MovieChat Forums > A Place at the Table (2013) Discussion > I wish they addressed solutions outside ...

I wish they addressed solutions outside of goverment aid


Such as planting fruits and vegetables. Its not that hard to take responsibility on your own and grow your own food and stop being so reliant on others for your food source.

They addressed charities but with a slightly negative attitude. That one pastor seemed to be doing well, he just needed to grow some fruit trees to supplement the food bags.

Also programs to not have children outside of stable families should have been addressed. The single moms CHOOSE to do the deed and to not put their babies up for adoption, therefore they should deal with the circumstances and if they can't they should give up their children to someone else. Heck, public schools seem like they have become glorified orphanages for 8 hours a day when that is the only place they can get a meal and be somewhere clean. I felt really bad for that girl who had to sleep in the laundry room of a hoarder grandmother.

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Agree 100%
The worst is when they talked about the dramatic increase in food pantries like it's a bad thing.

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dramatic increase in food pantries like it's a bad thing.


It's an indicator of NEED for food pantries.


Like the way two police officers coming around your block every couple of hours may make you feel safer, but having twenty of them constantly camping in front of your home means that your entire neighborhood has a serious problem.

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Such as planting fruits and vegetables.

In an urban environment? By single mothers, raising several children or caring for a sick child?

That one pastor seemed to be doing well

Seemed being the operative word. You didn't pay attention to the mention of how many days and how often they can lend a hand to the needy.
He organizes ONE (1) hot meal every Wednesday and several bags of food each week.
Note also his talk about ever growing need for more trucks and trailers to haul the food despite living in a tiny community.

In an urban setting something like that would be a physical impossibility.

Also programs to not have children outside of stable families should have been addressed. The single moms CHOOSE to do the deed and to not put their babies up for adoption, therefore they should deal with the circumstances and if they can't they should give up their children to someone else. Heck, public schools seem like they have become glorified orphanages for 8 hours a day when that is the only place they can get a meal and be somewhere clean. I felt really bad for that girl who had to sleep in the laundry room of a hoarder grandmother.


I love your idea.
Not only does it not fix anything, it also:

- punishes the poor for being poor by taking away their kids
- it concentrates on punishing single mothers
- fosters the idea of a "sin" of poverty AND of procreation
- it suggests breaking up families as a solution
- does nothing positive but increases the cost to society cause adoptions cost money AND are partially funded by federal subsidies
- ignores the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of kids in foster care already, not being adopted
- it punishes the children for being born poor
- it literally sentences those kids to death or poverty for life as the foster kids fare worse in every field except in suicides where they have a FOUR TO FIVE greater chance "to have been hospitalised for suicide attempts" and SIX times greater chance to die.

And much more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foster_care


And all of that cause godforbid the government should do its job and help people with things they can't do themselves, and maybe, buy a couple of bombers less or take a couple of fractions of a cent more on a dollar from the super rich.

Cause that would clearly turn USA into Stalinist Russia and you hate wearing fur hats cause fur is murder or some such nonsense.


I felt really bad for that girl who had to sleep in the laundry room of a hoarder grandmother.

You apparently don't even know any poor people, do you?
That's not a room of a hoarder, that's a room in a tiny home that houses SEVEN PEOPLE.
That's 7 square meters (~75 sq. ft) of space for them to just stand there. Twice as much to lay down to sleep.

They have no room for furniture.
They're not hoarding, they simply have no room for dedicated furniture in which to keep their clothes and bedding.

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Thank you so much for your response! It still really amazes me how callous and unfeeling many Americans are when it comes to hunger. If a sixth of the American population is chronically hungry, this is a national disaster.

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Agreed. Methinks American_Beauty has spent too much time watching Fox News.

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Also programs to not have children outside of stable families should have been addressed. The single moms CHOOSE to do the deed and to not put their babies up for adoption, therefore they should deal with the circumstances and if they can't they should give up their children to someone else.


But if we take away their children, they might end up in a home like yours. The goal is to make these children's lives better. Not worse.

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 Good one!

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