There’s something inspiring about a local radio network organizing a $200,000 fund-raising drive that translates into a $1 million food drive, as David Ayres and Flagler Broadcasting are doing with and for Charles Silano’s Grace Community Food Pantry.
Just as it was inspiring when then-Mayor Milissa Holland organized that massive food drop, valued at $100,000, in Palm Coast during the pandemic, and when VerdeGo, the nursery on U.S. 1, donated every penny from every sale for five days, or $32,000, to Grace Community around the same time, enough to leverage that into $170,000 worth of food. Friday’s Food-A-Thon on WNZF will be the biggest drive yet. If you’ve not made your donation, you should.
One naturally feels proud about a community capable of this kind of generosity, and there’s little question that people like Ayres and Silano are ten times, a hundred times, the heroes that millionaire athletes or billionaire businessmen or media-created war heroes are said to be. But let’s be clear about what we’re proud about, and be careful not to pat ourselves on the back too much, or turn this into an occasion for look-at-me virtue-blaring while overlooking the point. Poverty in a land of wasteful plenty is nothing to be proud of. Allowing chronic poverty to continue is unpardonable. It’s one of those American pathologies that continues to explode this country’s claims to exceptionalism.
Because there’s something wrong, very wrong, about any community in what is supposedly the wealthiest country on earth still having to do this to ensure something as basic as putting food on the table for 3,500 families every week. Consider that number, which actually represents 10,000 or 12,000 people, a tenth of our county’s population, putting it in line with the national average and world average. This is the best we can do?
There’s something very wrong with our society when these hundreds of cars are having to line up on U.S. 1 every Saturday and Sunday in those convoys into Education Way, where Grace Community Food Pantry’s tireless volunteers provide them supplies for a week or two. The poverty line officially is making less than $26,000 a year for a family of four. In Flagler County, you see that poverty line every weekend stretching out of Grace Community.
Not a single one of these families is there by choice. They’re not there because they’re lazy, though thanks to Ronald Reagan’s demonization of government assistance we’ve spent the last four decades vilifying the poor and glorifying the rich, as if one were inherently inferior to the other, as if government handouts to the rich haven’t been 16 times more obscene and less justified than government handouts to the poor.
At a time when the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans control 16 times more wealth than the bottom half, these families are lining up at food pantries because of a rich country’s moral failure–because we embrace tax cuts that foster inequality and make it impossible for the working poor to be more than slaves to their next paycheck. One child’s sickness, one hospitalization, one car repair, one roof leak, one rent hike, let alone these spikes in gas prices, and they’re done for. They’re like “a man walking in a pond with water up to his mouth,” as a historian once described the poor of the 19th century, “the slightest dip in the ground, the slightest ripple, makes him lose his footing–he sinks and chokes.” This is what we call freedom, what we blithely accept as capitalism with an inhuman face (like a camera on every corner, a mass shooting every few days, or 1,100 bankruptcies a day).
These lines at food banks are happening in spite of one of the largest increases in food assistance in history in the last two years. But it only kept poverty from increasing. It did not decrease it. Imagine the consequences without that increase. Nor will philanthropic efforts like Food-A-Thons, however generous, decrease the need. Feeding America, the national association of food banks, is first to tell you that food stamps provide about nine times as many meals as food banks. If there is one road away from snarls at food banks, it’s through food stamps.
But the myths persist–that people on food stamps are moochers, though half those benefiting from food stamps are children (in Florida, 60 percent of recipients are in families with children), while the majority of the other half are either older, disabled or slaving at low-wage jobs. Or that food stamps are spent on junk food or are rampant with fraud, also falsehoods trotted out every time a reactionary wants to itch his Reagan scabs with new cuts (Trump wanted to cut the program by almost a third).
There will be an air of celebration in the next six hours as the Food-A-Thon very likely will reach and exceed its goal, as there should be. But celebration and outrage are not mutually exclusive. There should be outrage that we are now a nation not only of the deepest political divides, but of deeper social divides, of inequalities so deep and rampant that the 1920s have roared back: these car lines are a symbol of our regression.
