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Well watching the news today It really pointed out the difference between British and Americans.
In the UK when a food bank opens it's doors in an area designated as poor you see a line of hundreds of people on foot carrying shopping bags to collect a ration of basic foodstuffs and carry it home to a family that has NOTHING.
Today in Texas I see on the news hundreds of people in SUVs with their engines running, each car packed with up to six people, eating snacks and drinking cans of drinks or in some cases beers.WTF!
If you can afford to run an SUV and feed your hoard of obese kids candy and coke and burn fuel standing still WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ASKING FOR FREE FOOD FOR?
I hate this fucking entitled generation, you turn up at a food bank here like that, you would be told to fuck off.

LenHazell53 9 Apr 13
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0

Pretty sad commentary. However, in the UK distances are not as great as in the US (Texass) distances are often very great.
Went to our building supply/nursery building this morning and, as I have been told, there is almost nothing in the way of planting starts and even vegetable seeds. This is 4 miles from my home. On the way back was a friend who does not have/want a car. He is a major walker and was pulling a large cart of stuff from the center to his home also some 4 miles away. Also, there are hills. How many of us would be willing or even able to do that??

Yes of course we all remember those films of the pioneers traversing the great planes of the USA with their push carts and covered wagons tied to the back of their SUVS,

@LenHazell53 My concern is that with the gutting of oil prices that, when and if the pandemic slows or ends, people will be buying even more massive SUV's.

2

I'm always loves the Brits and their social conscience.

Please note that this picture of Texas was taken during the coved 19 crisis and people that normally have jobs to support their lifestyle are finding themselves in line for necessities. Yes, many Americans live ridiculous lifestyles, but I hope this experience becomes a teaching moment for many.

1

‘Americans’ have a God given right to drive whatever they’ve ‘earned,’ eat (and drink) whatever they want - and take everything they can get their fat filthy fingers on! ...what’s your problem..

Varn Level 8 Apr 14, 2020
1

In the area where I live (SE USA), corona and the subsequent shutdowns have suddenly rendered people who very recenly were financially fine suddenly without. I can see how someone who was working and able to keep up with payments in early March might have a bare refrigerator now.

Zster Level 8 Apr 14, 2020
3

I work as a volunteer at a Food Bank in the U.K...I can vouch for the fact that nobody comes and gets food unless they are really desperate. Some of the stories I hear first hand would break your heart. Most of our “clients”, that is how we refer to them, carry bags to the bus stop or trudge home on foot, not to an expensive 4 x 4!

My point exactly, I too have worked with the truly desperate, to see people in gas guzzlers, pleading poverty, while wearing $200 trainers and seeking charity with no inkling of how fortunate they actually are breaks my heart.
It is purely my opinion but the loss of a sense of priorities, in both the UK and USA is what has landed us both in the political mess that lead to the mishandling of this crisis.

3

It looks like you are picking and choosing from viral pictures that don't necessarily represent the big picture.

I know here in Michigan in any sort of " line" situation right now we are required to stay in the vehicles. In rural areas like mine, and probably much of Texas, if you don't have one you can't work. When one is paycheck to paycheck food does run out between sometimes or there is no money for food after the bills. It's not a difficult concept.

I've been in food lines before to bring food to my kids. It is not a pleasant thing to have to do. I keep the eligibility card in my wallet to remind myself off how easily I could be there again. If I hadn't had a car though I wouldn't have gotten there or eventually gotten another paycheck..

In general I find complaining about random people you know nothing about who can't afford food to be distasteful.

MsAl Level 8 Apr 14, 2020

I can relate. I have volunteered at a Food Bank and I have been a recipient and benefited from the Food Bank during my time of need, which wasn't that long ago. This is life. ANYBODY can have a situation which leads to a financial setback. Very humbling experience. I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

3

. . . color me skeptical of your "rant" . . .

The picture on the left. Without attribution, it could be from any where/time -- no one is wearing masks -- despite being very close to others in line.

The picture on the right. It does not show your allegations of obesity, snacks, etc.
On the contrary, it does show people using their vehicles for 'social distancing'. Without jobs, a lot more people need help.

Skepticism is a good thing, but you yourself must be aware that there is genuine poverty and genuine need in your country, I am and I live on the other side of the world.
When middle class people in huge cars dressed in expensive clothes are queuing up like this burning fuel they had to pay for at massive outdoor charity events and claiming poverty you surely can draw a parallel with inner city getoes, internment camps for immigrants, genuine need, the actual poor your system of welfare and government have studiously ignored for decades and derided as unworthy?
You can see why I was so angry when I wrote my initial post last night?
I grew up in the industrial North of England in the mid 20th century and I saw and experienced poverty, I knew what it was to eat meat once a week, and fish once a week if we were lucky. I knew what it was to be forced to stay at the table and eat every scrap because the family could not afford waste and or fussiness.
In short I know what it was to actually go without and to be so used to hunger you don't notice it anymore.
In those days the only people to help you, where the others round about who were in the same position and who would spare what extra they had in the certain knowledge you would do the same for them when you had extra.
That is why I was angry.

@LenHazell53 While I can sympathize with your plight, IMO, emotion is not a good reason for "fake news".

The really needy do not own vehicles...they can barely afford to use public transport which has got really expensive, at least it has here in the UK. This is exactly the point that @LenHazell53 was trying to make...there is relative poverty and then there is REAL poverty, REALLY poor people do exist, they are just invisible to most people. The public have not been advised to use masks in the UK..in fact we have been told not use them, but to leave stocks for frontline staff in the NHS, because there is an insufficiency for medical staff and care workers. It does concern me that these people in the first photo are quite close to each other and can only assume that it was shot a week or two ago. I don’t think they will be allowed to queue like that now... in fact I know that the Foodbanks are asking for more volunteers to deliver the food parcels using their own vehicles.
.

@FearlessFly If you really believe this is fake news, you are as foolish as your president

2

Admittedly, the Texas americana-style food bank is disgraceful in so many ways in addition to being willfully ignorant about the kinds of food that are actually nutritious for people.

I can't speak for TX. I volunteer at The Food Group (a warehouse serving food banks all over the state). Their offerings are VERY nutritious.

Ironically, obesity is often a symptom of poverty.
Stores that sell fresh, nutritious foods don’t locate in areas of poverty, leaving people without transportation to shop at nearby convenience or “Dollar” stores that sell inexpensive junk foods.

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