blessings,
Joe
St. John's, Elizabeth, NJ
http://sjnj.org



-----Original Message-----
From: Robert P Morrison <robertpmorrison at charterinternet.com>
To: propertalk: stsams.org <propertalk at stsams.org>
Sent: Sat, Dec 12, 2009 1:48 pm
Subject: [Propertalk] Illustrations for 3 Advent


I don't think I need any more illustrations - I may save these for Christmas Eve 
 but if anyone hasn't seen the following from today's Washington Post, they may 
llustrate John the Baptist's point about repentance and love towards God and 
eighbour.
Bob

issing more than a meal
hild hunger, called the 'silent epidemic,' is an increasingly complex problem
y Amy Goldstein
ashington Post Staff Writer
aturday, December 12, 2009 
PHILADELPHIA -- Three weeks before he was elected president, Barack Obama set an 
udacious goal: end hunger among children in the United States by 2015. 
Since his inauguration, Obama has seldom broached the subject. His aides 
rainstorm weekly with several agencies, but their internal conversations so far 
ave not produced fundamentally new approaches. The president's goal could prove 
aunting: Childhood hunger is more complex than previously understood, new 
esearch suggests, and is unlikely to be solved simply by spending more money 
or food programs. 
If Obama intends to erase childhood hunger, the government will need to reach 
ven further into the rowhouse kitchen where Anajyha Wright Mitchell sometimes 
akes tiny portions so her mother will have more food. "I tell her to eat, eat, 
at, because she is real skinny," Anajyha, 12, said of her mother, Andrea 
itchell. 
Anajyha, a serious girl with two younger brothers and a mother who has lost two 
f her three part-time jobs, is growing up with an ebb and flow of food typical 
f a growing number of families. In her home, in a scuffed neighborhood called 
trawberry Mansion a few miles north of the Liberty Bell, food stamps arrive but 
ever last the month. There can be cereal but no milk. Pancake mix and butter 
ut no eggs. 
The intricacy of the problem -- and of the Obama administration's task -- plays 
ut here, where Anajyha could have enough to eat but shortchanges herself. 
Philadelphia offers a particularly vivid ground-level view of what researchers 
all a "silent epidemic" of hungry and undernourished youngsters. For years, 
ocal civic activists, health experts and politicians have tried some of the 
ation's most innovative experiments -- and learned how intractable hunger can 
e. Researchers here have also been at the leading edge in trying to fathom the 
ffects of a scarcity of food. 
Even when children are not hungry, studies have found that slight shortages of 
ood in their homes are associated with serious problems. Babies and toddlers in 
hose homes are far more likely to be hospitalized than children in families 
ith similar incomes but adequate food. School-age children tend to learn and 
row more slowly, and to get into trouble more often. Teenage girls are more 
rone to be depressed or even flirt with thoughts of suicide. 
Solving the problem is further complicated by its subtle nature. "Most people 
ho are hungry are not clinically manifesting what we consider hunger. It 
oesn't even affect body weight," said Mariana Chilton, a Drexel University 
edical anthropologist who is part of Children's HealthWatch, a network of 
ediatricians and public health researchers in Philadelphia and four other 
ities. Hunger cannot be solved by food alone, their work shows, because it is 
ne strand in a web of pressures that trap families, including housing and 
nergy costs. 
A nuanced problem
This more nuanced picture is emerging as the problem has become more 
idespread. With the economy faltering, the number of youngsters living in homes 
ithout enough food soared in 2008 from 13 million to nearly 17 million, the 
griculture Department reported last month. 
In Philadelphia, researchers found that, during the first half of this year, 
ne in five homes with a baby or toddler did not have enough food. And one of 
very dozen young children was outright hungry, a rate twice that of the same 
eriod the year before. 
Although the problem has deepened, White House and Agriculture Department 
fficials say the president's goal remains, as one put it, "something that seems 
anageable." Congress increased food stamp benefits this year by $20 billion 
nd, more recently, set aside money to test ways to feed children when school is 
ut for the summer. The president's aides are focusing on a congressional 
ebate, deferred from this year to next, on how to renew the nation's main child 
utrition law. 
Although ideas in Washington have not fully crystallized, an unlikely lobbying 
orce is at work. A group of Philadelphia women has begun appearing on Capitol 
ill and at national conferences as part of a "Witnesses to Hunger" project, 
rganized by Chilton, who handed video cameras to 42 mothers to document their 
fforts to feed their children. 
ut learning to dress for success at news conferences, these women are 
iscovering, does not solve the food problem at home. One of the "witnesses" is 
hristina Koch, whose younger son Jesus, 2, wakes up at night thirsty for milk 
r juice. "If I don't have it," she said, "I take him into bed and try to rock 
im to sleep." 
Running out of drinks for her toddler is part of a tangle of obstacles that 
hape Koch's days. At 26, she lives in North Philadelphia with her son, Dale, 5, 
 picky eater, as well as Jesus and her fiance, Jesus Nieves, who has had as 
uch trouble finding and keeping jobs as she has. 
Not long ago, when she had the money, Koch bought more than 20 boxes of 
acaroni and cheese and stored them under her kitchen sink. The sink leaked. 
very box was ruined. For the past few months, the gas and electricity have been 
ut off because she hadn't paid the bills. 
She has been cooking on a hot plate, borrowing electricity from the neighbor in 
he rowhouse next door, who let her thread a jumbo extension cord through the 
itchen window. But when the neighbor was evicted last month, she was down to 
sing candles until her family chipped in to pay her bill. 
She is bad, she knows, at budgeting. In early November, when $650 in food 
tamps came, she splurged on $18 in Chinese takeout. When the food stamps run 
ut, she buys on credit from Indio's Mini Market, a few blocks away. In October, 
he ended up with a $300 tab. 
Making a difference
Koch met Chilton, the anthropologist, in the emergency room at St. 
hristopher's Hospital for Children, where Chilton and her co-workers spend 
ours on questionnaires to measure the food shortage. Across the hospital 
arking lot is the GROW clinic, which provides more evidence of the effort it 
akes to make a difference, even a few children at a time. 
Inside the clinic -- similar to Children's HealthWatch clinics in Baltimore, 
oston, Little Rock and Minneapolis -- pediatrician Hans Kersten and a team see 
bout a dozen young children and their parents each week. Four in five children 
ere and at the other sites are not getting adequate food. The team checks head 
ircumference as a clue to brain growth, motor skills, toddlers' vocabulary. 
"Hi, beautiful," nutritionist Kristen Roscioli says as the team walks into the 
xamining room where 14-month-old Joeanna, the first child of Sherita Parks and 
oseph Mouzon, is waiting in a diaper and pink barrettes. 
She has managed to gain about two pounds, which is great," Kersten tells 
oeanna's parents. 
"But she still is underweight?" Parks asks. 
"She is a tiny girl," he replies. "We just want her to be healthy." 
The main problem, her parents say, is that Joeanna doesn't like to eat. But 
arks also says, "It would be great if we could get food stamps." Mouzon's pay 
rom working in a pharmaceutical warehouse means they just miss qualifying. 
A novel experiment
Long before the GROW clinic existed, Philadelphia's school officials and 
nti-poverty activists began a novel experiment whose future the Obama 
dministration, in one of its first decisions about children and food, has put 
n doubt. 
nstead of requiring people to fill out paperwork for their children to get free 
unch and breakfast at school, Philadelphia officials persuaded the government 
9 years ago to let every child qualify automatically in neighborhoods with 
nough poor families. The number of students getting the meals soared. Last 
ear, the Bush administration decided that the experiment was too old and must 
nd soon. 
After Obama arrived, the local congressional delegation and others appealed. 
om Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, upheld the Bush administration's 
ecision. Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell (D) fired off a letter, saying 
hat "hundreds if not thousands of eligible students" would lose meals. Vilsack 
elented, for now. 
Administration officials say they want families nationally to have easier 
ccess to food programs. But they want to leave the question of Philadelphia's 
pproach for the congressional debate on childhood nutrition. 
Though safe for the moment, the program has never been a complete solution. At 
.G. Smith Elementary School in South Philadelphia, 155 of the school's 380 
tudents came for a free breakfast on a recent Monday. Many parents simply bring 
heir children to school too late. 
Cuerethea Travis, Smith's school nurse for 13 years, stockpiles graham 
rackers, yogurt and fruit for the trickle of children who come to her every 
orning, drooping and with stomachaches. "You feel like you are Dick Tracy," she 
aid. "Is it the kind of pain you feel like you need to go to the bathroom? Or 
s it the kind you feel like you want to put something in your stomach?" 
Often, she asks children to look at the clock on her wall, then count back, 
elling her how many hours it has been since they had something to eat. 