You may recall FDR’s Four Freedoms: freedom of speech and worship, freedom from want and fear. We’re doing a mediocre job with the first and have gone zealots with the second. We’re doing terribly with the last two. It’s not that we’re incapable. The Food-A-Thon is proof. But freedom from want isn’t a one-off. It calls for a national commitment on the scale of square deals, new deals and great societies. Instead, we are still haunted by the ghost of Tom Joad.
Generosity has its place. So does wrath.
Pierre Tristam is FlaglerLive’s editor. Reach him by email here. a version of this piece aired on WNZF.
The dude says
I don’t understand any of this.
Didn’t Moscow Mitch the turtle just tell us a few days ago that all “those” people are still living large on stimulus money?
Why would they need free food and junk?
jim morrison says
yesterday the white house press sec stated that the US economy is in the best shape it has ever been- EVER! the fed announced today that the US has over 11m jobs unfilled. the workforce has not returned as to pre pandemic numbers. so tell me who’s numbers do you believe the US fed or jimmy carter jr?
erp says
Unfortunately, a great many of those “needy” are not needy, they’re greedy. Something for nothing and make more than one trip to the font.
Tim says
Yup there sure is something wrong. Something wrong with the fact your car has rims but yet your fridge is empty. Half the people in line aren’t in need of food but in need of a good foot put up there ass to get a job and do the right thing.
Laurel says
Pierre: I agree, but what I want everyone reading this column to acknowledge is, look closely at the picture accompanying this column. It’s the middle class! These are middle class vehicles in line. These are not poor people standing in line for bread or medicine in Cuba, these are the middle class Americans, who pay for the poor and pay for the rich. Our Republican representatives give tax breaks to the wealthy, to whom it really makes no new change in their day, and subsidize big corporations, which are “too big to fail.” And for Democratic help to the poor? To suggest that there is no abuse is naive. Who does not get a break, ever? The vanishing middle class.
The middle class does not have lobbyists. Our representatives are hounded day after day by special interests, they do not hear us. Whether it is Republican or Democrat, the middle class is not heard. I think this is part of the reason people voted for Trump, but Trump did the same, damn thing and gave his family and rich buddies tax cuts. Biden is pushed, pushed, pushed by the never happy Democrats who have all sorts of demands. Who pays? The middle class.
I agree that there is no excuse for this in the United States of America. So true that most Americans are one accident or illness away from bankruptcy. One misfortune away from disaster. The middle class is big, but apparently, not “too big to fail.”
Who is going to pay when the middle class is gone? Look at the picture again.
Old man yelling says
You state the problem correctly, but not the cause. The middle class are too busy trying to survive to bother to vote regularly. Issues pertaining to the culture wars drive the population that votes, manipulated by media corporations serving their wealthy masters, social media bots spreading conspiracy theories, and politicians focused on power for it’s own sake devoid of any virtue or ideology spouting self-serving rhetoric. Our great republic suffers because it has grown arthritic and corrupt. It must be revitalized if it is to survive. Will you be wise enough to set aside the distractions that keep the people from their due?
Ray W. says
I did look closer.
While some of the vehicles were considered “middle class” when new, nearly all of the cars, SUV’s, vans, etc. appear to be quite old. For example, the PT Cruiser that is last in line in the photograph was built from 2001-2010. It is at least 12 years old and perhaps as much as 22 years old. While it might have belonged to a middle-class family when new, it might qualify for ownership by a poor and very needy family today. Likewise, the Toyota in front of it might have been a basic car when new and now it is an older model car. That it has rims today proves nothing other than it has rims today. For all Laurel knows, the rims might be due to the original owner purchasing them long ago and later selling the car with the rims still installed. Perhaps it was purchased by a poor family because the price was right. The next car in line is an older model Mitsubishi, not known as a luxury vehicle, but again a middle-class car when new. There is a very old van depicted much further in the line. The Prius shown in the line has been in production since 1997 and sold in the U.S. since 2001. The value of used Prius’, if they are really old, is quite low. An older model minivan is turning around, and the list goes on and on.
Then, there is the possibility that the original purchaser still owns the very old car, but the once middle-class circumstances of the owner’s life may have changed such that the owner no longer belongs to the middle class.
All in all, I suggest that the premise behind Laurel’s comment might be so erroneous as to be embarrassingly reflective of Laurel’s capacity to assign qualities to people that may be completely untrue, when one looks closely.
