Rantz: Hateful local reaction to White House food stamps move

Look, I get that some of you loathe everything the president and his administration does, but for the love of all things holy, can you temper your absurd, over-the-top reactions to programs that will actually help people?

Food box idea draws ire from Democrats, advocates

The White House recently announced that for some food stamp recipients, they’ll be receiving half of their monthly benefit via a Harvest Box from the USDA — think of it as a government version of Blue Apron, said White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. The box includes juice, grains, canned meats, fruits and vegetables, along with pasta, cereals and peanut butter. All will be purchased and produced locally and will have the benefit of saving a ton of money over a decade.

For the longest time, the Left has screamed about the inequity of food deserts where low-income communities don’t have access to much healthy or local goods. Now, the White House is helping address that concern. Yet, still, hateful activists are upset.

“It’s offensive in the extreme,” said White Center Food Bank Director of Operations John Carney told Q13 FOX. “Hey, we’re going to lump this group of people together and we’re going to treat them all the same. The track record on that is poor.”

“I think it’s shameful. I mean, what kind of a community do we want to live in today?” asked manager Carolynn Ferris to Q13 FOX. “…at the end of the day, that’s not very honoring of clients. It still very much feels like a handout.”

Yeah. It is a hand-out — it’s literally what her food bank does: it hands out food to people who need it. Imagine being upset that we live in a community where we give low-income folks a box of goods to feed their families.

I’m sure these people think they’re well-intentioned, and kudos to them for giving back, but that doesn’t mean they’re beyond reproach. What kind of rotten ideologue do you have to be in order to claim it’s “shameful” to give low-income folks access to healthy foods, especially if they live in food deserts? It’s not even replacing the entirety of their benefits.

I’ve read concerns about what if the children benefiting from the box are “picky eaters”. Uhm, okay. If your kid likes caviar and lobster, he may be out of luck, but feel free to use the remainder of your benefits to shop to the tastes of your picky son or daughter. Understand, however, that you’re getting a whole bunch of foods you likely would have already purchased anyway, or does your kid not like juice, cereal, peanut butter or pasta either? Then, I guess, you’ll eat it and be happy. You can even supplement the box with items from the food bank.

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You can criticize the program and explain how you’d do things differently; no plan will ever be perfect, nor will it help everyone at all times. But to call this move shameful and offensive? What is wrong with you? Are you mad you didn’t come up with it? Are you mad that it came from the Trump White House? Grow up. The only thing shameful here is the reaction of the White Center Food Bank.

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