hy food matters
aturday, December 12, 2009 
	Studies show that growing up in a home without adequate food can damage 
hildren in many ways. Even if they are not hungry themselves, babies and 
oddlers in households with slight food shortages are more likely to be 
ospitalized, at risk for developmental delays and to be raised by mothers who 
re depressed. While not all children develop these problems, here are some of 
he other effects researchers have found can be associated with food shortages: 
-- Slower brain and cognitive development by age 3. 
-- Less ready for school by age 5. 
-- Lower academic performance ages 6 to 17. 
-- Slower physical, mental and social development through age 17. 
-- Worse social skills and behavior, and greater chance of mental health 
roblems, ages 6 to 17. 
-- Children report themselves as less happy ages 6 to 17. 
Research shows that hunger and poor nutrition among children are rooted in a 
omplex web of strains on poor families, not just a shortage of food. This is 
ecause parents must make hard trade-offs in how they spend scarce money, and 
roceries sometimes suffer when other bills mount. Here are some specific 
ffects: 
-- Children whose families are on waiting lists for government housing 
ubsidies are eight times more likely to be underweight than those whose 
amilies already are getting housing assistance. 
-- In poor families that do not get the government's main form of energy 
ssistance, called LIHEAP, babies and toddlers are nearly one-quarter more 
ikely than those who get the help to be underweight and one-third more likely 
o have been hospitalized. 
	Source: Children's HealthWatch 

Letters to the Editor
All signs point to a weak signal
aturday, December 12, 2009 
Thanks [digital channel signal strength is low] to the new [digital channel 
ignal strength is scrambled] HDTV world, we [digital channel signal strength is 
crambled] no longer [digital channel signal strength is low] get [digital 
hannel signal strength is scrambled] Channel 4, [miss you, "Law & Order"] [miss 
ou Brian Williams] or Channel 5 [really miss you, "House" and "Bones"] or 
hannel 20 [miss you, reruns]. 
The rest of the stations [digital channel signal strength is low] come and 
digital channel signal strength is scrambled] go as well, frivolous [digital 
hannel signal strength is scrambled] signals. You see, not everyone has 
digital channel signal strength is low] cable or even [digital channel signal 
trength is scrambled] high-speed Internet. 
Mark and Sally Pfoutz, Purcellville 

--
obert P. Morrison
he Episcopal Parish of St James,
O Box 789
incoln City, Oregon, 97367
541-994-2426 (Church)

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