None of us knows the circumstances impacting the drivers of these aging vehicles on this day, but for Laurel to conclude that there is some defect on the owner’s part, i.e., gaming a food giveaway, by Laurel’s missing the obvious reveals a deeply flawed form of thinking.
Please, Laurel, do better next time.
Laurel says
Ray W.:
Nope, I won’t do better next time. You have either so misunderstood my point, or you worked very hard at twisting it. You felt the need to state it here, twice, without comprehending what I wrote. You wrote “…but for Laurel to conclude that there is some defect on the owner’s part, i.e., gaming a food giveaway, by Laurel’s missing the obvious reveals a deeply flawed form of thinking.” I did not write any such thing, nor did my comment reflect the angle you provided. I did not criticize the people in line for gaming food, or their rims for that matter, I was stating that it’s a shame that the middle class are becoming in need of food in the richest country in the world. Clearly you did not read my comment and had your mind made up before you wrote your comment.
You also tied me to Tim, with whom I do not agree. If I were to agree with anyone in this tread, it would be Old Man Yelling. He was paying attention and had intelligent input.
As far as “…a deeply flawed form of thinking.” goes, I am so damned tired of the division in our county, and country, that Republicans interpret something one way, to the right, and Democrats interpret the same exact thing to the left. Neither side being able to see anything other than what their filters allow. Your filter was locked in hard when you wrote “All in all, I suggest that the premise behind Laurel’s comment might be so erroneous as to be embarrassingly reflective of Laurel’s capacity to assign qualities to people that may be completely untrue, when one looks closely.”
I should think you would be embarrassed now, but not because of what I wrote.
The ORIGINAL land of no turn signals says
How many of those “needy” people spent $100 or more a lot more on fireworks this year?
Local says
I know one who spent 700$ on fireworks
wow says
So much hate in Flagler County. They hate people with “rims” on their cars who need help to get food. But nobody worries about the huge huge government subsidies for fat cat oil barons or shelling out “community improvement” money to build another Trump golf course. Why don’t you stop hating your neighbors and take a look at where government money really goes?
Local says
Like the “Bridge to nowhere” flagler County is building over hwy100? It’s a pedestrian bridge that is built strong enough for semi trucks.
Unreal says
First off I would like to say it does not matter what type of car u have or where you live or if you are low class middle class high class everyone In this wolrd struggles even with jobs not many people can afford bills cars houses ND food. I think this is a great thing there doing and it does help alot of people no matter what there situation is. Why is everyone so negative in this world and jump so fast to speek but don’t realize urselfs are probably struggling!!!!! Everyone struggles on something…..
Ray W. says
I did look closer, Laurel and Tim.
While some of the vehicles were considered “middle class” when new, nearly all of the cars, SUV’s, vans, etc. appear to be quite old. For example, the PT Cruiser that is last in line in the photograph was built from 2001-2010. It is at least 12 years old and perhaps as much as 22 years old. While it might have belonged to a middle-class family when new, it might qualify for ownership by a poor and very needy family today. Likewise, the Toyota in front of it might have been a basic car when new and now it is an older model car. That it has rims today proves nothing other than it has rims today. For all Laurel knows, the rims might be due to the original owner purchasing them long ago and later selling the car with the rims still installed. Perhaps it was purchased by a poor family because the price was right. The next car in line is an older model Mitsubishi, not known as a luxury vehicle, but again a middle-class car when new. There is a very old van depicted much further in the line. The Prius shown in the line has been in production since 1997 and sold in the U.S. since 2001. The value of used Prius’, if they are really old, is quite low. An older model minivan is turning around, and the list goes on and on.
Then, there is the possibility that the original purchaser still owns the very old car, but the once middle-class circumstances of the owner’s life may have changed such that the owner no longer belongs to the middle class.
All in all, I suggest that the premise behind Laurel and Tim’s comments might be so erroneous as to be embarrassingly reflective of their capacity to assign qualities to people that may be completely untrue, when one looks closely.
None of us knows the circumstances impacting the drivers of these aging vehicles on this day, but for Laurel and Tim to conclude that there is some defect on the owner’s part, i.e., gaming a food giveaway, by Laurel and Tim missing the obvious reveals a deeply flawed form of thinking.
Please, Laurel and Tim, do better next time.