Christmas preparations for my family take weeks. There are gifts to be bought and wrapped, trees to be trimmed, menus to plan, massive amounts of cookies to bake and decorate, plus coordinating travel schedules for the four-hour drive north to my hometown in Minnesota. One year a car had been rented, since our vehicle needed repair and the neighborhood mechanic was short-staffed due to a COVID outbreak. That was the year of my early Christmas gift. I awoke to a pounding head, spiking fever, sore throat, nose running like a sieve, cough and trouble breathing. Marty and my adult children headed north to celebrate, as I crawled into bed to test the strength of my immune system.
Marty put out bird seed, water and cat food before leaving. Animals and children find comfort and security in daily routines and we, meaning primarily me, put out food and water twice a day; once at sunrise and the second feeding in the afternoon.
Christmas morning was spent going in and out of consciousness as the fever raged on and my breathing became labored. Blurry eyed, I noticed that it was afternoon and the cats and birds would be outside waiting for their meals. I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to rest knowing that they were cold and hungry. Stumbling out of bed, I put on my long overcoat, Kansas City Chiefs Trapper hat, oversized rubber boots and headed outside to feed the hungry critters.
It may seem strange to risk my health and potentially life going out into the cold, but forty years ago for a short period of time, life-changing feelings of pain, anxiety, depression and hopelessness engulfed me from sleeping outside in the cold with no food in sight. This is the same cocktail of emotions that lead so many to suicide attempts. That is why preventing another living creature from experiencing that level of pain is so important to me.
Many people carry similar scars from facing difficult times in life. A good friend of mine shared her experience of being a young child living in an upper-middle class neighborhood where she stubbornly set out to walk to school after missing the bus. There was no food at home and the only meal during the week was the school lunch program. That experience haunts her decades later.
A previous co-worker who considered herself a devout Catholic shared her anger directed at a well-dressed young couple with children who were using a SNAP card even though they drove to the grocery store in a Mercedes. When I pointed out that people from all walks of life can go through difficult times, she backed away from her anger and chose gratitude over judgement.
Stereotypes over the people dealing with food insecurity also flourish in political circles. Similar to church environments, politicians live in cloistered environments where angry, judgmental beliefs breed and infect the group like a COVID pandemic. Focusing on the needs of hungry Iowa children are discarded as hostility takes hold. But, political squabbling over federal funding to feed Iowa children during the summer is both unhealthy and heartbreaking. Public servants need to put aside prejudice and partisan politics in order to focus on the needs of children. Food insecurity carries life-long scar tissue.
Putting aside the morality argument for rejecting federal funding help for children, it simply isn’t cost effective for the State of Iowa to administer its own food program to meet the dietary needs of our diverse population. People have food allergies, food intolerances, dietary restrictions from religious beliefs, cultural food preferences and the list goes on. Federal funds should go directly to Iowans to meet individual needs instead of money being skimmed off the top to financially benefit the State of Iowa, nonprofits, churches or the undeclared providers of the food items going into the restrictive food boxes. More government regulation for transportation delivery is wasteful government spending.
The nanny state argument for controlling the food, instead of trusting and allowing struggling Iowans to choose food items is the fear of fat children. Maybe political leaders feel fat children will reflect poorly on their political image. Weight can be lost and a healthy lifestyle can be embraced at any age. Protecting children from life-long emotional scars from hunger is today’s problem. Since hunger carries the same feelings of hopelessness as suicidal thoughts, let’s meet the basic needs of children today, so they can hopefully live long enough to learn about healthy lifestyles.
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