Happiness

Happiness

Sunday, September 9, 2012

3 reasons I'm passionate about "Food Stamped"

Yesterday I opened up my email to find an interesting documentary shared via Dr. Mercola. For one week Food Stamped is available for a free preview.

1. I grew up on Food Stamps. I know the difference they make for families that are struggling, and I also know how the fiercely limited amount provided affects the household shopping for less than healthy options, instead reaching for more filling choices, often less expensive. I remember reaching for bread and butter for a snack instead of reaching for an apple. I remember not knowing for sure if we'd have dinner at home or at a soup kitchen. I remember having to eat the school lunches (because we qualified for the free lunch program) and thinking my friends who could afford to bring lunch to school were so lucky. I remember thinking that I did not want my kids to grow up like this.

2. One of the issues I really want Obama to take on in the next term is fixing the Farm Bill. Yes, that's me presuming he's going to win. When I attended a recent vision board evening with some other BOMs (Business Owner Moms), I learned a technique about visualization or laws of attraction: talking about it as if it already were, instead of just a possibility will make it more real and your actions towards the goal more defined and effective. The Farm Bill is not something I can speak eloquently on, but I know that the crops that are subsidized are the ones that add ingredients to our foods that are not healthy - ones that are adding to the obesity epidemic. If we want people to be able to be productive, healthy, contributing, happy members of our society, it starts with proper nourishment; 5-8 servings of fruits and veggies a day, and most of us are not getting that, especially the poor.

3. One in eight children is qualified for Food Stamps. That means a good chunk, like 12.5% are probably not sustained with enough energy to even focus in school to progress to the middle class that Barack Obama talked about in his DNC speech. Children ought not to be left to fend for themselves. Programs aimed at the poor, especially, poor chidlren, need to be successful in the big picture. A statement I read on The Feminist Breeder's Facebook page struck me as so completely true it is almost laughable "I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking. If all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not
a child housed, and why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of what pro-life is.”

I highly encourage you to set aside an hour and watch the documentary Food Stamped.